Jesus was just all right for the Doobie Brothers and now Elle King is giving the God-man a chance.
This January, singer Elle King is releasing her first full-length country album “Come Get Your Wife.” In one of its songs “Try Jesus,” she sings that after a series of break-ups, she “ought to see what all the fuss is about” and consider Jesus boyfriend material.
I’m an optimist when I hear presumptive non-Christians speak of our Lord. There’s likely much more going on personally than comes out in song, so might the song reflect something they’re wrestling with in their heart?
In fact, King did report that
“‘Try Jesus’ came at a time I was trying to give my life over to something greater – and you can feel it.”
The song’s verses tell of three men, one each from Bozeman, Los Angeles, and Miami, who all turned out to be less than King expected. The Montanan wanted to “keep things open,” the Californian seemed upstanding until she found out he had a wife and kid, and the Floridian “swore he was different but [she] ain’t met one that isn’t.”
In between verses, King belts Christianese calling to mind (in small part because of the twang) Ricky Bobby’s address in his prayer in Talladega Nights: “Dear Lord Baby Jesus…” Though Jesus was Lord in the manger, Bobby’s prayer to the infant Christ diminishes the omnipotence of God. Similarly, King’s lyrics reveal a shallow understanding of scriptural vocabulary. For instance, she sings,
This way I’ve been living I must need some forgiving.
Yes, quite likely. But between the lines it seems she saw her need for forgiveness only after feeling the consequences of unhealthy relationships and that she views forgiveness as a way to clean her slate.
Got me singin’ “Hey, Hallelujah, A-freakin’-men” baby, I don’t need nobody but him.
Again, yes, but do you understand what it means, Elle, that you need nobody but Him?
And the bridge:
Lord, let your light shine down (Try Jesus) Come and turn my life around No one else is workin' out (Try Jesus) I could use a miracle right about now
This is as near to the Sinner’s Prayer as anyone will find in a 2022 country song. Yet, it betrays a tragic misunderstanding of the words she uses.
The message of “Try Jesus” is a hope for the happiness Jesus might bring as a perfect boyfriend. We see this in the music video. The “miracle” in the bridge is represented by a 5.07oz (150 mL) glowing box the size of a bag of sugar on top of a grocery store shelf. The product is labeled “Happiness” and it’s noted as “Natural Unfiltered.” A long-haired grocery store employee, Jesús, stands above and behind Happiness, open-armed, as King looks up to him and is levitated to the top shelf. She ultimately walks out of the Dollar Mart Plus with Jesús in one hand and Happiness in the other.
It’s dubious that anyone, King included, will pursue Jesus because of this song because it’s symptomatic of the boyfriend-Jesus epidemic in praise music. That is, songs that can factually be sung to both God and a boyfriend are perhaps unworthy of our Creator.
I had been encouraged by King’s collaboration with NEEDTOBREATHE on the song “Who Am I?” How can she not perceive that the God of the Bible is the only one who, as she sang, “should ever love me like you do”? No earthly man would “not let go and grow [his] roses on my barren soul” after we’ve pushed him away. Christ is the only one who can “see the best and the worst in me” and though debatable whether we've "earned his trust," his love is incomprehensible and they sing: "I don't understand where your love comes from." Alas, Christ’s name is unmentioned in “Who Am I?” so perhaps King thought of her current boyfriend while as she sang, and maybe I ought to think of my wife when I sing along.
Even if anyone does try Jesus because of “Try Jesus,” he’d be a false god. King envisions God as a genie who will solve her unhappy and messy life after using her other wishes on past boyfriends. Though Jesus is the bridegroom we wait for, the outworking of that marriage is incomparable to the toxicity of serial dating and self-serving relationships.
Jesus cannot be tried on for size to see how good love can be. The Doobie Brothers had it wrong too; Jesus is either accepted whole-heartedly as Lord and Savior or rejected over a lifetime with no free trial, or re-trial.