September/October 2000
The Jesus of James Taylor
by Gene Flanery
| While the Jesus of James Taylor was immediately attractive, I was not ready for the Jesus of the Bible. ...By contrast, the historical Jesus was much too radical and demanding for my taste. |
I remember the first time I listened to a James Taylor album, titled Sweet Baby James. It was late one evening in 1971. Taylor's soft and melodious voice provided a place of refuge from the harsh tones of the heavy metal bands that were capturing the attention of youth of that day. While Alice Cooper was bringing shock rock to the forefront of American pop culture, and the Rolling Stone's Brown Sugar and The Guess Who's American Woman were making their way to the top of the charts, Taylor's folksy style had a way of soothing my soul.
My favorite song on the album was Fire and Rain. The song played out its short story of Taylor losing contact with a close friend and the resulting rainy, lonely times that he was experiencing. The second verse stood out to me because he asked Jesus for help.
"Won't you look down upon me Jesus,
You've got to help me make a stand.
I just can't make it through another day,
My body's aching and my time is at hand.
I won't make it any other way."
It would be nice to have someone to talk to when you are lonely, I thought to myself. I was young, but like most teenagers I had experienced a fair share of loneliness as I navigated the rocky fjords from adolescence to young adulthood. The idea of having Jesus as an ever-present friend seemed appealing. I had an immediate desire to know this personable deity.
Two months later a friend of mine who had recently become a Christian handed me a paraphrased version of the Gospels. He asked me if I wanted to read about Jesus. "Yes," I replied. "I would love to read about Him!" My friend was taken back by my enthusiasm. He did not know that my appetite for spiritual knowledge had only recently been whetted by a popular musician's song. I began reading through the pages of the Gospels that night.
This was my first attempt to read the New Testament. I had grown up in a non-religious home that caricaturized all churchgoers as hypocrites. In spite of this environment, one summer when I was still a boy I had made a decision that I was going to read through the entire Bible during our family vacation. When we stopped at a hotel somewhere between Florida and our home in Michigan, I opened the dresser drawer and found the Gideon Bible. I took it out and began reading the words of the ancient text, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."
I read the first three chapters and found the Adam and Eve story fascinating. The fourth chapter was followed by the fifth, and I had arrived at the first major "begat" section of the Bible. By the time Enoch begat Methuselah I lost interest in my lofty goal. I never picked up the Bible again until my friend offered me the Gospels when I was sixteen.
I was older now, and the New Testament list of "begats" was much smaller than the Old Testament's. I still remember, however, the shock of reading for the very first time about Jesus of Nazareth. I have to admit to you that I did not like him. Many of his actions and words were offensive to a young man who had grown through adolescence and into his teens in the sixties.
For example, the story about Jesus turning over tables and chasing people from the temple with a whip was puzzling. This did not sound like the nice guy who wanted to help people that James Taylor had sung about. I found it hard to accept the miracles that were recorded because I had grown up in an age of reason and scientific rationalism. His statements about being the only way to God seemed arrogant to me.
While the Jesus of James Taylor was immediately attractive, I was not ready for the Jesus of the Bible. I had come to believe that Jesus was like the singer who first introduced me to him. He would sing a song and let you listen with no strings attached. By contrast, the historical Jesus was much too radical and demanding for my taste. In fact, I took a black marker and began marking out the statements that I disagreed with.
Needless to say, my Christian friend was shocked when I handed him back his sacred book with numerous passages blacked out. This was not at all the response he had anticipated. Looking back now I realize what an act of great arrogance it was for a sixteen-year-old to assume he had the wisdom to judge the truth of an ancient text like the Bible. God truly is merciful.
But I wonder if God was not somehow more pleased with the honesty of my Bible reading in 1971 than he is with my current study. Raw passion marked my first reading of the Gospels. Like so many of the characters of the Bible I struggled with Jesus' teachings and I doubted his claims. Yet a year and one half later I surrendered my life to him as Lord.
I have to admit that when I read the Bible today I have to fight to stay awake. My mind easily wanders to the activities of the day, what needs to be done and where I need to go. Jesus no longer holds my attention because he no longer offends me. Like so many who attend churches, I have tamed him. I fear that Jesus of Nazareth has once again become the Jesus of James Taylor that I believed in as a youth -- merely someone who helps me through my difficult times. He's no longer turning over the tables of my idolatries.
In the current spiritual renewal that permeates our society it is popular to talk about God in public. It is not uncommon for sports stars and celebrities to openly acknowledge God for their accomplishments. I welcome the changes ahead as our society turns from the sterile confines of modernity to embrace postmodernity with its open fascination of spiritual things.
But a question that haunts me is whether Jesus of Nazareth will be instrumental in our renewed quest for spirituality, or will we once again settle for the Jesus of James Taylor? Only time will tell if we will continue to embrace the Jesus of our own imagination in place of Jesus, the Lord of the Universe.
Like the transition that I once made in my own misunderstanding, we all need to examine the actions and words of Jesus that lie behind the black markers that continue to cloud our view of who he really is. Then and only then will our confession that Jesus is Lord have true meaning.
Gene Flanery has served as a cross-cultural missionary and is currently the Director of Training for World Indigenous Missions. He resides in Kansas City with his wife and four children.