Let’s list four Beatles songs to start
with: “Martha, My Dear”, “Got To Get You
Into My Life”, “Julia”, and “Savoy Truffle.”
That’s a pretty weird little collection I just put together. Certainly never going to make the Greatest
Hits, although I really like each and every one of them. The reason I picked those songs is obvious,
of course, but I’m not revealing the secret behind the magic just yet. Let’s look at them one at a time, shall
we?
“Martha, My Dear” is a Paul McCartney
song. It contains some beautiful music,
and more beautiful lyrics. “Please
Remember me Martha my love. Don't forget me Martha my dear” and “Martha my dear
you have always been my inspiration Please be good to me Martha my love” to
list just a few. WOW!! Martha must be
one lucky girl to have such a beautiful song written about her!! Who is Martha? Paul’s sheepdog.
“Got To Get You Into My Life” is another Paul McCartney
creation. It’s not a slow, melodic song
like “Martha.” It’s full of horns and a
bold declaration of “Got to get you into my life!” Among the other things Paul proudly sings are
“Ooh, you were meant to be near me. Ooh,
and I want you to hear me. Say we'll be
together every day.” and “Then suddenly I see you. Did I tell you I need you every single day?” Those are some pretty strong words of
devotion. Is Paul singing to some
girl? No. Is he singing to his sheepdog again? Nope.
Paul’s declaring his love for a certain recreational drug that’s showing
up on election ballots these days. Seems
to take a different meaning when you know that’s what he’s dedicating his
devotion to.
But enough of Paul, let’s give John some love. “Julia” is sometimes called John’s response to
Paul’s “Blackbird.” It’s a really,
really good song. John sings to Julia, “Half
of what I say is meaningless
But I say it just to reach you, Julia” and “Her hair of floating sky is shimmering, glimmering,
In the sun…So I sing a song of love, Julia.” Now there’s a love ballad! Shakespeare couldn’t have written more poignant words of love in Romeo and Juliet. Of course, by now you’re catching on so you know it’s not a girlfriend. No, it’s not Paul’s dog…or John’s. It’s not a drug reference, either. It’s his mom!! She was hit and killed in an accident when John was 17. So he wrote this amazing song for his mom. Momma’s Boy! Hehe.
But I say it just to reach you, Julia” and “Her hair of floating sky is shimmering, glimmering,
In the sun…So I sing a song of love, Julia.” Now there’s a love ballad! Shakespeare couldn’t have written more poignant words of love in Romeo and Juliet. Of course, by now you’re catching on so you know it’s not a girlfriend. No, it’s not Paul’s dog…or John’s. It’s not a drug reference, either. It’s his mom!! She was hit and killed in an accident when John was 17. So he wrote this amazing song for his mom. Momma’s Boy! Hehe.
Finally, we get to “Savoy Truffle” written by George “My
Favorite Beatle” Harrison. No dogs or
girls or moms or drugs in this one. It
sounds like an inventory of a kid’s trick-or-treat sack. No exaggeration on that, either. Literally, the first line is “Creme tangerine
and montelimart, a ginger sling with a pineapple heart.” You want to know why it sounds like a box of
chocolates. Because it is. George was good friends with Eric Clapton (he
played the solos on While My Guitar Gently Weeps) who apparently had quite the
sweet tooth. The song, according to
George, was inspired by Eric’s inability to keep out of a box of Mackintosh's
Good News chocolates. So George poked a
little fun at his friend by writing a song that was basically the contents page
for the box. Even the title “Savoy
Truffle” is one of the chocolates in the box.
By now, as usual, you’re yelling at the devotional about
getting to the point already. SO here it
is. It helps to know the backstory. Some of you reading this may have loved
“Martha, My Dear” or “Julia” since the first time you heard it. You loved it because it was an amazing love
song, and summarized the way you felt about your significant other so
perfectly. It’s Paul’s dog. It’s John’s mom. Maybe the song you sang to your wife was some
caterwauling, poor rendition of “Got To Get You Into My Life.” Maybe you played it on the radio when you
dropped down on one knee and proposed…because it’s the perfect song with the
right emotion and desire that you feel for your would-be bride. It’s not about a woman. It’s about Paul’s fascination with wanting
more experience with a habit. “Savoy
Truffle” doesn’t really have much meaning that can be taken for more than what
it is, but now you know the story of how it came to be. Now that you know how it came to be, it
likely makes more sense when you hear it.
“Oh, ok…yeah…he’s jabbing fun at Eric Clapton with the candy references
and little one-liners.” Much like
knowing the truth of what’s said, and really understanding the lyrics that I
mentioned in the afore-mentioned “ Pet Shop” devotional, to truly understand
something you read, it’s best to know to whom it was written.
For example, take Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The four Gospels in the New Testament that
tell the story of Jesus Christ and His ministry on Earth. Why do three of them overlap, and why is John
different? Why does Matthew begin with
that snooze-fest of begetting? Why does
Mark read with the pace of a Saturday morning cartoon? Why does Luke sound like an attorney trying
to win a court case? The answer is the
same as the Beatles songs…It’s completely due to whom they were written.
Matthew starts with all that begetting because Matthew is
writing his gospel to the Jews. The Jews
were looking for a King from the line of David.
The Jews wanted their Messiah.
Matthew starts with the heritage of Jesus Christ to show that He was who
He said He was. Matthew uses a lot of
Old Testament prophecy to connect the dots from David to the prophets to
Jesus. We start with Matthew 1:1 and
read “The record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the
son of David, the son of Abraham:” and immediately hit cruise control. Our eyes scan the page, blurring through
names we can’t pronounce, wondering what begat even means, and pop out of the
wormhole in verse 17 reading about 14 generations and 14 more generations and
thinking “What was the point of that?!”
To the Jewish reader, that IS the whole point. The pedigree of Jesus Christ. That blistering bombardment of begats that
begins the book is meant to clearly reveal to the Jewish reader that Jesus IS
the heir to David’s throne and IS the Messiah, the Son of God. The entirety of the book is devoted to
proving how Jesus fulfills the many Messianic Prophecies of the Old Testament.
Mark could be a comic book adaptation of
the life of Jesus Christ. It jumps from
action scene to action scene like the first five minutes of a television show
recapping what happened last week! Mark
starts with an introductory title like the beginning of a police drama: “The wilderness, near the Jordan River” and
we fade into John the Baptist. He’s
wearing crazy clothes, and he’s baptizing people right and left. Almost immediately we see Jesus walk up, and
John’s baptizing Jesus. John’s arrested
to get him out of the plot for now, and the story shifts to Jesus. When we get to Jesus, it’s miracle after
miracle. We ain’t got time for all that
boring begetting business! We want the
action scenes! The first time Cameron
saw Jurassic Park, we were most of the way through the setup of the story when
he turned to me and said, “This is boring.
When are the dinosaurs going to flip out and start eating people?” That’s the Gospel of Mark!! It was written to the people of Rome! America and Rome are right there
together! We want action, excitement,
and adventure! They fed Christians to
lions, but luckily in America we have CGI.
The Romans didn’t care about genealogy.
They wanted action! They wanted a
God that was powerful and mighty and larger than life! Mark’s gospel delivers just that. He skips the focus on prophecy and lineage
and jumps straight to the healing. We’re
just over halfway through the first chapter before Jesus has healed Peter’s
Mother-In-Law. Mark stands up on the
soapbox and says, “Do you want to know what Jesus did? I’ll tell you what Jesus did!” Mark uses the
word “immediately” 34 times. In the
shortest of the Gospels, Mark describes 27 miracles. It’s an action-packed Gospel written to a
people with a short attention span. It’s
fast-paced, it’s to the point, and it paints Jesus in all His glory in 30
minutes including commercials! Why? Because it’s written for Romans.
Next we come to Luke, the doctor. Logical Luke writing a courtroom drama with
all the arguments logically flowing from one to the next. Luke was a Greek Christian and wrote his book
to whom? A gentile world outside the
umbrella of Abraham’s Promise. Luke
builds, block by block, the theology of Jesus Christ. Luke carefully details Jesus’ humanity and
His divinity. Luke is not writing to a
Jewish audience who knows full well the Promise given to Abraham but to to one
who needs to be shown the truth of the Messiah.
Luke is not writing to a powerful Roman culture that needs shock and awe
to get their attentions. Luke
essentially is writing to everyone else.
When you’re writing to everyone, you need to go slow and not miss any
points. You start on the ground floor,
and state your case one floor at a time.
When you reach the top floor, you reveal the truth of Jesus’
resurrection. Luke is simply telling the
world that God is God, and that Jesus is His Son. Luke explains that we all have sinned, but
that God loves us all. Luke shows that
through God’s love, Jesus was sacrificed and has overcome death. Luke tells the world about Jesus with a
patience and deliberateness that shows that he wants to make sure that, in the
end, nobody is confused about who Jesus is, and what Jesus has done.
Lastly, there’s John. John’s like the old Sesame Street game “One
of these things is not like the others. One
of these things just doesn't belong…Three of these things belong together. Three of these things are kind of the same.” There’s the three synoptic gospels – with
Matthew, Mark and Luke being card-carrying members. Lastly, there’s John. As I’ve said before, John, like the cheese,
stands alone. So the question is
simple: Why does John, like the cheese,
stand alone? Well we know that Matthew
is writing specifically to Jews. We know
that Mark is writing to Romans. We know
that Luke is writing to everyone else.
So who does that leave that John is writing to? The same people that Matthew, Mark, and Luke
were writing to. The Book of John was
the last to be written. If someone has
told a great story three time over, what do you do? You say, “Yeah, that was good and all, but
you didn’t tell the whole story, and you left out ALL THE OTHER STUFF!” That’s precisely what John did. He even throws his own disclaimer at the end
confirming this very notion. John 21:25 And there are also many other
things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that
even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written. John’s saying, “I know I didn’t get it
all, either, but I tried to get the best parts out there.” So John’s not synoptic - not because he’s
wrong…it’s because John is the original Paul Harvey.
Listen for the Whisper that sounds like
your high school English teacher. Mine
would be Mrs. Ginn, but feel free to substitute your own in your head. This whisper sounds like the teacher that had
you read some awful story and then asked you who the target audience was. It sounds like the teacher that asked you to
describe the setting of Ransom of Red Chief.
This Whisper is telling you that the Word of God is infallible and
perfect. This Whisper is also telling
you that to help you understand it more fully, sometimes you need to look at
your Bible like an 11th Grade English assignment. Don’t just read it and memorize parts to be
able to pass a simple test. Put some
thought into what you’re reading. Why
does John’s account vary so much from the others? Why does “Savoy Truffle” sound like a Willy
Wonka song? What is the setting at the
church at Corinth when Paul writes his first letter to them? These are important questions. Otherwise, you might think you have
discovered some profound insight only to realize later that Paul was actually
writing about his sheepdog.
~Dwayne
ListenForTheWhisper@comcast.nethttp://listenforthewhisper.blogspot.com
