Tolkien, Easter, and Eucatastrophe

Once upon a time, I read the essay "On Fairy Stories,"  by the late Professor J.R.R. Tolkien (better known today as the author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings).  Towards the end of the essay, he discusses "the Consolation of the Happy Ending" as "the true form of fairy-tale, and its highest function" (22).

The climax of a tragedy would be the catastrophe, the pivotal point in the story when everything falls apart for the hero.  For fairy-tale, Professor Tolkien coins a new word, "eucatastrope," for "the sudden joyous 'turn'" of events.  (The "eu-" means "good" and sounds like the word "you.")  This would describe the moment when Luke Skywalker destroys the Death Star, when the prince kisses Snow White to awaken her, when the Velveteen Rabbit discovers he has become real. In Tolkien's own work, eucatastrophe occurs when Aragorn and his army fight valiantly in the shadow of Mount Mordor though all hope for Middle Earth appears lost, and suddenly Sauron and his empire disintegrate when the Ring is destroyed.

Tolkien says that this quality is not an attempt to escape the world's sorrows.  On the other hand, he writes,

. . . it is a sudden and miraculous grace, never to be counted on to recur.  It does not deny the existence of dyscatastrophy [tragic ending], of sorrow and failure: the possibility of these is necessary to the joy of deliverance; it denies (in the face of much evidence, if you will) universal final defeat and in so far is evangelium [good news, gospel], giving a fleeting glimpse of Joy, Joy beyond the walls of the world, poignant as grief.

It is the mark of a good fairy-story. . . that however wild its events, however fantastic or terrible the adventures, it can give to child or man that hears it, when the 'turn' comes, a catch of the breath, a beat and lifting of the heart, near to (or indeed accompanied by) tears, as keen as that given by any form of literary art (22-23, emphasis and additions mine).

If I'm understanding the professor correctly, we love and value happily-ever-after endings because they point towards the Happy Ending, the triumph of Christ over sin, death, and all the other brokenness of the world.

The Bible itself is one grand, unified, beautiful, true story as well as a collection of smaller ones.  In this overarching Genesis-to-Revelation narrative (or metanarrative), Easter is the eucatastrophe and best understood in that context.  On Good Friday, all the disciples' hopes for God's kingdom seem dashed as Jesus Messiah is dead and entombed.  The rolled-away stone and resurrection turn that despair on its head on the third day.

Easter is the great Happy Ending from which all others proceed, the eucatastrophe not only of a fairy story but of all history.  The empty tomb looks dyscatastrophe in the eye and triumphs over it.  What's more, in many ways Easter is not an end but a beginning of a new era, a new story for all who believe in the risen Christ; as Professor Tolkien writes, "there is no true end to any fairy-tale" (22).  As Paul says it, "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation; old things have passed away, and look, new things have come" (2 Corinthians 5:17, HCSB).

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.  According to His great mercy,  He has given us a new birth into a living hope  through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead" (1 Peter 1:3, HCSB).  May you walk in the reality of this joyous living hope today.

Christ is risen; the Lord is risen indeed.  Hallelujah

Christian Lament {From the Archives}

How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever?

How long will you hide your face from me? 

How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day?

How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?

Consider and answer me, O LORD my God;

light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death, 

lest my enemy say, "I have prevailed over him,"

lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken. 

But I have trusted in your steadfast love;

my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. 

I will sing to the LORD,

because he has dealt bountifully with me. 

- Psalm 13, ESV

In light of recent world events and the ongoing sorrows of everyday life in this fallen world, we do well to remember that rejoicing is not the only appropriate emotional response to the life circumstances God assigns us.

My Bible reading lately has been in Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Lamentations, and a bleak stretch it is. Israel has persisted in disobedience and idolatry for so long and to such an extent that God sends Assyrian and Babylonian forces to conquer them and carry most of the people away into 70 years of captivity. Jerusalem is besieged and sacked, the temple is destroyed, and the Glory has departed.

In the face of such catastrophe, faith does not demand that we put on a plastic smile when our hearts are breaking. God does not desire us to be false with Him. Grief is a spiritual discipline, too, and at times the only right and appropriate response.

Godly grief expresses itself in the laments of Scripture. Job's speeches and Lamentations fall in this category, and individual or corporate lament is the largest subcategory of the Psalms (which fall under the broader heading of lyric poetry). Scholars estimate that at least a third of the Psalms express lament; a few examples include Psalms 13, 22, 40, 59, 74, 88, and 109.

The Thomas Nelson Study Bible describes Biblical lament this way:

In the lament psalms, we hear the strong, emotional words of sufferers. These are words written by real people in very difficult situations. Sometimes the forcefulness of the psalmists' complaints against God is shocking. But these godly sufferers know that God will not be angry with their honesty, for even when they scream at God, it is a scream of faith (887).

These are the prayers for the sleepless nights and weary days, for the seasons when we feel like Bilbo Baggins, "too little butter spread over too much bread," for the days which seem more Romans 7 than Romans 8, for hospital rooms and funeral homes. The sheer multitude of laments in Scripture bears witness that hardship is a commonplace in life in a broken world, yet God desires to fellowship with us in the midst of suffering as we cry out to Him. What is more, they offer us a guide for how to do so and give us words when we have no words.

Although no strict pattern applies to every lament, common elements include

• an initial cry to God,
• the list of complaints,
• a profession of reliance on God,
• a presentation of reasons God should intervene (such as past covenants, promises, and actions that shape the psalmist's expectations of the future),
• specific requests for deliverance and action, and
• a resolution to praise (TNSB, 887, and Leland Ryken, How to Read the Bible as Literature, 114-115).

These elements may occur in any order or repeat, and some may not appear at all. Psalm 88 never turns the corner from lament to praise, which gives me comfort and confidence that I don't even need to pretend to or force an emotional pivot point before God.

However, Israel incurs God's displeasure and discipline when they whine and complain. What's the difference between grumbling and lament?

In my understanding, there are at least four areas of difference:

• Audience: Grumbling speaks about God to other people; lament addresses God directly in prayer. This resembles the difference between gossip and conflict resolution.
• Content: Complaint disputes God's previously revealed character; lament seeks to reconcile God's character with circumstances that seem to contradict it.
• Attitude: Grumbling stems from a heart of unbelief; lament worships in wounded faith.
• Result: Whining produces rebellion; lament limps forward in obedience as best it can.

Amid all the disasters and crises in the daily news and the personal trials facing friends, family, and ourselves, it comforts me to know that I can pour out my heart like water before the Lord (Lamentations 2:19) and mourn with Him as well as dance for joy. Learning about lament set me free to do that, even writing my own laments from the patterns above, and I have found the Psalms to be helpful guides to prayer in times of trouble. May you also find blessing in these thoughts as you grow in relationship with God in the hard times as well as the glad.

Recommended Resources:
My review of Mark Vroegop’s book Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy
Leland Ryken, How to Read the Bible as Literature

Michael Card, A Sacred Sorrow

Michael Card teaching on lament as worship in 7 parts

A Puritan’s Encouragements to Courage

“Seek to do the following to heighten our Christian courage:

(1) Resign all to God.

(2) Set your faith on the promise that assures us that God will sanctify all of our troubles (Rom. 8:28).

(3) Consider that God’s presence is with us in all of our troubles (Ps. 119:15).

(4) He moderates our troubles to the measure and degree they are bearable [but not in our own strength, only in His] (Isa 27:8).

(5) We will know a safe and comfortable deliverance from them at least (Rev. 7:17).

With these considerations we may recover our hearts out of the hands of our fears again, and return them to a quiet and sweet satisfaction in the wise and holy pleasure of our God.”

~John Flavel

All in Him

"Whatever God takes away, He never takes away Himself. He can immediately convey the comfort I have lost from others. If all of the world were taken away, I yet have all in Him."

Richard Sibbes

A Refuge from Our Fears

For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
- 2 Corinthians 4:17-18

“In times of danger our heart is so prone to sinking fears. The sin of unbelief is the real cause for most distracting and afflictive fears. If men would dig to the root of their fears, they would certainly find unbelief there. The less faith, the more fear. All the skill in the world can never cure us of the disease of fear, until God cures us of our unbelief. This sin in God’s own people is the cause and fountain of their fears. It is the office of faith to effect the soul with the invisible things of the world to come. This encourages us to face the fears and dangers of the present world (Heb. 11:27). If faith is weakened in the soul, and if invisibles seem uncertain, and visibles the only realities, no wonder we are so scared and frightened when these visible and sensible comforts [toilet paper, anyone?] are endangered. A man is afraid to stand his ground if he is not thoroughly persuaded the ground he stands on is firm....

“But the divine promises give us a refuge from our fears. They fortify a Christian in evil times through their dependence upon God for protection. The cutting off of this retreat through unbelief deprives the soul of comfort and support and fills the heart with anxiety and fear.... Unbelief places our dearest interests in our own hands, and so fills the heart with distracting fears. But believers have committed their souls and all that is precious and valuable to them into the hands of God by faith, and putting them into such safe hands, they enjoy quietness and peace.”
~John Flavel (Voices from the Past, Volume 2, March 15)

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
- Hebrews 4:15-16