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Jesus the Musician

LENTEN SERMON SERIES: SIMPLY JESUS

The Musician Who Soothes the Soul

Text: Matthew 11:25-30

      You know, after a long day at the office, I like to sit back in my recliner and relax. I’ll put on my slippers, brew a cup of Earl Grey tea. I’ll take a few deep breaths, then turn on some nice, mellow music…

[headbanger music clip]

      Wasn’t that pleasant?

      How many listen to that music, in order to relax?...Really?...I’m surprised…!

      What you just heard is an example of what’s called heavy metal, or headbanger, music. It’s defined as “Very loud, brash rock music, often with shouted, violent lyrics.”

      It has traditionally appealed to one segment of youth. Part of its appeal is in the high energy it has, an energy that youth naturally feel—you won’t catch too many AARP cardholders listening to Soundgarden, Metallica, or Alice Cooper.

      But I think that another part of its appeal must lie in the chaos it reflects, a chaos that teens and young adults may feel as they’re facing life. It gives voice to frustration and anger—frustration and anger at their parents, friends, school, society, whatever.

      And when you look at it that way, well, we can all be fans of headbanger music. Because we have all felt life’s chaos at times. We’ve felt frustrated and angry.

      You were told that if you worked hard and were honest, you’d get rewarded. And what do you see? People getting promoted ahead of you because of who they know.

      You were told that discrimination was a thing of the past, that we have laws to protect minorities. And what do you see? People getting shunned, passed over, or hurt because they don’t fit in.

      You were told that love is all you need, and that when you find that someone, dreams will come true. And what do you see? You see that love takes work and compromise and struggle at times—and even then relationships splinter.

      You were told that you should protect your health. And what do you see? No matter how well you take care of yourself, joints hurt, arteries clog, and hearts stop.

      You were told that believing in God was easy, and that if you do good, then God will reward you. And what do you see? No matter how good you are, you still get those calls in the middle of the night, that terrify you and turn your life upside down. Meanwhile, drug lords live a comfortable life, and die in their sleep at a ripe old age.

      Yes, I think we can all be fans of heavy metal.

      I think Jesus attracted those fans.

      When you look at the people who followed him, they weren’t exactly the types who would be listening to Enya or Lawrence Welk on their iPods.

      Many were frustrated, angry people. Tax collectors, prostitutes, and assorted other “sinners” that good folk in society looked down upon. Women followed him, and women were second class citizens, and treated accordingly. Fishermen followed as well, and they were smelly and not especially socially acceptable.

      Adding to their anger and frustration was a group of people called Pharisees. These were self-righteous religious people who set up harsh, neurotic standards of what was right or wrong. They had a big book of over 600 laws. And they took that book, mingled with Jesus’ followers, and went [mock look and point]—“Sinner…sinner…sinner.”

      In one way, I bet Jesus’ followers wanted him to add fuel to their anger and frustration. You catch this in different scenes—such as when the disciples ask Jesus to call down fire on a town who rejected them, or when they want to draw swords and take on some soldiers.

      Jesus could have taken out the electric guitar and done some Jimi Hendrix, but he didn’t.

      RATHER, JESUS PLAYED FOR HIS FOLLOWERS A DIFFERENT TYPE OF MUSIC.

      He said,

[Enya clip with paraphrased verse:]

      “Come to me, all you whose eardrums throb painfully, and I will change the rhythm and the loudness. I will give you music that will heal, will calm, will give you—at last—peace.”

      And us “headbangers” turn off our iPods, and ask, “WHAT? What did you say?”

      Once our eardrums are able to stand it, he continues,

      “Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you…”

      We rub our ears.

      “Yoke?” That’s what farmers put on a horse or mule, for plowing. We’re supposed to be “yoked” to Jesus? We’re not to run wild in the field, where we can have so much more fun, and jump fences?

      We are to allow him to put his “yoke” over our muscular, wild necks?

      We remember the “yoke” the Pharisees have tried to put on us—a heavy, oppressive, neurotic, anal-retentive yoke of cold, black-and-white, judgmental, harsh rules.

      And now Jesus wants to put a “yoke” on us?

      And we’re to let him “teach” us?

      A couple of weeks ago we heard some of those teachings. Don’t lust. Don’t swear. Don’t try to get even. He might as well have said, “Don’t have fun.”

      Why, in the world, should we listen to him?

      That wild music, and the buddies we can get to listen to it with us, seems so much more inviting—it’s so much easier to make gestures to the world out there, to curse it, and to enjoy the company of those negative people who will curse it with us—in a loud voice.

      Why, should we listen, to Jesus?

      BECAUSE of what he added, and that makes all the difference:

      “I am humble and gentle at heart.”

      Jesus is NOT a parent, shaking a finger at us, threatening to spank us. He is NOT a teacher, threatening to flunk us. He is NOT a “friend,” threatening to reject us if we don’t party. He is NOT a boss, threatening to fire us.

      He is simply the one who says, “Listen to me, because of who I am…”

      And we then remember who he is…

      He’s the one who always smiled at the playfulness of a child. Once stuffy adults yelled at kids who were trying to play with Jesus, and he told those adults to be quiet. “Let the children come to me, don’t get in their way—for of such is the kingdom of God.”

      We remember who Jesus is.

      He’s the one who treated women with respect. When the Pharisees self-righteously threw an adulterous woman at his feet, saying she should be killed [while the man who committed adultery with her would only be mildly criticized], remember what he said? He defends and protects her by saying, “Let he [he] who is without sin, cast the first stone.”

      When a reformed prostitute washes his feet with her tears and anoints them with costly oil, the Pharisees say, “She’s a sinner—she shouldn’t be touching him!” And Jesus says that what she’s doing is a beautiful thing—don’t condemn her. Then he says to her, “Your faith has saved you—go in peace.”

      We remember who Jesus is.

      He’s the one who forgave a crooked IRS agent…who healed the servant of a hated Roman soldier…who looked into the sky as laughing, sneering soldiers drove nails into his hands and feet and said, “Father, FORGIVE THEM.”

      When you imagine the way he moved among the people who followed him—so “humbly and gently”, yet with power: then you stop.

      You don’t want to put the headphones back over your ears, and crank up Black Sabbath on your iPod.

      You start hearing some very beautiful music coming from Jesus. It’s music you can’t hear anywhere else but from him. It’s music that soothes your soul like nothing else can—not even “rock and roll.” His music helps you release the anger and frustration that’s so much a part of daily life.

      Jesus’ music is deep, rich, moving, powerful.

      That’s because Jesus doesn’t “drive” us like the Pharisees—walking around with that book of rules, and pointing a finger.

      Jesus doesn’t drive us—he invites us.

      He invites us to shelve the heavy metal stuff—because there’s nothing to rebel against anymore.

      His music invites us to live—to open ourselves to a life lived like his—one grounded in faith, in hope, in love.

      His music invites us to trust.

      When we do, we truly discover that his “yoke” isn’t a heavy, oppressive thing. Rather, as he said, “My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

      Maybe that’s because he’s beside us—shouldering the load with us, and walking with us every step of the way.

      You know, some of Jesus’ best music is yet to come. I want us to be able to hear it in all its beauty. 

      In the remaining weeks of Lent, I invite you to do two things:

      1—Listen to the music that so reflects the chaotic, angry, frustrating parts of your life. Pay attention to the temptation to give in to that music, to give in to revenge or despair.

      2—Then, remember that Jesus heard that very music on the cross. Because he loved you, he took that music into his body, his being. He allowed people’s chaos, anger, frustration to swallow him up, kill him.

      The cross is the death of that tune in our lives.

      But it’s also the start of a new one.