Romans 1:28
On December 8, John Lennon was murdered. That caused a considerable reaction in many people in the U.S. and throughout the world. The major networks devoted much time to him and his past life on the evening following his death. One person stated that no other event had so much coverage since the murder of President Kennedy. Much of the world went into a state of mourning for John Lennon. The DJs filled the air with his music; people spent a time in silence for him; huge crowds gathered in various places in the world. Much has been said and written about him, and we can be sure that much more will be written in the future.
John Lennon lived for 40 years. He had a tremendous influence upon millions of people. One news reporter said, “he had a profound effect on many lives.” So John Lennon, having lived his life, leaves us with a legacy. He has given something to the world. He has influenced and changed the world. The question that needs to be asked is: what did he leave us? Was he a good influence?
After his death , many tributes were heard from around the world. They were all positive, respectful words. A Catholic priest in England called him a “man of peace.” He was extolled by others for his humanitarian good. We heard about his great contribution to the world of music and his talents as a song writer. We were told that his death was a great loss. Many other things were said about him.
I find the legacy of John Lennon to be quite different from what we heard on TV and the radio. These were nice words that people spoke, a sort of stereotype response to the death of a famous person, but they are words that are not true. John Lennon was far from being a man of peace and a great humanitarian. He was a man with a depraved mind (Romans 1:28), an ungodly person who turned the grace of God into licentiousness (Jude 3, 4), and who reviled the things which he did not understand (Jude 10), to use some quotes from the Bible.
John Lennon stated “Christianity will go. We are more popular than Jesus now” (Newsweek, March 21, 1966). In his book A Spaniard in the Words, Lennon subtly presents Jesus as a “garlic eating, stinking little yellow, greasy fascist bastard Catholic Spaniard.” Time magazine on Sept. 22, 1967 pointed out that Lennon and the other three Beatles admitted taking LSD, and they were pressing the British government to legalize marijuana. In 1968, John Lennon and the Beatles switched from drugs to mysticism. The morals of the Beatles is seen in the fact that 3 of the 4 were forced by their excesses to get married, and the affair of Lennon and Yoko Ono has been glorified in nearly every major periodical. John and Yoko, among other activities, posed for nude photographs that provided the jacket for the Beatle-produced album “The Two Virgins.” After that episode of posing in the nude, and the pregnancy and miscarriage of Yoko, they finally decided to unite officially in a three minute marriage ceremony. John Lennon said, “We do not believe in marriage, but we thought we would try it out.” Several Beatle songs praise the use of drugs even suggesting the fantasy escapism of psychedelic drugs, and John Lennon was the one who composed most of their songs. John’s first wife, Cynthia, admitted that John beat her. He was also known as the cruelest Beatle. John Lennon is quoted as saying, “I do not care if the government is all Fascist or Communist. I have seen England and the U.S. and I do not care for either of their governments.” Various revolutionary songs arose out of this mentality. According to these documented reports, the legacy of John Lennon is one of violence, crime, sex, drugs, and revolution. These ideas, he has implanted into the minds and lives of millions of people. That sounds more like depravity than humanitarian good.
For many Americans, and for many people in the world, John Lennon was a god. That may sound like strong language, and it is strong language, but it must be said, and its truth can be established. One news reporter said at the time of his death, that the world was mad about the fact that he was killed. He went on to say that no one had affected the lives of people as much as John Lennon. He taught them to grow long hair, and he influenced the way they lived. People would stand outside his house just to see him as he left and returned. Others went hysterical at his concerts. A teenage girl told Bob Larson, a former rock & roll player, “If I must choose between God and rock & roll, I choose rock & roll. When I am depressed and feel blue, I just go to my room, close the door, and turn on a wild record. Immediately, I am lifted from my despondency.” Again, Bob Larson says, “In my school assembly lectures I have noted that I could tear up my draft card, mock the flag, or curse God, and some teenagers would say nothing. But if I dare to make one derogatory statement about the Beatles, the Stones, or the Monkeys, they want to take issue with me.”
This speaks to me about a god which people have set up for their lives. The God of the Bible says, “You are to have no other god before me.” He says, “you are to love me with all your being.” When people exalt a person, as they did John Lennon, and worship him, and put his music first in their lives, and pattern their life-style after him, he has become a god to them. Has this happened to you? What we see in John Lennon is what we are seeing throughout our society, namely, people are making gods out of other people. There are the gods of the sports world, medical world, entertainment world, political world, etc. People look for heroes and pattern their lives after them. This is the kind of paganism we have in our country and world today. You ought to seriously consider what and who is influencing your life and your values.
If John Lennon was a god, he was a god of the realm of darkness and the lie. What John Lennon lived and taught was a lie about life. Over against this, the Bible presents Jesus Christ as the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He is the one by whom we come to God. He shows us true virtue and how life was meant to be lived. Jesus would never lead people into sex, drugs, revolution and violence. While John Lennon was supposedly setting forth universal love, he was in fact setting forth universal hate because be did not understand true love. His love was selfish while God‘s love is self–giving. If you want the right example and teacher for your life, I invite you to follow Jesus and get rid of these other gods.
Jesus Christ also left a legacy for this world. Jesus was sent to this world by God the Father to earn redemption for the world. He lived a sin–free life; and He covered our debt with God by paying for it when He died on the cross. He, then, gives His Holy Spirit to live in us, who works to make us into the image of Jesus. The Holy Spirit also enables us to understand life as it is meant to be lived, working for true peace and the good of others. This example has been followed by many over the centuries making this world a better place—an influence which is rapidly declining today. This legacy of Jesus is far to be preferred over any other, and I would hope that you would receive it and continue in it.
John Lennon is dead. His memory and influence will live on, unfortunately. For John Lennon, it is all over. He lived his life and when he died, he had to face the God whom he denied and blasphemed. He will have no second chance. He has received his reward.
Norman B. Haan is pastor of the First Christian Reformed Church of Waupun. Wisconsin. He sent us this radio talk dated December 28, 1980.