What If God Was One of Us
Last night I was watching a portion of the top 100 songs of the 90's on VH1. It was pretty interesting how many of the songs I had never heard of before. Being that I didn't have cable or listen to "secular" songs for most of the 90's, it is clear that I had some Michael Strahan-like gaps in my musical teeth from that era.
One song that I was familiar with was Joan Osborne's "One of Us" which was written by Eric Bazilian from the Philly-based band The Hooters (not the restaurant!). By the year 2000, I had escape from my cultural isolation and went to see Joan Osborne play at the Chameleon among other artists from 2000 on. It was a good show.
There is much in the song that moves me musically and lyrically. While I will never agree that Jesus is a "slob like one us," the Scriptures clearly teach that Jesus became "Sin for us." (2 Cor 5:21).This is not to say that Jesus became a sinner, though (crucial clarification). I find it interesting that the song seems to be asking a question that Jesus already answered by coming, living, dying, and being raised. He was truly in his humanity "one of us." In his humanity and deity, he was sinless. Let us not diminish Jesus's suffering. He was not just sitting on the bus trying to find his way home. It was much more serious than that...
I found this poem on the web:
I simply argue that the cross be raised again
at the center of the market place
as well as on the steeple of the church,
I am recovering the claim that
Jesus was not crucified in a cathedral
between two candles:
But on a cross between two thieves;
on a town garbage heap;
at a crossroad of politics so cosmopolitan
that they had to write His title
in Hebrew and in Latin and in Greek . . .
And at the kind of place where cynics talk smut,
and thieves curse and soldiers gamble.
Because that is where He died,
and that is what He died about.
And that is where Christ’s people ought to be,
and what Church people ought to be about.
One song that I was familiar with was Joan Osborne's "One of Us" which was written by Eric Bazilian from the Philly-based band The Hooters (not the restaurant!). By the year 2000, I had escape from my cultural isolation and went to see Joan Osborne play at the Chameleon among other artists from 2000 on. It was a good show.
There is much in the song that moves me musically and lyrically. While I will never agree that Jesus is a "slob like one us," the Scriptures clearly teach that Jesus became "Sin for us." (2 Cor 5:21).This is not to say that Jesus became a sinner, though (crucial clarification). I find it interesting that the song seems to be asking a question that Jesus already answered by coming, living, dying, and being raised. He was truly in his humanity "one of us." In his humanity and deity, he was sinless. Let us not diminish Jesus's suffering. He was not just sitting on the bus trying to find his way home. It was much more serious than that...
I found this poem on the web:
I simply argue that the cross be raised again
at the center of the market place
as well as on the steeple of the church,
I am recovering the claim that
Jesus was not crucified in a cathedral
between two candles:
But on a cross between two thieves;
on a town garbage heap;
at a crossroad of politics so cosmopolitan
that they had to write His title
in Hebrew and in Latin and in Greek . . .
And at the kind of place where cynics talk smut,
and thieves curse and soldiers gamble.
Because that is where He died,
and that is what He died about.
And that is where Christ’s people ought to be,
and what Church people ought to be about.
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