Sad Beauty

I was sitting on the train this evening between Manchester and Leamington, feeling sorry for myself with a swollen jaw and insuring myself holy points for the day to make up for missing the morning service by listening to a sermon on my iPod on 'awareness of sin'. The passage was about Jesus when he ate at Simon's house and Simon gave no water for Jesus' feet and no oil for his head, but the immoral woman washed Jesus with her tears and her perfume. The preacher showed how Simon was not aware of his sin, he was a Pharisee, a morally upright guy who was looked up to by society as a religious zealot. But the woman was known for who she was, which was probably a prostitute. She knew exactly how sinful she was, and was thankful in accordance. Jesus tells the parable of the two men, one who owed about £4,000 (in modern terms) and the other £40,000. Who loved the gracious debtor more?

This is not the point of why I am writing. Whilst listening to this sermon, I was looking out the window. I always notice how trains run through some of the most beautiful desolate British countryside. I have been blessed this weekend to see some beautiful sights with some beautiful people, and these days I find myself just gazing and thanking God that He is so gracious to bless sinners such as myself, knowing how I have thrown myself on idols and committed adultery with false gods, just like the immoral woman.

As well as this revelation of God's grace in natural beauty, I was struck by two films this weekend. God keeps bringing things to me in pairs. The first film was 'Revolutionary Road', and the second 'The Blindness', both recent films. I won't bore you with an amateur synopsis of either. Both films made me realise how the human race appreciates films with unhappy endings, and it is most often these films which win Oscars, or are treated as 'serious' films, whilst happy endings are seen as trivial and light entertainment. That's a massive generalisation of course. But I will hypothesise that films with unhappy endings ring a bell with people because life itself is bittersweet, and these films reflect that reality.

This led me to think about how you can sum up the whole world as Sad Beauty. The world that God has given us, and I do not now simply talk of sunsets, mountains, coral reefs and sunshine, but marriage, honest work, family, animals, artistic talents. This world is beautiful - we are made in God's image, he has blessed us with all these things. This is the Beauty. The Sadness is the sin which takes all of these things and corrupts them. It takes the mountains and turns them to avalanches which kill holidaymakers. It takes the ocean and turns it into tidal waves and fierce storms. It takes marriages and demeans them with extramarital sex. It takes artistic talents and turns them into abhorrent monstrosities and nightmare visions. It takes family and rips it apart. It devours everything eventually with death. This is the Sadness.

After thinking this, I thought that no, it is only a Sad Beauty for those who do not have the Hope. For those who have the certain knowledge of a home in heaven and a Saviour who has defeated the grave once and for all, it is a Beautiful Sadness, and that sadness is temporary and fleeting. It will end when our mortal bodies shut down, or when Jesus descends in perfect and awful judgment on the Final Day.

"this is the new, life-giving way that Christ has opened up for us through the sacred curtain, by means of his death for us" (10v20).