First Baptist Church

This past Sunday (June 13), singer, actor, and sausage pioneer Jimmy Dean died at the age of 81.  To one generation he was a singer whose deep and penetrating voice was often talked about in the same conversations as the likes of Ernest Tubb and Tennessee Ernie Ford, and to another as the familiar face promoting his own brand of breakfast sausage and related products.

Early in my childhood I heard and fell in love with Dean’s classic tale of Big Bad John.  The lyrics go like this:

Every mornin’ at the mine you could see him arrive
He stood six foot six and weighed 245
Kinda broad at the shoulder and narrow at the hips
And everybody knew you didn’t give no lip to Big John
(Big John Big John) Big Bad John (Big John)
Nobody seemed to know where John called home
Just drifted into town and stayed all alone
He didn’t say much kinda quiet and shy
And if you spoke at all you just said hi to Big John
Somebody said he came from New Orleans
Where he got in a fight over a Cajun Queen
And a crashin’ blow from a huge right hand
Sent a Louisiana fellow to the Promised Land Big John
(Big John Big John) Big Bad John (Big John)
Then came the day at the bottom of the mine
When a timber cracked and men started cryin’
Miners were prayin’ and hearts beat fast
And everybody thought that they’d breathed their last cept John
Through the dust and the smoke of this man made hell
Walked a giant of a man that the miners knew well
Grabbed a saggin’ timber and gave out with a groan
And like a giant oak tree he just stood there alone Big John
(Big John Big John) Big Bad John (Big John)
And with all of his strength he have a mighty shove
Then a miner yelled out there’s a light up above
And twenty men Scrambled from a would be grave
Now there’s only one left down there to save Big John
With jacks and timbers they started back down
Then came that rumble way down in the ground
And the smoke and gas belched out of the mine
Everybody knew it was the end of the line for Big John
(Big John Big John) Big Bad John (Big John)
Now they never reopened that worthless pit
They just placed a marbled stand in front of it
These few words were written on that stand
At the bottom of this mine lies a big, big man Big John
(Big John Big John) Big Bad John (Big John Big John) Big Bad John

The story is the sad tale of  a true hero; one who never drew attention to himself, but when push came to shove and lives were on the line, Big Bad John stepped up to the plate to sacrifice his own life for others.

Christians should not be unfamiliar with such a story.  In fact, Christianity itself is based upon the foundational truth that Jesus Christ died in your place and my place so that we might have life and have it more abundantly; that we might pass from death unto life; that salvation was ours!

In a world which largely cares for it’s own interests, it does our hearts good to hear a tale of one who puts others first.  It is ironic that the grandest example of sacrificial love and giving of oneself is all-too-often forgotten or ignored.  Love was made perfect in Jesus Christ.  In John 15:13 we read “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”  The love Christ had was matchless.  No one has the capacity to love as he did or sacrifice as much, however He is still our model.  Paul wrote of mankind’s necessity for striving to attain to the example set by our Lord when he wrote to the Church at Philippi, “Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ, Jesus.” (Phil. 3:13-14).

To be sacrificial is a hallmark of Christianity.  If your faith is not costing you something then there is a very high probability that it is not a true and authentic Christian faith.  For some it may be friends, for others it may be money, power, or reputation.  But for some, it may even cost their life!  Our Lord freely laid down His life for us; can we not we willing to sacrifice such things as we have for Him?  All in all, we tend to reserve our lives as our own and tend only to give God our leftovers, but in reality He wants our all.  My friends, He deserves our all!

In Christ,

Pastor Allen Raynor