Thanks for the reflection! I always liked this music but I also always felt like the message of the music was a little off. I mean, I agree with the author that we shouldn't be carried by the greedy capitalism and we should care for the others, the poor, the oppressed. It is our role as a church to love others. But reducing the church and the gospel to this is superficial and not enough.
I agree with your words. Above all, Jesus came to save people, in a soteriological sense. Jesus went to the poor, the sick and to the rejected not because they needed physical restoration, but because the jewish religious themselves (pharisees, levites etc) were refusing to "give salvation" to those people.
A last note: I don't know why, but every time I hear the last two verses of the music I imagine the author is referring to (and personifying) the two men that were crucified with Jesus. Even tho they were not pagans in a strict sense, they were sinners, and I always got the idea that the author was trying to identify himself with the men who was forgiven by Christ in the cross.
Posted in: "The Rebel Jesus" - Worst Christmas Song Ever?
Hello, Dan!
Thanks for the reflection! I always liked this music but I also always felt like the message of the music was a little off. I mean, I agree with the author that we shouldn't be carried by the greedy capitalism and we should care for the others, the poor, the oppressed. It is our role as a church to love others. But reducing the church and the gospel to this is superficial and not enough.
I agree with your words. Above all, Jesus came to save people, in a soteriological sense. Jesus went to the poor, the sick and to the rejected not because they needed physical restoration, but because the jewish religious themselves (pharisees, levites etc) were refusing to "give salvation" to those people.
A last note: I don't know why, but every time I hear the last two verses of the music I imagine the author is referring to (and personifying) the two men that were crucified with Jesus. Even tho they were not pagans in a strict sense, they were sinners, and I always got the idea that the author was trying to identify himself with the men who was forgiven by Christ in the cross.