Jesus

Jesus is likely the most famous guy in history. Though Christians are the official followers of Jesus all the major religions seem to recognize him as somebody important. Even non-religious people like him. If you know a bit about Jesus then you’ll love this video. If you know nothing about him check it out anyway… I’m sure you’ll find something interesting.

The Death of Death.

Poetry used to freak me out. And it pretty much still does. I just don’t get it. I have had some really good professors that have helped me understand a few poems. Now I’ve got a lot more appreciation for poetry! I have stumbled across a few poems that I really like. They just have a way of taking topics that I already know about and describing them in interesting ways.

Death is something I’ve thought about a bit… ok quite a bit!

John Donne’s Holy Sonnet 10 is an awesome poem about death. I’ve posted the text below and also a video of somebody reading the poem. The reading is a little freaky but he does a better job than I could!

Check out the lyrics and think about them a bit.

Holy Sonnet 10

Death, be not proud, though some have called thee

Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;

For those whom thou think’st thou dost overthrow

Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.

From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,

Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,

And soonest our best men with thee do go,

Rest of their bones, and soul’s delivery.

Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,

And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,

And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well

And better than thy stroke; why swell’st thou then?

One short sleep past, we wake eternally

And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.

 

Poem from www.poetryfoundation.org

I love this poem so much because I think it basically captures the Christian idea about death. John Donne was a Christian and so it’s no surprise that this poem reflects the ideas that it does. The odd thing is that Christians don’t always seem to think about death as Donne does.

Notice how Donne personalizes death. He talks to death as if it can actually hear him. It’s not that death is really a person, it just makes for a more interesting way to talk about it; or talk to it. I think Donne has a healthy view of death. The poem opens with him rebuking death. People are so afraid of death. Should death be proud? Is it a powerful enemy? Some have called it mighty and dreadful but that isn’t true. When death strikes it thinks that it has killed somebody. But according to Donne, it isn’t so.

How can Donne think this? Why aren’t dead people dead? Because though their bodies have died they still live on. Their souls have survived deaths ‘mighty’ blow. Of course Donne has a very Christian view of death. People don’t just disappear when they die. Dead Christians have hope beyond the grave.

Death is a slave. Isn’t that great? I love that line – Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men. Death has no real power of it’s own. It relies on chance and wars and murders to get the job done. In a sense it relies on the very people that it wants to kill to do the killing. Pathetic!

I find all this exciting to think about but it’s the last two lines that give me the chills.

One short sleep past, we wake eternally

And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.

For Christians death is but mere ’sleep.’ When we wake eternally there’ll be no more death. But how is this so? Because death will be dead. The death of death; that is like ultimate death.

Christians are quite confident about all this. We will wake eternally. Death will die. How could all this be true? How can it possibly be? The early Christian writings (the New Testament of the Bible) say that the death that Jesus died on the cross was actually a victory. A Victory!? Yeah, a Victory. Don’t get me wrong though. The early Christians weren’t creative enough to think this up on their own. When Jesus had been buried they thought that he was good as dead. He and all his followers were Jews so they had some sort of expectation of life after death but they didn’t expect what actually happened.

Jesus came back from the dead. Body and all! He made it clear (and the church has always thought) that though he was killed he actually won a victory for us. He overcame death and it’s power over us. Check out the gospel of John for an account of Jesus’ life and death… and life.

Here is a video of somebody reading Holy Sonnet 10.

Below are a few interesting quotes from Jesus’ friends.

• “For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, ‘DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP IN VICTORY. O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?’” (From 1 Corinthians 15 Written by Paul who met Jesus after Jesus had been raised from the dead)

Offensive and foolish… but maybe true.

I should start this with a disclaimer. When I write about songs I’m not always convinced that I’ve interpreted them correctly. Typically a song will catch my attention if it sounds good and has some interesting lyrics. Lyrics about human nature usually intrigue me. I may not totally understand what the lyricist has written but it gets me thinking. Sometimes just one line in a song will get me thinking for hours. This song has done it for me.

At first I thought the lyrics to this song were amazing (What I’ve Done by Linkin Park). They sang about something that I have put a lot of thought into; mercy, grace and forgiveness. When I first heard the song I really connected with it. But of course when I listened to it I immediately plugged it into a Christian worldview. I’m a Christian and this song is all about things that Christianity is about. Although it is possible that while it sounds like the sort of thing that Jesus would teach about it could be quite the opposite. In fact there might be good reason to find this song horribly offensive to humanity… especially those people who have been torn apart by rapists, abusers, Hitler and the like. Thus the tile to this post; Offensive and foolish… but maybe true.

Watch the video, even if you don’t like the song. Consider the images and the lyrics. It immediately opens with familiar images of life and death. The clips are filled with human suffering and destruction. they’re destroying each other and the physical world around them. There are innocent bystanders as well as those who could do something rather, they stand by and watch. There are images of empires and the crumbling of those empires. For thousands of years we’ve been doing this to ourselves.

I Forgive Me!

But now Linkin Park are forgiving themselves! Billions suffer. Billions die. Billions are wasting away. But Linkin Park are forgiving themselves. Isn’t this ridiculous? Who are they to forgive themselves. Is a murderer or thief his own judge? Can I commit a crime and then pardon myself? It strikes me as odd that Linkin Park have chosen to forgive themselves. It seems as though they aren’t really in a position to do so, are they? If they have wronged somebody (in a big way or in a minor way) then it is not up to them to forgive themselves. It is up to their victims to do the forgiving. Put it another way. Could you imagine if instead of killing himself Hitler was to stand in front of the world and promise to stop the war. He surrenders so to speak, then he announces to everybody that he is forgiving himself. Imagine Hitler passionately singing the words to this song:

…let mercy come
And wash away
What I’ve done…

…I’ll face myself
To cross out what I’ve become
Erase myself
And let go of what I’ve done…

…Put to rest
What you thought of me…

…Today this ends
I’m forgiving what I’ve done.

There is more to the song but you get the gist.

Should Hitler Forgive Himself?

If Linkin Park can just forgive themselves then why not Hitler? Should you or I be able to just forgive ourselves? Does it sound kinda mean that I’m comparing Linkin Park or you and I to Hitler? I do this because often we’ll come up with great ideas such as forgiving ourselves. Then we live out these ideas and tell others to do so without ever fully thinking them through all the way. If I can just forgive myself then why not Hitler? After all the images in this video are pretty extreme.

The Person In The Mirror

Stay with me because the song might actually have a point. Sometimes I make myself sick. I look in the mirror and hate the person I see. I think about the things that I’ve done. I don’t know if you’ve ever felt the same way. Sometimes I think about how absolutely horrible the world is and i think about the part that I’ve played. True I’m not as bad as some but that doesn’t excuse me. So what can we do? I could forgive myself but what will that do?

Where Will Mercy Come From?

There isn’t much point in forgiving ourselves. So I utter a few syllables and hope for better days ahead. Big deal. Meaningless. Anybody can do that and it gets us nowhere. This song talks about mercy, grace and forgiveness. Mercy can only be had on people who deserve the punishment they are given. There is a strange sort of mercy out there, one that is joined with forgiveness and reconciliation. It’s this strange sort of mercy that I think about when I hear this song. It’s the kind of mercy that I think about when I look in the mirror and feel sick.

It’s the kind of mercy that comes from God. It’s strange because God gains nothing by having mercy on us. He gains nothing by forgiving us. The mercy and forgiveness that comes from God is much different than the mercy and forgiveness that we offer each other and ourselves. It seems as though he is the only one in a place of authority to do the forgiving. Of course the mess that the human race is in isn’t just between ourselves, it’s between us and God as well. At least that is what the Christians say. It’s what Jesus said.

Things Will Be Made Right

Being a Christian can be a little difficult because there is so much to learn and so much that is hard to understand. To tell you the truth it kinda used to freak me out to know that God is willing to forgive anyone who comes to him and asks for it. But then I thought about all the things that I’ve read in the Christian scriptures and I realized that not only is God willing to forgive people, he is able to heal people. He is able to restore people so that even if their lives have been ruined by somebody like Hitler he is able to restore them. I think we’re all kinda messed up and we all need forgiving. If mercy and forgiveness come they’ll ultimately be from God. So Linkin Park are on the right track. I like this song because it got me thinking…. and it sounds good too!

 

Poison Heart

The lyrics to this song are just great. I love philosophy and theology, so it’s no surprise that I’d find this song to be so interesting. It’s a pretty honest look at human nature. Usually you can find pretty interesting lyrics coming from punk rock bands like the Ramones. What may be surprising is that these lyrics have so much in common with how Christians view the world.

How do the Ramones view the world?

Human nature is a topic that interests just about everybody. Philosophers talk about it all the time, so do psychologists. But you don’t have to be an academic geek to think about human nature, just a humble punk rocker will do! The song opens with some vague struggle that he’s found himself in. The line that really caught my attention is “I just want to walk right out of this world, cause everybody has a poison heart.” Why are things so crappy in this world? Because everybody has a poison heart. What does that mean? Often a persons ‘heart’ stands for their emotional center. It’s the place that love and anger and happiness and depression flow from. But a person’s ‘heart’ can also stand for the person themselves. A person with an ‘evil’ heart is somebody who’s intentions and actions line up with wickedness. A person with a ‘good’ heart is somebody who lines up with goodness.

I think Joey Ramone means heart in this second sense. Everybody has a poison heart. That’s why the world sucks. That’s why Joey Ramone wants to just “walk right out of this world.” Everybody has a poison heart. Poison corrupts things, it kills things, it cripples things. Is human nature poisoned? It seems so, at least according to Joey Ramone.

How do Christians view the world?

Perhaps surprisingly (perhaps not) Christians think that Joey Ramone is basically right (assuming I’ve interpreted him somewhat correctly). Christians would word it slightly different but I think the concept is basicaly the same. For a few thousand years Jews and Christians have noticed that there is something desperately wrong with humans. It’s not just that things don’t work out, it’s that we ruin them.

Not long after God created humans they decided that they would disobey him. It wasn’t a big deal really. They just ate something that they weren’t supposed to. But that little act of rebellion completely poisoned the human race. Every human that was born from that time on was born corrupted and not quite right. Christians often refer to human nature as fallen or sinful. It means that not only do we tend to do bad things we actually are bad. Our hearts, our selves at the core are bad. You might say we have poison hearts.

I’m not sure if Joey means that our hearts have been poisoned or that our hearts are poison. If he means that our hearts are poison then as poison they ruin the things around them, just like poison sickens or kills a person. I think a Christian would say that our hearts have been poisoned. The first humans poisoned themselves so to speak. But not only have our hearts been poisoned they actually are poison. Our whole being has been sickened. Actually Christians would say that our inner selves (us) have been killed. When we sin it kills us, just like poison. But because the first humans poisoned human nature we are actually born dead. Physically we are alive and kicking but on the inside our hearts are dead.

I’d love it if the world was a better place but, “everybody has a poison heart.” Or so says the Ramones and the Christians.

• You can read chapters 2 and 3 of ‘Genesis’ in the Bible to see more about the first humans
• I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! (From Romans 6:18-25)