Imagine. Really?
On March 19, Gal Gadot (a.k.a. Wonder Woman) posted an Instagram video montage in which she and 25 celebrity friends each sang (to be honest, poorly) a line from John Lennon’s Imagine.
I’m not sure what they were thinking… but during this difficult season, we should be willing to cut most people some slack.
The response and reviews to what seemed like another narcissistic celebrity offering were pretty brutal, and I have no intention of piling on.
I bring the performance up for entirely different reasons. To me, this is a worldview issue.
A worldview is the lens through which people view, interpret, and respond to life and to others. There is no escaping the fact that a Christian worldview will clash with the more popular and prevailing thought process of the day.
“I bring the performance up for entirely different reasons. To me, this is a worldview issue.”
I just preached from the text in I Corinthians 3:10-11: “Like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it, for no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”
Paul was emphasizing the importance of enduring foundations and of our need to pay attention to how we’re adding to them.
The foundation of the Christian worldview is also important from the standpoint of the comfort that it communicates. It’s fashionable for some to bash the sentiment of our thoughts and prayers are with you. People dismiss this as not providing anything substantial to address real needs.
Personally, I find that there’s nothing more comforting (not to mention humbling) than knowing that people are praying for you in your time of need.
I guess there is another worldview that suggests that a group of celebrities singing Imagine is supposed to communicate emotional solidarity among people during a global pandemic.
Comfort is a serious business. Consider the poignant depth of God’s appeal through the prophet Isaiah, “Comfort, yes, comfort My people! Speak comfortably to Jerusalem and cry out to her” (Isaiah 40:1).
God reveals Himself as the “God of all comfort.” He is the only true source for this much needed commodity of life. This is why Paul exhorts us to seek to comfort one another with the comfort by which each of us have been comforted by God.
My question is this: Does the song Imagine communicate any kind of real comfort to people?
The melody may not be that bad; it might even work on a blind audition of The Voice.
Lyrically, though, it’s probably one of the dumbest and worst songs ever.
It is promoting not only an idiotic, but an evil ethos. When you pay attention to the actual lyrics (which most of us don’t) you find it espouses a deeply flawed vision of the world and idea of morality.
So, maybe we should do a deep dive into this song and find out if it is or is not pandemic-worthy.
“Imagine there’s no heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us, only sky
Imagine all the people
Livin’ for today
Ah
Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion, too
Imagine all the people
Livin’ life in peace
You
You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will be as one
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world
You
You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will live as one”
The song says: Imagine there’s no heaven; it’s easy if you try.
Yes, imagine that there’s absolutely nothing to look forward to; that this short span on earth is all there is. That means your relationships, your career, your sacrifices, and your dreams have no value whatsoever beyond the grave. Since heaven is the dwelling place of God, then the implied meaning is you’re wasting your time if you believe in God.
Then, No hell below us, above us only sky. There’s no downward trajectory to life; the only direction is upward, and that doesn’t pass beyond the troposphere or stratosphere.
Granted, hell or eternal punishment is not people’s favorite subject. So let’s imagine there’s no ultimate accounting. This means that that there’s no hope that wrongs will every be made right. There’s slim hope that injustices will ever be answered beyond the feeble and flawed attempts that people make to right them.
“Since heaven is the dwelling place of God, then the implied meaning is you’re wasting your time if you believe in God.”
Plus, if there’s no heaven or hell, who’s to say what’s right or wrong?
In John Lennon’s world just imagine a world where moral autonomy is the promised paradise.
If you’re still in the mood, Imagine all the people living for today. Talk about being in the moment, the philosophy of only living for today carries no vision of a better tomorrow and is the death knell of progress – not to mention that it enshrines selfishness as the motivating guide of life.
Then, Imagine there’s no countries; It isn’t hard to do. There’s a little bit of irony here, since Gal Gadot and friends are singing this while every country is locking down its borders in response to a global pandemic. But, hey: Go ahead and imagine.
But… it gets better: Nothing to kill or die for. Obviously, murder is a great sin against God, but you’re singing to me that there’s no such thing as a cause worth sacrificing for, either. Whether it’s caring for the sick, the torture of children, the trafficking of women for profit, the horrors of the Holocaust – none of these or so many others are worth fighting for?
Then one croons And no religion, too. Granted, there are some religions far superior by reason of their content, their construct, and their consequences. But no religion? When John Lennon wrote these words, that century had seen well over one hundred million lives snuffed out by the godless, atheistic, ideology of communism. In his song, though, religion is the real problem.
Let’s keep going. Imagine all the people living life in peace. You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one; I hope someday you’ll join us, and the world will be as one.
Peace is a good thing, especially when it is peace built on solid, moral foundations. However, in recorded history, the world has known only 286 years of peace, where there were no wars.
“Simple question: Why then do we have a police force – or would you feel safer without them?”
I’m sort of on David’s side: “I am for peace; but when I speak, they are for war” (Psalm 120:7).
For the world to be one and know uninterrupted peace, it will take a lot more than a song or a slogan like “Give peace a chance.”
To believe this, you must assume that people are infinitely good and that it’s only tyrannical systems that are responsible for evil, making people act the way they do.
Simple question: Why then do we have a police force – or would you feel safer without them?
Governing authorities are necessary because there are criminals and evil people who prey on the weak and vulnerable, and who will trample others to get what they want.
The same basic principle applies on a global scale as well. The only thing John Lennon was right about – although having denied God, he’s never going to see it, no matter how hard he imagines – is that there is coming a Day when the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ will establish His rule on earth, and then peace will be secured.
To continue: Imagine no possessions; I wonder if you can; No need for greed or hunger; A brotherhood of man. This sentiment reads like something straight out of the Communist Manifesto.
It’s astonishing that many who decry the evils of capitalism and who seek to promote a socialist vision are by and large those who are financially self-sufficient.
It’s always easier to talk about other people’s money than to do the hard work to earn your own. It’s also easy to dictate how others should live as long as you are not affected by that lifestyle.
The irony of this much-referenced Instagram video is that all of the celebrities singing Imagine no possessions are people of substantial means.
Marxism basically plays to human envy set in a political diatribe. It’s very commonplace to find politicians calling out the evil rich, but if you look at their tax returns you will find that they themselves are some of the least generous people.
To add one more nail to this coffin: A brotherhood of man. This does touch a truth in that we do have a moral and spiritual God-given responsibility to our fellow man.
But the brotherhood of man has never truly existed for all men. It’s only possible for those who acknowledge the fatherhood of God.
You may say I’m a dreamer, John Lennon said. Yes, John, I think you are. I think you may also be delusional, and that’s far more serious – when I consider these lyrics and the kind of world you are espousing.
This is not to single out John Lennon. I grew up on The Beatles. I was there along with the millions, in front of our old TV set, when the Ed Sullivan Show introduced them to America.
The problem with Imagine (and with all such human Utopias) is that, in the end that is all they are: imaginary – if not downright deadly.
“I’m not just talking about making our way back to the Garden, but about something infinitely better.”
It is not all bad, though. Whether the originators or others realize it, they are giving voice to one of the deepest longings of the human heart. The longing put there by God: a desire for a better place; a world made new.
I’m not just talking about making our way back to the Garden, but about something infinitely better.
The Bible begins in a garden, but it ends in a City. The city that has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. That’s why the Gospel is such Good News.
Jesus Christ came preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom. Through His death and resurrection, He promised and purchased a hope for the future. It’s a future that is personal (it involves you), one that is certain (not once upon a time), and a future that is unimaginably wonderful.
Just think for a moment about some of the Bible’s closing words in Revelation 21:1-5: “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.’ And he who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’ Also he said, ‘Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.’”
Human imagination is such a wonderful, often untapped tool. If you’re going to imagine, I would recommend that you try to imagine this!
C.S. Lewis was on target when he wrote in his book Mere Christianity: “If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.”
Can anyone say, “Amen!”?
Now, if we’re looking for a comforting song during a pandemic: