Finding Denouement - Tying Up Loose Ends

Every time we attend a play, watch a movie, or read a book, we are looking for, and expecting denouement. Webster’s Dictionary defines denouement as “the final solution or untangling of the conflicts or difficulties that make up the plot or a literary work.  The outcome of a complicated or difficult situation or sequence of events.”

In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet the denouement occurs when enmity between the Capulets and Montagues drives their beloved children to suicide.  In Les Miserables the denouement occurs when Jean Valjean rescues his adopted daughter’s fiancé from battle in the French Revolution. Simultaneously, he spares the life of his enemy, Javert, who, in despair, casts himself into the Siene and drowns.

 We all want denouement in our stories.  Whenever we read a book that leaves us hanging without reconciling the conflicts and questions raised by the telling, we feel unsatisfied.  Life, however, is not like fiction.  It does not always tie the loose ends into a neat bow at the end.  Often, we are left to live our lives with unanswered questions.

Yet the Bible offers us help.  The unanswered questions in our immediate circumstance can find meaning in the greater narrative found in its pages.  The Bible is, after all a story: the grandest of stories, from creation to consummation of the age.

 In his early adult years Joseph would have had difficulty predicting the denouement of his life.  In a rage of resentment and jealousy, his brothers sold him into slavery.  Finding himself a slave in Egypt, he was falsely accused by his master’s wife and thrown into prison.  Through a series of events in which he continued to demonstrate faithfulness and a gift for discernment, he was rescued from prison and rose to prominence in Pharaoh’s court. Years later, during a global famine, his brothers arrived in Egypt desperately seeking food. When they recognized their brother they had sold into slavery, they feared for their lives. But, with tears, Joseph embraced them and declared, “You meant it to me for evil, but God meant it to me for good.” 

 While we are in the midst of life we have difficulty predicting the outcome of the tragedies and disappointments that come our way. But in the end, the Master Author of life will write a denouement for those who put their faith and trust in Him. 

 The Apostle Paul recognized this when he wrote, “All things work together for good for those who love the Lord, for those who are called according to His purpose.”  As long as we love ourselves and seek out own purposes, life will continue to be a mess.  But, when we love God and are called according to His purpose, all things work together for good.

 Jesus provides the greatest example of this truth.  At the crucifixion, everything seemed to have fallen apart. Nothing good, it seemed, could come of this.  But the resurrection changed everything.  The empty tomb provided the greatest denouement in the history of man.