"What I've Done" - Sin and Responsibility

Recently, the youth praise band here at BUMC introduced me to a song by Linkin Park entitled What I've Done. It's a single from their latest studio album, Minutes to Midnight, which was released exactly one year ago. That I am just now introduced to it reveals the sad truth that I am at least one year "behind the times" when it comes to much of popular culture. On the other hand, considering that I'm a child of the '80's, I guess I'm doing pretty well.

The music itself is an interesting mix of a hauntingly repetitive piano motif, juxtaposed with very raw-sounding electric guitars and percussion. But what caught me was the lyrics:

In this farewell
There’s no blood
There’s no alibi
‘Cause I’ve drawn regret
From the truth
Of a thousand lies

So let mercy come
And wash away
What I’ve done

I'll face myself
To cross out what I’ve become
Erase myself
And let go of what I’ve done

Put to rest
What you thought of me
While I clean this slate
With the hands of uncertainty

So let mercy come
And wash away
What I’ve done

I'll face myself
To cross out what I’ve become
Erase myself
And let go of what I’ve done

For what I’ve done
I start again
And whatever pain may come
Today this ends
I’m forgiving what I’ve done!!!

What I’ve done
Forgiving what I’ve done

If you preview the video on YouTube, you'll see that these words and music are intermingled with incredible visual images revealing the reality of sin in our world: drug abuse, war, terrorism, racism, pollution and environmental destruction, materialism, evil dictatorships, and nuclear destruction. Clearly, all of these images point to the consequences of our fallen human nature and our rebellion against the sovereign Lord of the Universe.

The typically modern view of sin (if sin is acknowledged at all) is that it is something out there, in the world, in society. We humans are essentially good, modernity taught us, and that the evil in the world is all of these external evils such as war, poverty, ignorance, etc... Sin can be overcome merely be combating these external evils and removing them from the earth, so that we humans can thrive with our natural goodness. In general, modernity tended to shy away from the "dark side" of human nature, believing that we are all in a natural process towards progress. Human reason and motivation are infallible and good, and they alone can save us.

This is certainly not the vision of What I've Done.

While the video depicts all of the external evils rightly abhored by modernity, the lyrics go to the heart of the issue by focusing on what I've done. The lyricist/singer has no illusions about his own essential goodness, or the purity of his motives. He takes full responsibility by acknowledging his own sinful actions, and he hints that mercy must come to him from somewhere outside himself in order that those sinful actions can be fully washed away. While he does declare presumptuously that he will forgive himself, he acknowledges that starting again and forgiving himself must come at the cost of great pain.

Authors such as Hugo A. Meynell and Robert Webber aver that modernity's naivete towards human evil has gone out of fashion among the postmodern generations. Contemporary people, especially the young, are not only more willing to talk about the evils inherent in life, but they are also willing to deal honestly with evil's manifestations in their own minds, hearts, and actions. "The power of positive thinking" and the "cult of self-esteem" has given way to a more realistic assessment of the individual person who, while having clear aspirations to the true and good, acknowledges the limits (even the corruption) of his own reason and volition.

The song What I've Done illustrates a significant scriptural truth, that the individual must fully deal with the log in his or her own eye, in order to see clearly and then deal with the speck that is in our neighbor's eye. It also suggests that our culture today is much more open to hearing a biblical view of individual sin and responsibility - a view which much of the church has failed to proclaim in our world.

Too few Christians are hearing from the pulpits a Word-informed anthropology which stresses the full weight of what we've done as individuals. We are rebels against a holy and righteous God, and we constantly set up false idols to fill the absence of His presence. Certainly, the world beyond the church is not hearing this truth. As it is, we are not giving people a true reason for being Christians in the first place: to receive God's incredible forgiveness and justification in Jesus Christ, to have our sins washed away in sanctification, and to live in the reality of His grace and mercy.

Clearly, Linkin Park (and obviously much of their fans) understand the need to face themselves honestly, to have mercy come to them, to have their sins washed away and the slate wiped clean, and to feel the joy of forgiveness. It's about time that we proclaim the whole Gospel without fear of offending others, so that those inside and outside the Church can be convicted of their sin and thereby return to the One who bore the pain of our forgiveness and Who accepts all of us in spite of what we've done.