‘What’s done cannot be undone,’ mutters Lady Macbeth darkly in Shakespeare’s classic play. It’s the counsel of despair and resignation. Having contrived in the murder of King Duncan, she finds herself, much to her surprise, plagued by guilt at what she has done. Many across the years have echoed her words, convinced that a mistake once made cannot be changed; that we must live for ever with the consequences or our actions, for good or ill. The gospel puts forward a different perspective: what’s done, it tells us, no matter how awful, how bleak, how seemingly hopeless, can be undone; indeed, has been already through the power of God’s love. What had seemed the end was in fact a new beginning; what had looked like the triumph of death was nothing less that the gateway to new life. Whatever has been done – our mistakes, our missed opportunities – can be turned around, working together for good. That, and that alone – as the following meditation from my book No Ordinary Man 2 reminds us – is the one truth that cannot be undone.
Later he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were sitting at the table; and he upbraided them for their lack of faith and stubbornness, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen. Mark 16:14
The meditation of Bartholomew
What’s done cannot be undone, isn’t that what they say?
As much as we might wish otherwise,
it’s impossible to turn the clock back.
And that’s exactly what we’d thought just a few days before,
as we stood in desolation
and watched the Master suffer on that cross,
as we watched him breathe his last,
as we saw him cut down, limp and lifeless,
and carried to the tomb.
It was over,
finished,
those three wonderful years we’d spent with him at an end,
never to be repeated.
What possible reason was there to think otherwise?
So when the women burst in on us,
babbling about the tomb being empty,
the stone rolled away,
well, I hate to say it, but we didn’t pay much attention.
It just couldn’t be, could it?
At least that’s what the theory said;
the facts told a different story –
and what a story it was!
For the next thing we knew he was there amongst us,
the one they thought they’d destroyed, back from the grave,
the one we all believed dead and buried, alive!
And in that moment the world itself was turned upside down,
for suddenly we knew beyond doubt
that what’s done can be undone,
the proof right there, before our very eyes.
Defeat had become victory,
despair, hope,
sorrow, joy,
darkness, light,
tears, laughter!
The forces of evil had conspired to do their worst,
only for the havoc they’d wreaked
to be wiped away in a moment,
rolled back, as surely as the stone from the tomb,
by the power of love!
Do you realise what that means?
That no situation is too hopeless,
no person too dreadful,
to be beyond redemption.
That no matter who we are or what we do,
however much we fail,
however far we stray,
still he can turn us round and transform our lives.
That there is nothing in heaven or earth,
in life or in death,
that can finally separate us
from the love of God revealed in Christ!
He’d been to the cross,
he’d carried our sins,
he’d wrestled with the powers of darkness,
and he triumphed over it all.
Life was beginning again,
for you,
for me,
for everyone willing to receive it.
That, and that alone, cannot be undone!
Prayer
Lord,
we live in a world in which nothing seems to change
and yet in which nothing remains the same.
We look around us,
and we see the same old mistakes being made
as those which have littered the course of history.
We look at ourselves,
and though the appearance may have altered a little,
we see the same old person staring out at us,
beset still by familiar faults and weaknesses.
For all our hopes of progress, all our efforts at improvement,
human nature seldom varies.
It is a depressing and frustrating thought.
And yet it is only half the story,
for in Christ you died and rose again,
and in so doing transformed the world.
Though the old lives on, the new is here,
at work in the world, at work in our lives,
taking what is and shaping it into what shall be.
Through him we have forgiveness,
the invitation to put our former selves behind us
and to be born again, life truly different.
Lord, though all else may change,
we know that you will not.
What you have done for us is done for ever!
Thanks be to God!
Amen.