“Gotta Serve Somebody”

You’ve got to read this piece by Thaddeus Williams at Gospel Coalition entitled Nietzsche vs. Dylan.

He writes about discovering Nietzsche as a 17-year-old.  Williams writes,

Dr. Chris, my humanities teacher, had finished a unit on the thought of Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche despised “cows”—those who mindlessly follow the herd rather than charting their own course. The heroic supermen of Nietzsche’s universe (Übermenschen) were those who brazenly defy moral expectations, who possess the courage to do their own thing, consequences be damned.

It hit me like a lightning bolt. If I were to commit myself to Nietzsche’s call to radical self-expression, wouldn’t I be abiding by this dead German’s dogmas, following his demands on my existence like a good little cow?

Williams then tells about witnessing to a friend, Mike, in that class about Christ.  “He replied with a line borrowed from the lips of Lucifer in Milton’s Paradise Lost: ‘I’d rather reign in hell than serve in heaven!’ Mike, who had apparently taken Nietzsche to heart, would serve no one but Mike.”

Years later, Williams heard Bob Dylan’s song, “Gotta Serve Somebody,” which made him see the problem with the mindset of both Mike and Nietzsche.

Dylan sings about big-shot politicians, heavyweight champions, rock stars, warlords, business moguls, network executives, and more. These are poster boys for the modern idea of freedom, with the power and fortune to fulfill their every personal desire. But in classic fashion, Dylan subverts the status quo and makes doubters of us all. He rips off the shiny veneer, exposing the contradictions of modern Western thought: “You’re gonna have to serve somebody / Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord, but you’re gonna have to serve somebody.” In other words, the sultans may be the real slaves. We can think we’re our own masters when really we’re unwitting servants of a dark kingdom.

I would add that young Thaddeus may have been in an advanced humanities class with Dr. Chris, but Mike needed a better course in English Literature.  That famous line from Milton’s Paradise Lost about preferring to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven is spoken by Satan.  It describes well the grotesque pride of the rebel angel and it does reflect a certain psychology of the damned.  But Mike would not “reign” in Hell!  Satan purports to, as he tyrannizes and torments his followers.  But not even Satan reigns in Hell, with Milton’s poem making clear that he is suffering eternally under God’s judgment.

I would also add that John Lennon, appalled by Bob Dylan’s Christianity, wrote a profane parody of Dylan’s song called “Serve Yourself.”  Williams shows that those who think they are serving themselves as autonomous beings are really conforming to one world view or another, serving other “masters” whether they realize it or not.

And beyond that, those who think they are being free by sinning are in a deeper bondage.  Their wills are enslaved to their flesh; that is, to their lusts, addictions and passions.

As St. Paul says,

Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.  (Romans 6:16-23)

That is to say,

But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You’re gonna have to serve somebody
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.

When you serve yourself alone, you are really serving the devil.  But when you serve the Lord, He sets you free!  Jesus Himself says that:  “Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:34-35).

Not only that, in the world to come “we will also reign with him” (2 Timothy 2:12).  “His servants. . . will reign forever and ever” (Revelation 22:3-5).

Yes, Mike, it’s better to reign in Heaven than to serve in Hell.

Here is an outstanding performance of the song when it won a Grammy in 1998:

 

Photo:  Screen shot from Youtube, above.