all shall be well

 

We long for good things to happen to good people and bad things to happen to bad people. I am an avid reader and viewer of crime fiction, and long for the villain of the piece to receive their comeuppance.

God longs for good for all people. This is the desire of God, the one true desire, the one true will of the sovereign Lord of all creation. Ultimately, no false desire can resist this true desire, that none should perish but all be reconciled to God in Jesus and their find healing and wholeness, the salvation of their souls.

There are various villains at the foot of the cross. Pilate, Herod, Annas and Caiaphas, Judas, even Peter. And over each and every one, the verdict is spoken, ‘Father, forgive them.’

Each villain is drawn to Christ on the cross, and there, if not in the chronological moment but (beginning with Peter) in the cosmic event, they are reconciled to God, to their own shattered selves, to their neighbour, to the one they lifted high through whom the desire of God has been fulfilled and is being fulfilled and shall be fulfilled.