This has nothing to do with the music; but take 5 minutes and watch this video of Mo Sabri, a young Muslim guy who raps about his belief in Jesus:
(Feed readers can watch it on YouTube here.)
A few things to notice, and a few questions we need to think over:
- That’s not a bible verse that opens the video. Did you catch it?
- Do you agree or disagree with lyrics like: “The son of a virgin, they say it is illogical/probably improbable, but God made it possible/Gabriel told Mary that her son would be phenomenal/He was a walking hospital, with heathen he was compassionate/He healed the sick, raised the dead. Shout out to Lazarus/I’m talkin’ about Jesus of Nazareth”? What does this indicate to you?
- What’s the main message? I would say it’s that Muslims believe in Jesus too. But I think there’s an even greater push…that Muslims like this are the true followers of Jesus. Do you feel that during the song?
- How would you respond to Mo if he was your friend and brought up these thoughts to you in a conversation?
A key thought for me in thinking through things like this is what Paul said to the Corinthian church: “For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted–you may well put up with it!” (2 Cor 11:4) .
In other words, people can talk about Jesus but actually not be talking about the One we worship. And they might even seem to get really close (“Shout out to Lazarus!”). And they might be nice and reasonable. It can happen. It does happen. (Incidentally, read 2 Corinthians 11:13-14 to see why Paul isn’t at all freaked out by this fact.)
But all this means we must know who the Jesus we worship really is. Is He, in essence, just a nice guy who had miraculous powers and taught us to love each other? If we just do those things, are we following Him? Is that what He was after?
Our Monday night studies in the Trinitarian nature of God are key for all this, by the way…