How Ted Lasso Showed Us the Power of Redemption

Like so many of you, the start of my summer has been punctuated by the ending of Ted Lasso. (Warning: spoilers ahead!) I laughed and cried my way through the finale, and since then have been pondering what exactly made this show so special to so many.

Yes, the writing was fantastic, the characters were endearing, and the message of “BELIEVE” was much needed in this day and age. Ted Lasso gave us all of these things, but it also gave us something else.

It gave us the hope and promise of redemption…

My favorite faith concept- the one that, when all else becomes a swirl of questions, I cling to and believe wholeheartedly in- is redemption. 

To redeem means to turn in and receive something in exchange. For example, if you have a coupon for a box of Kleenexes and you redeem it, you will turn in the coupon and receive the Kleenexes in exchange. 

Redemption in the spiritual sense is about letting God do something else with our suffering.

We surrender our hurt and receive something else in exchange.  We turn in the pain, resentment and hurt, and we receive healing, growth, and wisdom in exchange. We trade in the broken and receive wholeness. 

Redemption is NOT silver lining thinking. It’s not making the best out of a bad situation. It’s not denying that something is sad, that something is hard. It’s not saying that the horrible, difficult event happened for a reason. When we see the redemptive turn in our pain, we aren’t saying “At least this or that didn’t happen, so that is good.”  

Redemption does not rewrite history or erase the past. We will still view the sad event as a sad because it WAS sad. Pain is always pain.  Abuse is always abuse.  Betrayal is always betrayal.  Nothing changes those facts. 

But when a mistake, hurt, or loss is redeemed, we see how it is exchanged for something else- an opportunity, a lesson, a new lease on life.  We are no longer in bondage to that event, to that person in our lives.

We are, simply, set free.

And this is where Ted Lasso comes in…

 
If you have spent any time with me over the past three years, you know that I am a huge Ted Lasso fan.  I have a t-shirt and everything. 

Much has been written about the brilliance of this show and the breath of fresh air it brought into a pandemic ridden world when it premiered.  For me, it was a very bright light of goodness showing the possibility of healthy leadership, loving relationships, beautifully imperfect humanity, and goodness to others when all of those attributes seemed in short supply in the world around me. 

As I mentioned above, I laughed and cried my way through the final episode. In that episode, storylines wrap up, conflicts resolved, and we were given glimpses into new and bright futures. 

But the storyline that captured me the most in that final episode was Nate’s.  

You see, his was a story of… redemption. 

Not to spoil a major plot line that runs through the entirety of the series, but Nate’s character goes from living unseen in the shadows to stepping into the light of love and belonging to falling into the darkness of rage, jealousy, and resentment to returning to the light of love and belonging.  

Simply put, in the end… Nate comes home.  

In this modern day story that mirrors the grace displayed in Jesus’ most beloved parable, the prodigal son returns, but this time the “elder brother” (Beard) realizes his own gifting of grace, extends an olive branch, and invites him back to the table. And of course, the loving father (Ted) welcomes Nate back with no questions, only love. 

In those final scenes, you see Nate returning to his old role as the kit man, welcomed by the team as a whole, forming new relationships with specific team members (the callback with Jamie was beautiful), and also welcomed back into the inner circle of the Diamond Dogs (nothing can separate us from the love of God, right?), and then eventually resuming (we assume) his role as assistant coach. 

Redemption. Beautiful redemption. 

In Nate’s arch, we see the truth about redemption which is that redemption is a journey… and not an easy one at that. 

For our pain, or our regret, to be redeemed, we must BELIEVE in God’s power to redeem it, but… we also have to do our part.  

Pain in need of redemption is usually pain that involved a fall followed by a bigger crash.  To open ourselves to the opportunity of redemption, we must acknowledge our crash, whatever that was.  And we must mourn what we lost in the crash.  We must grieve what was taken from us. We must admit what we might have caused. We must surrender and painstakingly assess our part, make amends where necessary, change our behavior where necessary.  

Yes, God can redeem ANYTHING- our worst trauma and our most shame filled regret.  

AND we must do our part… not to earn redemption, but to make ourselves available and open to being redeemed.  

But there is another part of Nate’s character that demonstrates a powerful truth about redemption- his hair. 

If you watched from the beginning of the series, you know that Nate started out with jet black hair. In Season 2, the season in which we witness his character turn to the dark side, we see his hair slowly, and then fully, turn gray.  I read that this was a deliberate choice on the writers’ part.  The graying of Nate’s hair was supposed to symbolize the darkening of his soul, so to speak.  

When Nate returns to the light and the love of AFC Richmond, he still has gray hair.  I will admit I was hoping that in those last couple of episodes Nate would suddenly appear with jet black hair again.  I wanted to see (literally) the visual representation of the “good Nate,” and I wanted the “bad Nate” to be fully gone from view. 

But redemption doesn’t erase the past. Instead, it gives us a new future.

Yes, Nate’s hair had turned gray and there was no going back- what happened, happened, and the choices he made, he made.  His gray hair symbolized that, yes, we are in fact changed by the trauma and the bad choices we make in life. 

And.

AND!!

We are not defined by them.  

We are not imprisoned by those events and missteps.  Yes, we will have scars, but those scars are not permanent disqualifiers.

OUR PAIN CAN BE REDEEMED.

Friend, your pain can be redeemed.

When we surrender, when we acknowledge our need for redemption, when we make the changes we need to make in order to heal, the mystery of God’s grace WILL set us free and renew our lives. 

If you are in the pit trying to heal your trauma or you are stuck in the prison of your shame, KNOW that this present is NOT your future.  Your pain can and will be redeemed.  You CAN receive your new chapter.  And you are ALWAYS welcome to return to the loving embrace of the God who loves you so.