I must be one of the few westerners who has never watched an episode of ER. However, I recently received an email with a YouTube link to an excerpt from the latest (14th!) season.

The clip introduces a cancer and guilt-riddled ex-prison doctor (Truman) being counselled by a gentle, sincere and compassionate chaplain (Julia). One of Truman’s roles as a prison doctor had been administering lethal injections to convicted murderers. He relates how one of them was later found to have been framed for his crime, and how he believes he ignored God’s attempt to prevent him from killing an innocent man.

Truman is desperate for answers. Real, solid, no-nonsense answers. Julia is sure there are none. Both actors play their parts brilliantly. I particularly felt for Julia, doing her best to be honest while being a source of comfort in an impossible situation. Truman’s frustration could have been directed at me when he bellows:

“I need answers, and all your questions and your uncertainty are only making things worse!”

However, it is Truman’s final, furious outburst that gave me hope:

“I need someone who will look me in the eye and tell me how to find forgiveness, because I am running out of time!”

Now that is something that Christians need to take to heart. Like Julia I have no final, solid, scientific answers to the problems of injustice and suffering. But unlike her, I have got an answer to Truman’s longing for forgiveness.

Whether Truman would have been prepared to listen to what I had to say is another matter. Would he have been happy to listen to me read through the Scriptures that describe how Jesus helped people to understand how they were loved and forgiven by God and in doing so forgive themselves? I don’t know.

But I would offer what I offered with the knowledge that there are millions of people (including myself) who have listened to the story of Jesus, and have found the forgiveness Truman was so desperately seeking.

Brett Jordan

Links

The ER ‘Atonement’ clip can be viewed here.

Details of two recent books on the atonement can be found here and here.