Wednesday, March 7, 2012

“CAN WE GLEAN THEOLOGY FROM KOLAVERI DI, DA?”


-Duke Jeyaraj

Most Watched Youtube song in India


The song, “Why This Kolaveri Di…” is the most watched Indian song ever uploaded on Youtube.com. This song has become the heart anthem of the Google Generation. Paul quoted from a secular poet to drive home a Biblical truth in his Gospel presentation in Athens (Acts 17:28). If that can be done, it won’t be a bad idea to glean theology from the hugely popular, “Kolaveri Di” song.

Holy Vs Holey!

This song is about the extreme anger that a girl showed her boyfriend (‘kolaveri’ in Tamil means murderous rage). Only God has the right to exhibit a rage that could kill anybody – no one else has this right. This is because, only God is holy. And the rest of us are “holey” – full of holes, full of sin (Rom 3:23). Paul talks about this extreme anger of God in Romans 1 - “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth” (Rom 1:18). In the Bible we read about how God righteously expressed this anger on certain individuals to kill them instantly. The sons of Eli, the priest, who slept with young women who served in the temple were struck down by God through circumstances (I Sam 2:22-25). I will say this even though it will not be a popular thing to say - God can show ‘kolaveri’ on each one of us. But he does not do so. Instead, he gives us opportunities to repent and return to him. If the Lord would kept record of our sins, none of us could stand before him alive (Psa 130:3). This great grace encourages us to return to God without delay. And God would be absolutely justified in striking any of us still stubbornly playing around with sin, dead in his holy ‘kolaveri’.


Only a white girl’s heart is dark?



Dhanush goes on to sing these lines in this ‘hit’ song: “White skin-u girl-u girl-u/ Girl-u heart-u black-u/ Eyes-u eyes-u meet-u meet-u/ My future dark.” These lines reveal the hurt of the boy who has been ditched in love by a “white girl” with a “black heart.” Did you know that the Bible teaches each one of us have “black heart” (and not just girls with white skin)? Prophet Jeremiah wrote, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jer 17:9). In other words what Jeremiah was recording here was this: everyone heart is blackened by sin! And the good news is this: though our sins like scarlet (or shall we saw black as soot!), they can become as white as snow (Isa 1:18). This can happen when those confessed sins come under the cleansing blood of Jesus, the Bible teaches (I John 1:7-9).


Alcohol consumption, the solution?




Dhanush, in yet another paragraph of this song, seems to suggest that he thinks that drowning himself in alcohol would enable him to handle his hard-to-handle love-break-up with this pretty white girl. It is in this context that he talks about a ‘Scotch’ whisky bottle in his hand and ‘tears’ in the eyes, in this song! ‘When you are depressed, get drunk’ – this is what the World teaches. But what does the Word teach? This: Almighty’s presence – not alcohol intake – is the solution for depression. Bible prophet Elijah who wanted an early end to his life when he was depressed, discovered this. His first destination was God’s mountain – the very presence of God – after his bout of depression (I Kings 19:8). When things go wrong in our lives, we must run to God’s presence through the discipline of intense, intimate prayer. God’s presence is an antidote for depression for no one can love us and accept us like God. If God had a purse, your picture will be on it! If God drove a car, your name will be on that car’s bumper! If God had a fridge, your photo would be stuck onto it! You are inscribed in the palm of his hands! You are the apple of his eye! (Thanks to Max Lucado for planting those last few sentences in my heart!).

The Bible makes it clear that alcohol consumption is never the solution for anything. The Bible teaches, “It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, or for rulers to take strong drink lest they drink and forget what has been decreed and pervert the rights of all the afflicted” (Pro 31:4-5). The word “lemuel” in the Hebrew, the language the most of the Old Testament was written in, meant “devoted to God.” So here is the message of that just-quoted Bible passage: those devoted to God will not consume alcohol and those who do so will be poor leaders and deplorable examples of Christian living.

Your future cannot be dark, when…

Dhanush, in the “Kolaveri” song confesses, “My future dark-u…” He thinks this way because his relationship with the girl he really was in love, head over heels with, was now abruptly broken, with her walking out of his life, all of a sudden. But for a believer in Christ, the future will never be dark for he has the Word of God which the lamp unto his feet (Psa 119:105). A person who spends unhurried time with the Bible with an open mind and a teachable spirit will never grope in the dark. The Bible says, “the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day” (Prov 4:18). Through a living relationship with Christ we inherit the free gift of righteousness (Rom 5:17). When our relationship with Christ gets deeper and more intimate, darkness (which is symbolic of sin) will be nowhere in sight and a day will come when we will be in the very presence of God who dwells in approachable light, forever and forever (I Tim 6:16)!

“Sex, with the girl of my dreams will…”

“Empty life-u/ Girl-u come-u/ Life-u reverse gear-u” – those are lines from the mouth of Dhanush in the song, “Kolaveri.” What he says here is this: he thought his empty life would be filled by the beautiful girl he had fallen in love with; but what happened was just the ‘reverse’ – he became even more empty after this beautiful girl came into his life! Dhanush’s honest confession here sort of agrees with a truth that the Bible talks about through an real life story – the real life story of Amnon. Amnon thought sex with the girl of his dreams would fill the emptiness in his life. He just had that. He raped Tamar, his half-sister. And what happened after that was this: he felt so empty that he asked the girl he had sex with to get out of his sight! Sex with the girl of his dreams left him feeling emptier than he was, when he first met her! (Read 2 Samuel 13). But the goodnews is that a relationship with Jesus (who said, “I have come that you may have life – life to the full!” – Jn 10:10) is the only way to plug empty feeling or the vacuum in the heart. Jesus alone qualifies to plug that emptiness because he never ever sinned. Jesus knew no sin, the Bible records (2 Cor 5:21). Even his worst enemies, the Pharisees, were mum, when he asked them, “Which of you can truthfully accuse me of sin?” (John 8:46). So as a person without a scent of sin in his life, the only person to be like that, Jesus was never empty. What is the connection between being empty and sin? Emptiness first came into our lives because of sin, the Bible explains. “Emptiness will be their (the wicked’s) only reward” – the Bible records (Job 15:31, NLT). Having understood this, when we come in repentance to have trust in Jesus who died for us on the Cross, we can be indeed be redeemed from “the empty way of living” (I Pet 1:18, NIV; John 1:12).

Mrs. Lot did not have lots of time!

Dhunush in the last para of “Kolaveri” sings, “Cow-u cow-u, holy cow-u/ I want u hear now-u!” I have tried hard to figure out what he is saying here. But I have not been able to. In fact, even Dhanush in various interviews has stated that this particular song has no meaning in some places! But what I do understand is this: he was to wanting to hear something then and there! May be he wanted to hear the words “I love you again! I will get back to you again!” from the girl who left him ‘high and dry’ – without any delay! In the same way, Jesus wants each one of us to come back to him without delay. Jesus preached once, “Remember Lot’s wife!” (Luke 17:32). I have wondered why Jesus wanted us to remember Lot’s wife. It was because he wanted to remind us of the grave peril in when we postpone our coming back to him. Mrs. Lot thought she had lots of time to repent. “I still have time for one last look at sin!” – she thought. We too may think that way. “I still have time to have one last look at that pornographic site!” – we may tell ourselves. “I still have time to carry that grudge with that brother or sister for one more day!” – we may fool ourselves. But, lets not forget that Mrs. Lot did not have lots of time to flirt around with sin. She turned into a pillar of a salt, instantly. She died suddenly while she was still in sin to go into an eternity without God! What happened to Mrs. Lot could happen to us who may think ‘we have lots of time to repent’! So, let’s come to Christ when there is still time which is now! A newly married groom can perhaps postpone his first night with his wife but he should not postpone getting right with God which is the preparation for the day of the Judgment which can arrive at any second – this is the message of Prophet Joel (2:12,16).

Becoming really alive!

“Godu I m dying now-u; She is happy how-u” – those lines are the last few lines that Dhanush’s “Kolaveri.” He is talking about death here. He is talking about a different kind of death – a death after which he will be still alive! A death in his spirit, if you can call that. Jesus too talked about such a kind of death in one of his parables. While talking about a young man who returned to his father’s home after years in rebellion and in sin, Jesus makes this interesting statement: “He was dead, but now he is alive!” (Luke 15:32). This young man was physically alive. But the sins he indulged in, made him spiritually dead. But his act of repentance, his decision to take a U-turn and return back to father’s home, gave him the opportunity to be spiritually resurrected. You too are spiritually dead. We were dead in trespasses and sins, the Bible declares (Eph 2:1). But a relationship with Jesus after we have repented from sin, after we have taken U-turn in our life and returned to him, will make us alive – really alive!