If you serve Jesus, He must come first.
August 27, 2008 (Wednesday)
A week ago I wrote in this blog about “Movies on the Radio,” and referred to the old “Lux Radio Theater,” that presented popular movies by the use of radio scripts, read by actors.
Last night I listened to one of them, “The Jazz Singer,” originally presented in 1927 as the first “talkie.” It starred Al Jolson. The radio version, offered on Lux Radio Theater twenty years later, also starred Al Jolson, in a reprisal of his movie role.
It was a moving drama, a point probably lost amidst the hoopla which must have surrounded the original screen presentation because it was the first movie in which the actors themselves talked aloud. The script, which featured several of Jolson’s famous songs, told the story of the son of a Jewish Cantor who was trained by his father to become a Cantor himself, but instead chose show business.
On the very night of the star’s first appearance on Broadway, his father died and his mother pleaded with him to take his father’s place in the synagogue, for it was the Day of Atonement, the holiest day of the year.
The radio movie ended with the voice of Jolson, singing in Hebrew in the synagogue. His roots were so strong they had overcome his mighty ambition to become the world’s greatest performer. Even on the radio you could “see” his tears.
When you read the gospels, you are struck by the number of times that Jesus made his invitation clear: if you serve Him, He must come first. Jesus said if a man puts his hand to the plow and looks back, he is not fit for the kingdom of God. He said his follower must deny himself and take us his cross daily. We don’t hear much preaching about that anymore, do we?