From the tales of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie to those of David Baldacci, mysteries have captured readers for decades, even centuries. Why are these stories so popular? What keeps them attracting people for generations? Author Melissa Bourbon likens them to “a safe thrill ride” in which everything works out in the end–the crime gets solved and justice meted out.
But she probes a deeper reason:
Mysteries help us cope with the psychological and emotional concept of death and our own mortality. There’s an old joke that says there are only two things we can all be sure of: taxes and death.
You can actually evade taxes, but you can never evade death. It will come, one way or another. In real life, we’re never prepared for death. It is never rational and never easily accepted. Ah, but in a mystery, death makes perfect sense–or at least it does by the time the sleuth has solved the crime and brought the killer to justice. He or she uses brain power (grey cells, if you’re Hercule Poirot) to deduce the truth behind the facade the killer has created.
Which brings us full circle to the idea of justice. In a mystery, death is explained through reasoning. A truth is discovered. For just a while, death, the one thing we cannot escape and can never understand, makes sense and we can accept it.
We like life to make sense but death seems to rob our existence of meaning. No matter how hard we work or how much good we contribute, we will die; we can’t escape this reality. It undermines our efforts and rails against our sense of justice. Especially when the innocent suffer. And don’t we declare ourselves virtuous?
Presupposing this theme, in his letters to the Ephesians and Colossians, the apostle Paul refers several times to the mystery of the gospel.
“He [God] made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ” – Ephesians 1:9
“That is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. 4In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ … 6This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus … 9and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things.” – Ephesians 3:3, 4, 6, 9
“This is a profound mystery–but I am talking about Christ and the church.” – Ephesians 5:32
“Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel” – Ephesians 6:19
“The mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people. 27To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” – Colossians 1:26-27
“My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ” – Colossians 2:2
“And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains.” – Colossians 4:3
Jesus is the casualty of the crime of unjust execution. But, He’s also the hero of the story. He’s victim and victor!
Through the gospel, we learn that God’s great protagonist suffered for all the wrongdoing of the whole world, yours and mine included. Jesus was guiltless but suffered for our sake. His death on the cross was the greatest miscarriage of justice in history, but like a good mystery, the story doesn’t end there.
Jesus is alive!
The good news that Paul writes and preaches is that Christ has defeated our enemies: sin, death, and the devil himself. By suffering in our place, the Lord made Himself a perfect victim so that He might vanquish all we fear.
When our reasoning fails to explain why a tragedy occurred or a crime transpired, the logic of God expressed in the mystery of the gospel leads us to Christ as the answer. He alone can comfort our hearts and guide our thoughts.
Discover yourself in His story.
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