Fix You (Matt 11:16-30)
Now I know it’s a big word but I want to help you understand the importance of "contextualising" the Gospel message. To accomplish this I am playing for you the 2005 Coldplay hit song “Fix You.” Then will tell you a story. I will bring this to relevance with today’s readings.
“Fix You” is a nice song for some and others peculiar, even odd I guess. But in 2005 our daughter Paula suffered bouts of terrible headaches, migraines; stress about up-coming examinations said one doctor. I remember well a November morning standing in the courtyard at work talking to the boss and his son when the phone call came through.
Our girl had been unable to sleep with these head pains and Shelley finally took her to A&E. The doctors pumped her full of pain relief but to no avail, then relenting, took her for a CT scan. There they found a unexpected mass the size of a tennis ball in the back of her head. I remember Shelley’s words over the phone, vividly, as we enjoyed the morning sun outside my workplace when she said, “It’s a brain tumour.”
My boss and his son, my friends, knew we were having trouble with our daughter’s health - earlier in the year they had lost one of their own to cancer. “It’s a brain tumour,” I relayed to them and without hesitation I was told, “Take the car, take the fuel card, go for as long as you need.” Prior to that day we had control of our lives and were dependant on no one.
A strange mix of emotions wafted around me, shock yes, panic no, wonder yes, reality no. I remember standing in front of our church for the first time in my life asking for help, financially and prayerfully, but feeling proud and not humbled as I thought one should feel. We were all mixed up and being taken on a journey we did not choose. We rode a rollercoaster of emotions as we hurried up to appointments and waited in hospital corridors for hours.
I remember waiting for the outcome of the operation to remove the “tennis ball” which to us was a ferocious octopus with tentacles reaching into her delicate brain stem. The surgeon had to remove half the cerebellum (back bulge in the head) and scraped the tentacle walls to the ‘nth degree to bring it into the realms of radio treatable.
I remember the faith we had in her being in the best of hands but we prayed vigorously. In recovery we found ourselves with a handicapped girl so in need of support, unable to see straight, unable to feed herself, unable to walk or toilet alone. We did not know what future she had in store but in the midst of all this on the radio played this song “Fix You.”
Context is that part of a text or statement that surrounds a particular word or passage and determines its meaning - the circumstances or setting in which an event occurs. A song is just a collection of words that meant something to the writer and may just sound nice to the hearer because of attached notes of various instruments. Some may feel like dancing to it while others turn the station over to something classical or more joyful.
To us the Coldplay's “Fix You” captured our moment. This plaintive voice understood something we also understood about love; it’s the pain of knowing something isn’t right and wanting to make it all go away.
This song deals with true love, helping someone in a time of need, and learning from your mistakes.
Coldplay lead singer Chris Martin hasn't spoken about the specific inspiration for the song, but it could be directed to his wife, Gwyneth Paltrow, who was dealing with the death of her father in 2002. In USA Today, Martin did say where the song started:
"My father-in-law Bruce Paltrow bought this big keyboard just before he died. No one had ever plugged it in. I plugged it in, and there was this incredible sound I'd never heard before. All these songs poured out from this one sound. Something has to inspire you, and something else takes over. It's very cloudy.
The song debuted on the show “The O.C.” in season 2 episode 23 called "The O Sea." It is featured in a montage of Seth and Summer dancing at the O Sea dance, Caleb dying, and Kirsten learning of her father's death and taking a bottle of vodka to bed.
Matthew’s Gospel reports that Jesus is equally contextualising the reception of His message to the people of the day, 1st century Jews around the Sea of Galilee, who just aren’t getting it. Searching for a metaphor for this generation Jesus says,
It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their companions, and saying, “we played the flute for you and you did not dance; we mourned to you and you did not lament.”
It is as though the Jews did not understand the song, they came in their droves to be healed and to be fed but they were there with untouched hearts; hearts that were critical and judgemental of the words surrounding the actions. They were just going through the motions, going to the magician for a quick thrill without connecting to the person of Jesus the Son of God, Messiah. They were following Jesus for the wrong reasons and because of this Jesus makes a prediction that the outcome of this view was a poor harvest. And because of this Jesus prays to the children’s Father on their behalf.
The day before our daughter’s diagnosis of brain tumours and malignant cancer happened to someone else, the boss and his family or whoever, there was no context in our little world. I think maybe Jesus was speaking about this context when he prayed;
I thank you Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in your sight.
The days before the diagnosis my eyes were veiled and in the days after my eyes became unveiled. Hidden from my eyes was the context in Coldplay’s song “Fix you;” it was just another song played in the distance on the radio. Today when I hear the song I remember the heart ache and the pain of having someone so close and so near lost tears still well up in my eyes. Today I understand the grief.
Jesus understood the context of His coming was to the lost, the eternally damned; children who walked about in the marketplace. Jesus knew the context of heaven and hell applied to these on the earth. Jesus knew stuff we can only slimly grasp when he said,
Come to me to Me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
Jesus was saying that he has been where you are at your lowest, in fact he would be even lower in days to come when he went to the cross for us. Jesus was speaking the truth to those of us who have connected in the same yoke and walked along-side of him on this journey of life. Just as two oxen know the load is halved when they pull together so too we who have given up being staunch; trying to pull the load alone know the truth of those final words and love bond with Jesus as he said,
For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.
Jesus knew there was something terribly wrong with that generation, that the love of God’s own children had grown cold and the outcome, the reward, the harvest would fail. Jesus had come to turn it all around; to help them become not just warm but hot towards God their Father before it was too late. We look back on his words and the sacrifice of the cross and it all comes into context; the love which infects our heart towards God our Father is exemplified by the horrors of the crucifixion event.
How could they understand? As yet it had not been revealed to them, but on that day, when Jesus died for us, we came to know the yoke that did in fact “Fix You.” We also know that the message of Christ’s sacrifice for us must be equally contextualised for those in this and the next generation. This is why church must be different for today's generation while the Gospel still remains the same.
Many would diminish what God has said and has done. But when your eyes have been unveiled and you have a context you can then understand its meaning. Jesus came and comes still to a generation who will not dance to the piper, who will not mourn their own death. Humbling himself Jesus took the cross on our behalf that we might look, and in looking have our eyes unveiled to see, what is the depth and breadth of his love for us who were lost in sin. Jesus came to “Fix You.”
Let us listen again this time in the context of our daughter and Christ to Chris Martin singing this song. Maybe something will inspire you, and this time maybe something else will take over. It can at times be very cloudy in context.
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