As we approach Easter, we can see how the Cross provides the diagnosis and the solution to human anguish in spiritual terms, but then we are driven to prayer as we consider the impossible-but-for-God nature of the evangelistic task that faces us.

"Can you tell me why you're here, Ashley?" asked the pediatrician.

"I've cut myself."

"...was it someone else who told you to do it?"

"Anna...the voice inside my head."

The doctor did not turn a hair..."and why did she tell you to do it?"

"She said I had to be punished."

"...and what else does Anna tell you to do? Has she ever told you to kill yourself?"

"Yes".

"...well, we are in charge here, not Anna."

Ashley's mother says she was doubly shocked: by her daughter's admission of attempted suicide, and by the doctor's matter of fact questioning, from her experience of seeing this many times in teenage girls. The author goes on to detail her daughter's ongoing treatment for depression and mild anorexia before this incident, and how afterwards Ashley needed to have round the clock supervision. Then there is the search for a cause, an in particular someone to blame. There is a disparaging reference to cuts in NHS mental health funding, speculation about "genetic predisposition" to depression and self harming tendencies, and then railing at the pressures on teenagers caused by social media, pornography and school exams. But earlier in the piece there is a throwaway line, attempting to explain why Ashley concealed her self-loathing and it was not picked up earlier: "my marriage to Ashley's father was slowly and painfully breaking down, and she was trying to protect me from her own pain".

According to the author, both the failure and break up of her own marriage, and Ashley's extreme mental distress were just "one of those things" for which she bore no responsibility and which were unrelated to each other. But held up to the searching, truthful and compassionate light of the Gospel, we can see this story as a parable of life without grace and truth. If only they knew Christ!

At the beginning of Mark's Gospel, Jesus appears, preaching the need to respond in repentance as the Kingdom of God is at hand. He begins to deliver people from sickness and bondage to demonic power, and then in Chapter 2 demonstrates his authority to forgive sins, symbolically providing liberation from the paralysis of sin, and then by eating at the house of Levi, showing how forgiven sinners are restored to fellowship with God. On the other hand, the Pharisees do not see the need for themselves to be forgiven; instead, they absolve themselves and blame others.

Mark contains many stories of possession by "unclean spirits". People with this condition are portrayed as suffering from extreme mental distress, and are often driven to self harming, for example the Gadarene demoniac in Mark 5 and the boy in Mark 9. Jesus in all cases restores those suffering to their right mind, but in the latter case the healing of the boy is followed by a prediction of the cross (9:31) --an echo of his explanation to the disciples before the Transfiguration that "the Son of Man must suffer" (8:31). In the description of the trial and crucifixion itself, all the Gospel writers do not shy away from the extreme physical punishment Jesus suffered, and he experienced the bleak despair of feeling abandoned by God. Through his healing ministry Jesus witnessed the depths of our human condition; through his suffering he fully experienced it. But the apostles also teach that the suffering was substitutionary -- in place of what we deserve for our sin (following Isaiah 53, eg 1 Peter 2:23-25). Through repentance and faith in Christ and the efficacy of his death, judgement is averted and our sins can be forgiven. But also, as Paul develops in his later letters, through the cross, spiritual powers hostile to human flourishing are disarmed and neutralised (Colossians 2:15).

How does this, our glorious Easter story, apply to the case of Ashley and her mother? We hear of the trauma of a woman's experience of a broken marriage and a child's self-destructive depression, and of course there is sympathy for her plight. But like the Pharisees, because her self righteousness blinds her to her own sin and her need for repentance, she blames others, cannot see the need for Christ, tragically misses out on the restoration he longs to offer, and perhaps has even been an unwitting cause of her beloved daughter's suffering. Ashley on the other hand, like many teenagers, is acutely aware of her own sin (this is why they often respond more readily to Christ than adults). The problem is, Ashley has not heard; and so not been impacted by the Easter Gospel of the cross of Christ; she feels she has to punish herself for her own sins and those of her parents, instead of accepting the glorious free gift of forgiveness from the one who was cut and beaten in her place. Worse, she appears to be driven to self harm by a voice in her head -- only God knows if "Anna" is a genuinely demonic presence or amplified and personified guilt, exacerbated by mental illness, such as motivated the extreme self-mortification of medieval religion. Either way, medication and the best care cannot get to the root of what is ultimately a spiritual issue.

This sobering story reveals two opposite and equally insidious lies of our culture. One: I am a terrible person, and must punish myself for my failure. Two: I am righteous; I have done nothing wrong, I am suffering unfairly, others are to blame. The Easter Gospel by contrast reveals the truth: our sin and guilt is real, but Christ died on the cross to bear it and the judgement on it, and set us free. He rose to demonstrate his victory over evil powers which whisper lies and enslave us. If we don't know this, or refuse to accept it, we will pay for our own sin in hell, which as the story shows, often begins in this life. Let's renew our determination to get the healing and saving message out, and pray that this Easter, Ashley and her parents, and people like them will believe the truth about humanity and receive the grace from the crucified saviour.

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