Michael Jackson and 1 John

I think probably everyone in our class felt some sort of reaction at the death of Michael Jackson this last weekend. For our generation, Michael Jackson’s music played a large role as the soundtrack to our adolescence. Maybe that is more so for us fogies up in our middle 30’s, who were just around 10 years of age when Thriller came out, but I think it continued to resonate for even most of you younger folks too. He was a gifted musician and performer who could capture attentions across age, gender and race.

Now what in the world do the life and death of Michael Jackson have to do with our study in 1 John? I’ll get to that, but first let me say a few things. First, in partial answer to that question, any real concept revealed in scripture should be applicable to real world life. Not every teaching will touch every part of your life, but, generally speaking, it should be easy look at life and the world around you and be reminded of how scripture teaches us about, and applies to, our lives. Secondly, I am not writing this to bash Michael Jackson at all. As troubled as he seemed to be, especially later in his life, we should be saddened by his passing or the passing of any human, if not for their loved ones, for the thought that they will be meeting God and eternity, and the consequences of not being prepared for that. May God have mercy on his soul.

Really what sparked this post was not so much MJ’s death as much as one blogger’s words in reflection on it:
And therein, to me, lies both the triumph of his achievements but also the makings of his (and in a sense, our) tragedies. As Jeff Chang argued, "for that voice, he lost his childhood. Or more precisely, he gave it to us," which isn't quite like saying he died for our sins but I think part of what Jeff is suggesting is that if Michael wasn't blessed with such a magical presence, we may not have liked him so well. And if we didn't like him so well, maybe his life would have turned out more normal, less (self)-destructive. These "what if" scenarios are impossible to answer, of course. All we know is the Jackson we were given and if his life is to be read as a kind of sacrifice to our pleasure, at least we can honor that by celebrating his libations.

From Soul Sides blog.

It was the blogger’s intentional references to Christ that made me consider what lessons might be learned. He is, of course, very right that the life and death of MJ wasn’t for our sins, but later he suggests his life could be “read as a kind of sacrifice to our pleasure”. In context, he is speaking of the fact that Jackson’s life appeared to be very tortured as he got older and this was almost certainly due to the fact that he was so loved and adored by his fans from an early age. In that sense, it was for our pleasure that he sacrificed his life.

Obviously I have to compare that to Jesus, who sacrificed his life that we might have life itself…eternal, meaningful, with God, cleansed and forgiven of the sin that stains us. What a waste, it seems, to sacrifice a life for the sake of pleasure. And I mean pleasure in a worldly sense…not in the divine. Divine pleasure is to take joy in nothing other than God, or in other things only as they give glory to Him. Worldly pleasures in music, food, sex, power, personalities, and things, as ends unto themselves, lead only to death…like MJ’s. He is an example of somebody who was devoured by our lust for those types of things. Jesus, too, died as a result of our fleshly cravings. But he rose from the dead to give us life and freedom from those earthly desires. He and desires for him will live forever! Desires for the things of this world will be destroyed with it. If you haven’t caught on yet, this directly relates to 1 John 2:15-17 that we have discussed the last couple of Sundays in class.

This passage, and the example of MJ, stands as an opportunity for us, especially as Americans, to examine our hearts for those desires that fall short of God. I’m actually a little flabbergasted that the blogger suggests we should be “celebrating his libations”. A ‘Libation’ is a drink poured in sacrifice to a god. Should we really celebrate MJ’s tragic life as a sacrifice to the god of our temporal, meaningless quest to be entertained? (I know he probably only means to celebrate those enterntaining, moving things MJ did with his life for us, but with a heavenly perspective, what is the difference?)

We love to be entertained. We love our music. We love our sports. We love our movies and TV shows. We love our houses and cars. We love our celebrities. We love them to death…and that is the problem. That kind of love only leads to death. The King of Pop lies cold in the ground waiting on eternity…a victim, some would say, of our lust for entertainment. But the King of Kings already paid the price for our lusts and now calls us to be much more than earthly entertained…to enjoy God Himself!

-casey