In the Beatles Devotional Number 8 “Come Together”, I
talked about the Abbey Road Medley (and in about a hundred devotionals since
then, right?). That particular medley
ends the Abbey Road album with a song named “The End”. It’s not, technically, the last song on the
Abbey Road album. There’s a lost bonus
track “Her Majesty” that’s stuck at the end, but for all intents and purposes,
“The End” is the end of the album. It’s
mostly guitar and drum solos that sounds like a mini jam session as the Beatles
say their last goodbyes making music as a group. It’s sort of fitting, really. Their last recorded song is essentially a
bunch of solos. Maybe it was an
unintentional illustration of exactly why they were breaking up. After all the drum breaks and guitar solos,
at the end of “The End” Paul McCartney sings the line “And in the end, the love
you take is equal to the love you make.”
That’s a pretty appropriate ending if you ask me. I saw the statistic once that the Beatles
used the word “Love” 613 times in the totality of their songs. It’s not the most-used word. I found a website that had it all broken
down. “Love” is number eight on the list
of word frequency in Beatles songs. The
others on the list were some of the usual English Language suspects: “The”,
“And”, “To”, and “A” all occupying slots ahead of “Love”. Interestingly enough, the number one word
appearing in Beatles’ songs? Not the
pronouns me or I or my (even with George Harrison trying to skew the list with
“I Me Mine”), but the most-used word is “You”.
“Love” is number 8, and “You” is number 1. At the beginning of “The End” they harmonize
and repeat the phrase “Love You” no less than 24 times. If you’re wondering what the number 2 word on
their frequency list is, it’s the word “I”.
They say “you” more than they say “I”.
Someone once asked Jesus what the greatest commandment
was. He answered, “Love the Lord your
God with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength.” Without being prompted for a follow-up, Jesus
continued saying, “the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.” The plain and simple truth that Jesus said
summed up the Law and the Prophets was “Love God and Love others”. Love you, Love you, Love you, Love you. Love was sung 613 times, and you was sung 2,262
times. That’s a lot of Loves for a lot
of Yous.
Paul (the apostle) said in Romans 13:10, “Love does no
wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the Law.” Ozzy Osbourne said, “maybe it’s not too late
to learn how to love and forget how to hate.”
Paul (the Beatle) said, “Knowing that love is to share, Each one
believing that love never dies.” Jesus,
the Messiah and King of Kings said in John 13, “34 A new commandment I give
to you, that
you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 By this all
men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” Which immediately reminds me of Led Zeppelin
who sang, “Gotta Whole Lotta Love.”
“By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” “And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.” 1 John 4:8 “The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” John 14:15 “If you love Me, you will keep my commands.” SO it sounds like there’s a direct correlation between those who love others, those who love God and those who keep Jesus’ commandments. So maybe when it’s all said and done, if you really have accepted Jesus as Lord of your life, the love you take from Jesus should be equal to the love you make for others. Like a perfectly balanced equation or a stable inflow/outflow water system. The love that comes in should equal the love that goes out. I know that a lot of Christians say a lot of disparaging things about the Beatles, and some of it may be very justified. But it can’t be denied that the central message they tried to promote was a message of love. The 613 mentions wasn’t just an accident. The NASB version of the New Testament references love 215 times, just as a point of reference. Is the Beatles message of love better or more powerful that the New Testament’s message? Absolutely not! Not in any song nor in any reality did any Beatle ever offer to die in your place. Jesus not only offered it, He did it. An unblemished sacrifice offered as payment for your sins. In return He’s asked you to follow Him and to love God the Father with every aspect of your life. Then He’s asked you to love others if you’ve loved Him. So listen to some Beatles records – there’s only one bad word in all of their songs – so unless you have the “hidden meaning cheat sheet” handy, the random references there are will go largely unnoticed – not just by kids, but even adults. But what you’ll hear is the word “love” used 613 times. I realize in the essence of full disclosure that most of those references are a superficial “She Loves You, Yeah Yeah Yeah” type of reference, but loving others is the second greatest Commandment. Hearing The Beatles singing about love as much as they sang about love can’t be all bad.
So Listen for the Whisper that sounds a little like the Beatles song “The End” and sounds a little like John (the apostle) in John 13:1. “Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.” Jesus loved the world so much that He was willing to take on the world’s sin and die on a cross. And He loved to “the end.” “And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.” And in the end, Jesus made his love to be perfect love. Laying down His life for those He loved, and He didn’t just love those that liked Him or accepted Him. He died for his mother. He died for his disciples. He died for the thief that defended His honor. He died for the thief that mocked Him. He died for Pilate and Herod and Judas and Peter and Luke and Matthew and King David and King Saul and King Nebuchadnezzar and Abel and Cain and Adam and Eve and Abraham and Abraham Lincoln. He died for me. He died for you. He died for John, Paul, George and Ringo. John (the Beatle) sang in triple-tracked vocals, “Love is old, love is new. Love is all, love is you.” With Perfect Love Jesus died for everyone that was ever born or ever would be born. It’s like any other gift though, you can either accept it, or you can ask for the receipt and try to exchange it for something else. But you won’t find a better gift. The gift is perfect, like the love of His sacrifice was made perfect. All Jesus asks in return is a simple acceptance of His gift and then to love God and love others as He loves you (noting the present tense, not past tense – but that’s another devotional).
To end this Beatles devotional series with one last “Not
the apostle, the Beatle” type twist, I’ll say that this series ends much the
way John (the apostle) ends his Gospel.
In John 21:25, John closes his account with “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.” While that’s very likely not exaggeration for
John, it is for me. Although, that I
would like to point out that even though I’ve been able to draw a great many
Christian lessons through the course of this series, I’ve not even scratched
the surface of what I’ve debated doing.
I finally just stopped. They had
to end at some point, but the crux of the matter is that God is all around you
if you just take the time to see Him…or Listen.
There’s no greater joy that walking through your day, minding your own
business, and hearing God’s Whisper cutting through the noise. God is constantly trying to reach us, and
like a burning bush or a whisper in the night (“Samuel, Samuel”), He will use a
wide range of vehicles to deliver that message.
God gave Balaam’s donkey a voice to deliver the news of the
presence of The Angel of the LORD in Numbers 22. So really who’s to say or vehemently deny that,
with 613 love references, God used some not-so-subliminal reminders in the
Beatles albums as to what our job is as Christians. Look at the people around you – all of them –
and say “Love you.” As Christians, our
mantra should never be “judge you” or “ridicule you” or “exclude you” or “look
down on you.” It’s quite simply “love
you.”
~Dwayne
