I watched the last five episodes of Scandal yesterday. I was really curious about how it would end. When the series began, I really liked it and then when the plot became overly complicated and the values became suspect, I stopped. I consume the arts primarily for inspiration. When they vex me more than they inspire me, I withdraw.
I came away from the last few episodes thinking the moral of the story was, “It’s okay to be evil. As long as you have a crisis of conscience at the end, history will forgive you.” This seemed like a really terrible lesson and so, I huffed away in a cloud of my own self-righteousness.
This morning, I thought about grace. I thought about how a man can have several baby mamas and still end up with a good woman and a wonderful home. We cannot escape the reality of grace. It always follows repentance, no matter how expansive and long running the previous evil is. Sometimes, grace even precedes repentance. God loved us before we loved him. History may not always be as forgiving as Scandal, but one thing about the series’ ending was true. One man will take the fall for you. As a Christian, for me, that man was Jesus.
One of the series’ characters – President Fitzgerald Grant – made a salutary point in the final episode. Let me paraphrase its substance. “It is better to avoid the hard road; the evil one and the desperate one. You may get what you want, but your heart will never remain the same. You may cover up your past, but your heart will remember what you’ve done.” God forgives, but you must then begin the process of forgiving yourself.
I am grateful for grace. I think I’ll stop the moral judgments going forward.
It's better to avoid the hard road. You may get what you want, but your heart will never remain the same. Click To Tweet God forgives, but you must then begin the process of forgiving yourself. Click To Tweet
