Our Answer to “Imagine”
As I stood at the back of the funeral parlor, ready to step forward, the director tapped me on the shoulder to say, “We have one more music piece to play before you go to the front.”
“Great,” I said, “Thank you.”
But imagine my astonishment when the first five notes sounded from the speaker system. I immediately whirled around to look at the funeral director, assuming that there had been some mistake. But with a sheepish look, he merely shrugged his shoulders. So, just before I stepped up to speak at the funeral of a professing believer, I had to endure the playing of John Lennon’s “Imagine.” The opening words are “Imagine there’s no heaven!”
As I listened, I thought, “I can’t take this lying down. For the sake of the people here, I have to say something about this.” I began to pray that the Lord would give me wisdom about what to say about this choice of music for a funeral.
As you probably know that piece has shocked the people at a funeral once again. This time it was at the state funeral for President Jimmy Carter in the National Cathedral on Thursday, January 9, 2025. Two music stars played and sang the piece as the introduction to the message, and, by all accounts, this was the specific request of Jimmy Carter, a professing believer!
First aired in 1971, the piece was written by John Lennon and Yoko Ono. As you are reading this, perhaps you are wondering why the playing of this piece at these two funerals shocked anyone. What’s the problem?
Both funerals were purportedly Christian, embracing the Scriptural teaching about Christ’s finished work: His death, burial and resurrection. But here are the first and second verses of Lennon’s “Imagine.”
Imagine there’s no heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people living for todayImagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people living life in peace, youImagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people sharing all the world, youYou may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope some day you’ll join us
And the world will be as one1
So how should a Christian respond to these “imaginings?” What would you say if someone played that at a funeral, right before you were supposed to speak?
About halfway through my message from John chapter 14, I brought up the question. (Suddenly, everyone in the room was very attentive!)
I said, “Perhaps you are like me and grew up listening to John Lennon’s “Imagine.” (Many nodded in agreement.)
“But you have a basic question to ask, and you can pose the question from John 14,” I continued.
“Jesus Christ said,
‘Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.’” (John 14:1-3)
Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, proclaimed the way to overcome your fears about eternity, so don’t let your heart be troubled. You say that you have placed your faith in God; if so, it’s important to place your trust in Jesus Christ. Jesus comforted His disciples (who were about to face the extreme crisis of His “passion:” His horrible death, burial and bodily resurrection).2 To comfort and encourage them, Jesus used phrases that they had all heard at engagement ceremonies. In their culture, the engagement for marriage was a formal ceremony during which the man would officially propose to the woman in the presence of her family and friends:
“I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”
Why do we believe that there is a Heaven? It’s because Jesus Christ said so. He is preparing a place for believers to be with Him for all eternity.
Jesus said, “If it were not so, I would have told you!”
Jesus said something else that we can use to directly answer John Lennon’s imaginings. He said, simply, “If it were not so, I would have told you.”
That’s how simple faith in Jesus Christ really is. He told you; believe Him. What He said is so. If it were not so, He would have told you. Lennon wants you to imagine that there is “no hell below us / above us only sky” (a comment I hope to address in a future post. But that raises the question: What did Jesus Christ die for? Did His sacrifice of Himself mean nothing, because there is no Hell nor Heaven?
“So,” I said to those gathered for the funeral, “you have a basic choice to make. Will you trust the imaginings of John Lennon or the words of Jesus Christ? I want to encourage you to place your trust in the words of Jesus. And it’s just this simple: if it were not so, He would have told you.
Here is just one thought to ponder today: Jesus said, “If it were not so, I would have told you!”
Now which will you choose?
After a lengthy pastoral ministry, Gordon Dickson now serves as a writer and conference speaker. You can contact him at LiveServeLead.
Photo by Iñaki del Olmo on Unsplash
- https://genius.com/John-lennon-imagine-lyrics [↩]
- The term “passion” is the term that Luke used in Acts 1:3 to describe the intense persecution Christ experienced. [↩]