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In the summer of 1815, Europe’s eyes were fixed on the small town of Waterloo in what is now modern-day Belgium. There, an English and Prussian coalition bravely faced the army of Napoleon Bonaparte, a Frenchman who’d brought war to the entire continent.
The English were eagerly waiting for battlefield news…but they didn’t like what they were hearing.
The English desperately needed a victory over French forces. If Napoleon were to win, he might turn his mighty army on them. Therefore, they’d sent one of their best, Arthur Wellesley, the 1st Duke of Wellington, to lead the charge against the French. A fierce battle erupted in the otherwise peaceful countryside, with victory bouncing between the armies several times throughout the day.
In this era before cell phones and telegraphs, Londoners would gather in town squares to await important news from faraway battlefields. Updates like this would be written on large signs for passers-by to read and share with others. Late that afternoon, a bulletin arrived from across the Channel with news from the front. Letters began to take shape on the sign perched high above the square: WELLINGTON DEFEATED….
But as it tends to happen in London, a heavy fog was rolling in and quickly blanketed the marquee behind a curtain of moisture. The crowd grimly assumed their Duke had been defeated and word quickly spread around the city carrying the bitter news.
However, when citizens emerged from their homes the following morning, the fog had lifted, and the literate could read for themselves the whole message that had been written on the board: WELLINGTON DEFEATED NAPOLEON AT WATERLOO.
The English had wrongly assumed defeat. They thought they’d lost a crucial battle. It wasn’t until they fully understood the entire message that they realized they had been victorious!
That may be how the disciples felt when Jesus died on the cross. They thought they’d lost. They thought the Enemy had won. After all, Jesus had been tried, tortured, and crucified. But they didn’t fully understand everything. When Easter burned off the fog of confusion, they realized that Jesus had been completely victorious!
The bad news had been turned into Good News.
Topics Illustrated Include:
Assumption
Bad News
Defeat
Despair
Easter
Hope
Hopeless
Life
Miscommunication
Misunderstanding
Victory
War
(Resource cataloged by David R Smith)
