I will never forget the first time my mother heard the 1976 power ballad “Beth.” I was around 15 when I rediscovered it and because it wasn’t a typical rock song, I thought she might like it as well. It wasn’t an easy sell. Despite my telling her that this song was not the head banging hair metal I was into at the time, she was all too familiar with my taste in music and she was less than thrilled about getting roped into listening to some song, but as she took in the orchestral arrangement and the gentle lyrics, she couldn’t help wondering who recorded it.
“Well mom, it’s KISS,” I told her.
She didn’t believe me. “That can’t be KISS! I’ve seen those freaks and that god-awful makeup they wear and there is no way that’s one of their songs!” (I don’t know why their musical range was limited by their stage image in her mind, but that was my mom for you. Don’t try and figure it out.)
The point is, you can’t judge a song by a band or a band by a song and when you stop to think about it, the Gospel writers spend a phenomenal amount of time making the case for who Jesus was and dispelling who the community thought He wasn’t.
Over the course of four books, Jesus amasses a lot of monikers throughout his public ministry. His fans and followers who think that He is something special call him a prophet, a teacher (or rabbi), Lord, Master, Messiah and Christ; while those who are skeptical call him everything from a simple carpenter’s son to the semi-insulting “Mary’s son” (as a nod to His supposed illegitimacy) and of course, “The King of the Jews.” Believe me; that last label was not intended to be a compliment when it was immortalized in writing.
While there were those who were open to His message and willing to listen to what he had to say, there were others who pigeonholed Him the way my mom misjudged the song “Beth.” He couldn’t be the Messiah because he didn’t fit into the pre-established role. He could turn every drop of water into wine, multiply every loaf of bread in the-tri county area and heal any number of conditions, but there would be those who simply shook their heads and said “Nice try, but I’ve been fooled before and I won’t get fooled again.”
Like Jesus, we experience the same type of thing throughout our lives. There are those who limit their definition of us based on what they think they know and others who are willing to see that we are so much more. Despite her early hatred of KISS, my mom eventually amended her opinion of the band after hearing that Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley were highly intelligent, clean living musicians who belied their unusual stage image with their business acumen and philanthropic efforts; and there were those who came around to seeing Jesus for what He was simply by listening to the message behind the man. Perhaps fewer people in our own lives will try to label us if we stop trying to fit into a pre-defined role. After all, a label is not a definition as a general rule it is the myriad of definitions that render labels so versatile.
So tell me, who are you? I really want to know.
Today’s readings for Mass: JER 11:18-20; PS 7:2-3, 9BC-10, 11-12; JN 7:40-53
