For everyone who may not be familiar with the television show, "Glee" shares the story of a group of outcast teenagers from Lima, Ohio who joined their local high school show choir (or "Glee Club") to find belonging and to become rising stars. Will Schuester is a high school Spanish teacher, who volunteered to take over Glee Club after his own personal experience as a Glee Cluber as a teenager. Sue Sylvester is the high school cheer-leading couch who views the Glee Club as a threat, and tries anything she can to destroy the Glee Club and their competitions. Some of the Glee Club members are Kurt, Rachel, Quinn, Finn, Mike, Brittany, Santana, Tina, Puck, Mercedes, and Artie.
Over the past two seasons, we learned Sue has an older sister with down syndrome who lives in a nursing home. Even though Sue seems down right evil and seems to try everything to try to destroy the Glee Club, she has a sweet, loving spirit when she visits her sister Jean. Since she loves her sister Jean, Sue befriends a student at McKinley High School named Becky. Becky has downs syndrome as well. Sue asked Becky to join the cheer-leading squid to be her spy against the Glee Club. Becky becomes Sue's assistant in destroying the Glee Club, and takes advantage of her.
In his weeks episode, Becky came to talk to Mr. Schuester. Sue had asked Becky to leave the cheerleading squad for no reason, and Becky wanted to talk to Will (Mr. Schuester) to see if she could join the Glee Club. Will then confronts Sue to find out why she fired Becky from the cheer-leading squad. Sue shares with Will that her sister, Jean, had passed away from pneumonia the night before. Sue couldn't understand why her sister who had such a gentle loving spirit had left this world. Sue was so angry, she said the following quote to Will. "Oh William, I wouldn't dare lean on you. You have so much grease in your hair, I'd probably slide right off."
Two of the students from Glee Club who are stepbrothers (Kurt and Finn) who had lost one of their parents growing up, volunteered to help Sue pack up Jean's belongings. Sue allowed Kurt and Finn to help with hesitation, and allowed them to help plan the funeral. Sue later revealed she only allowed the Glee Club to plan her sister's funeral because she thought no one would attend the funeral.
The funeral day arrived, and Sue entered the funeral home. Even though Will and Sue have been enemies since the beginning of the show, Will welcomes Sue to the funeral home with open arms. Sue walks into the funeral room, and sees the room full of people. Staff from the nursing home, members of the Glee Club, and co-workers of Sue attended the funeral to remember the life of Jean. Sue was in awe.
Sue was asked to share about her sister during the ceremony, but had difficultly keeping herself together. Though Will and Sue have had many confrontations in the past, Will walked up to Sue on the stage and hugged her. Will willingly finished reading Sue's speech to share how special Jean was. The ceremony ended with the Glee Club singing a song from "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory', "Pure Imagination". Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory was Jean's favorite movie.
After the funeral, Will and Sue have a heart to heart conversation in the teachers lounge during lunch. She thanked Will being there for her and shared she no longer wanted to fight him or destroy the Glee Club. She wished the Glee Club good luck at Nationals. Sue then talked to Becky and promoted her to being the Cheerleading Caption for the next school year.
The two awesome messages this episode shared with its viewers is simple. Love your enemies and forgiveness. Though Sue had tried to destroy the Glee Club, Will supported Sue through the death of Jean. Will sat by her at the funeral, and did not hold any wrongs against Sue. The members of the Glee Club also planned Jean's whole funeral and worked together as a team to help Sue remember the wonderful person Jean was, even though Sue had tried numerous times to destroy the Glee Club.
As followers of Christ, Jesus calls us to love our enemies. He calls us to love them, support them, pray for them, empathize with with, and provide for them. That is what true love is all about. I think it is so cool that a popular television show shared this message without even knowing it to its viewers. Lets be a person like Will, who loves and supports his enemies. Lets share God's love!
The following clip is the Glee Club singing "Prue Imagination" at Jean's Funeral. Check it out! I love the part when Sue looks at Will and holds his hand. So beautiful!
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