A "massively talented boy-man with a gentle soul" is how Sir Paul McCartney summed up Michael Jackson. Everyone who has commented on the death of this sad man has made the point that while he was very talented he was also very troubled. Known as the ‘king of pop’ he was also labelled ‘Wacko Jacko’. Reputed to be a genius in regard to his music and dancing, and extremely shrewd as a performer and business man, he was also someone whose private life was strange in the extreme and whose behaviour was at times bizarre and unbalanced. What can we make of such a phenomenon?
The first thing we have to note is that to a large degree he was
an artificial creation of the celebrity culture which predominates
in our world. Perhaps nothing else in our world portrays the sheer
emptiness of our culture than the adulation and prominence given to
people who are described as celebrities. No doubt Michael Jackson
was good at what he did, but should he have attracted that much
attention? A man can sing, dance and entertain - so why should those
skills exalt him over a heart-surgeon or a caring mother? What is
the rationale of the celebrity culture? World leaders have commented
on the death of this man. Yet a godly preacher of the Gospel will
die and no-one will take any notice.
But what is the celebrity culture about? There is a group of
people - entertainers, sportsmen etc. - whose lives, doings and
thoughts fill our media and occupy the conversations of many people.
Much of what they are and do is all sham, but they are there in the
spotlights for everyone to see. And, apparently, they really matter.
So even Prime Ministers court them and seek to be seen with them.
They are a phenomenon of a culture that craves glamour and
excitement: A culture that seems to have little to look up to and so
these inventions of publicity men fill the focus. Of course, every
generation and culture has had heroes who have inspired them and who
they have sought to emulate. But ours is an empty culture, and so we
must create artificial people - and then destroy them by our
insatiable obsession with every detail of their lives. But what we
must notice is that these are the role models that so many young
people follow. And even Christian parents (to their eternal shame)
do not challenge the idolising of these artificial people.
This tells us something very serious. It highlights the awful
fact that there is a huge void in the lives of many people around
us. Entertainments and leisure are now huge industries and the focus
of life for so many people. These modern heroes, these celebrities,
fill a gap in the psyche of people who feel their own lives are so
meaningless and their own accomplishments so insignificant. This
surely confirms the analysis of the Bible which speaks about an
‘empty way of life’.
But let us think about Michael Jackson once again and especially the
nature of his music and dance. This is where he excelled. He sold so
many records, his concerts attracted such huge crowds, and he was
praised for what he did by almost everyone. “He broke new ground”,
they say. He was acclaimed as a genius. And if you accept the
validity of his ethos then perhaps these extravagant descriptions
are valid. But there is another perspective. Is the music wholesome
and true? Does the dance encourage modesty and self-control? If you
watch his videos will your heart be warmed by thoughts of goodness
and purity? Is the excellence a moral excellence that the Lord Jesus
would applaud?
There is an absolute and definitive criterion by which these
things should be assessed. It is laid down in the New Testament, in
Philippians 4:8. This is not optional for some religious people - it
is specifically addressed to them. But it is an expression of the
standards that God sets for men and women to order their thinking
by. Consider the categories - true, noble, right, pure, lovely,
admirable, excellent, praiseworthy. And these are not categories to
which we can put our own meaning. They draw their meaning from what
God has said and are unequivocal. By these standards Michael
Jackson’s brilliance has to be qualified. It is a brilliance in that
which is sordid and morally destructive. He is not alone in that,
but he is being claimed as exceptional and so we can put this
analysis on him.
But there is a third thing to notice about him. His life was one
of great sadness. He spoke about his own loneliness and longing for
love. And those themes came through in what he wrote and sang.
Driven cruelly by a dominating father he was robbed of his
childhood, and scarred dramatically for all the rest of his life.
That is what over-dominating and uncaring fathers can do - they can
ruin their children’s lives and emotional health. To read about
Michael Jackson’s life, to consider the confusion and chaos of his
relationships, and to examine the causes of his bizarre behaviour is
simply to see a wasted and damaged person. In so many ways he was a
living tragedy.
This last aspect is heartbreaking. That anyone’s life should end
up being so desperately false and meaningless should cause us to
grieve for them. His death is sad - as the death of anyone who
appears to have died without Christ. But his death has an added
poignancy and that is that his life is so acclaimed for all the
wrong reasons. If life is about what men may say about us then
perhaps we should follow Wacko Jacko. But if there are greater
issues to be faced then Michael Jackson alerts us to all the dangers
of our modern culture.
The Bible asks us this great question - what is your life? And the evaluation is not given by men or the media but by God. That should cause us all to stop and take notice of the sad death of a man whose life appears to have been merely empty, sordid and tragic. Christian and non-Christian alike must answer this question - What is your life?