So I was listening to “the best music of the 90s” in my car (because that’s my jam, yo) and a song played that I had not heard in over twenty years. I remember it distinctly, not only for its music and lyrics, but also for the reception it received amongst many religious people. The song is “One of us.” If you don’t remember it, maybe you will if I lengthen the title: “What if God was one of us?”

I vividly remember this song being attacked as blasphemous as well as I do the Harry Potter books being attacked as promoting witchcraft (by the same people who enjoy the Wizard of Oz, but I digress). As to the former, I don’t think I had ever genuinely listened to the lyrics of the song before, certainly not when I was younger; no young person actually listens to the lyrics. But when it started playing through my car’s speakers I realized not only was the song not given a fair shake by the “shoot first, ask questions never” religious zealots and modern day Pharisees, but it also had not been appreciated for just how purely “Christian” its message really is.

Here’s a sample of the lyrics…

If God had a name what would it be
And would you call it to His face
If you were faced with Him in all His glory
What would you ask if you had just one question?

And yeah, yeah God is great
Yeah, yeah God is good
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

What if God was one of us
Just a slob like one of us
Just a stranger on the bus
Trying to make His way home

So here, as I figure it, is the meaning of the song:

God is a being so incredible, so awesome, so infinite in His everything, that He cannot be constrained even to have a single name to identify Him. Yes, I know there’s “Jehovah” but there’s a whole separate study on that word (YHWH) and what it means vis a vis God’s “name.” The point here is God is not like us. He is greater to an infinite degree and to stand before His presence in all His glory would cause mere mortals to melt into a puddle of humility and unworthiness. That leads to the section that’s almost like a modern day doxology, as the singer repeats the line “God is great, God is good” throughout the song, before segueing to the most controversial portion, and the reason the song is so disliked in some religious circles: The singer asks “what if God was one of us? just a slob like on of us? just a stranger on the bus trying to make his way home?”

I suppose some had the idea that the song was trying to bring God down to a human level, to make Him ordinary, to make Him undesirable, etc. I can see how someone would construe that as blasphemous, even though *eh hem* that’s kind of the point of Philippians 2…

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And having been found in appearance as a man He humbled Himself, having become obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

Philippians 2:5-8

But nevermind that, because the real text to consider is this…

Then shall He say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.

Matthew 25:41-45

Jesus is not saying that He will literally be the hungry person we might encounter, or the man with no shelter that we might meet, or the sick person that we might come across; but when we fail to take care of the least of us, we disrespect the One who made the least of us, and we make ourselves unworthy to live with the Greatest of us forevermore.

The question “what if God was one of us?” isn’t saying “maybe God is just a slob.” No, the question is “what if God was just a sick and hungry person on the side of the road, would you take care of Him?” Many would immediately say “yes” and rush to His aid. Fine, but what if you didn’t know that beaten down person was God. Would you take care of him then? That’s the scenario my Master poses in the verses above; when we take care of the least, we take care of Him. When we refuse to do good for the needy, we are refusing to do good for Him.

~ Matthew