Imagine a meeting of TV executives where writers pitch the following idea: a murder mystery series where we give away all the details of the mystery in the very beginning… the audience will not only see the victim but also the perpetrator… they’ll witness the crime and know all about the weapon, the setting, and even the criminal’s efforts to cover his tracks. If it was me, this would be a tough sell. How can there be a mystery show without any mystery? Somehow, the show got the green light and in the late 60s, Lieutenant Columbo shuffled onto the screen. The show wasn’t about whodunit – it was about how this unlikely genius would figure it out. The show was a big success for many seasons.

The Bible presents us with a similar “inverted mystery”. We know the main perpetrator (Satan) and what he has inflicted on his victims (God’s creation, especially human beings). We know that for a long time he seemed to have gotten away with some serious crimes. Like the millionaire offenders of Los Angeles who imagine they have thwarted police oversight, the Enemy set himself up as the prince of this place and presumed that he answered to no one. Into this drama enters a humble figure who seems determined to prove the proud prince wrong. Jesus does not arrive in flashes of lightning or on a swirling storm. He was not a man of majesty or fine appearance (Isaiah 53:2), but his mission was divinely ordained. He came to bring judgment against the evil one and draw all men to himself (John 12:31-32).

Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross was given – with details – centuries before. Though very few had the eyes to see it, God revealed his plan from the garden (Genesis 3:15) to the psalms (Psalm 22) to the prophets (Isaiah 53). Looking back, we can piece it all together and marvel at God’s plan unfolding over centuries. We’ve also been given the plan for the end. We know that Satan will be brought to justice and the creation will start anew. God will dwell among his beloved human beings again (Revelation 21).

Somehow, even knowing how it all ends, life in Christ remains fascinating. When Paul starts revealing to Christians what the resurrection life will look like, he gets caught up in the glory of it:

Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.

I Corinthians 15:51-53, ESV

We may know what’s in store for us, but the mind has not yet comprehended the true magnitude of it (I Corinthians 2:9). Like watching our favorite detectives at work, we know where the story is headed and yet we know we’ll be delightfully surprised!