I know this may sound simplistic, but there are two ways to answer a question: you can answer correctly, or you can answer incorrectly. Recently though, I’ve seen another way to answer a question: you can answer experientially.
Kanye was featured in an episode of Carpool Karaoke with James Corden. It was incredible and hysterical as always. For a few moments James looked at Kanye and asked him what could arguably be the most provocative question of 2019. “Kanye, what do you say to people who say ‘I don’t believe it. I don’t believe after looking at the last two, three, four, five years of your life. I don’t believe that it can be this night and day.' What do you say?” My heart began to pound as the seconds of silence felt like centuries.
What would Kanye say? Would he embarrass Christianity?“What is his theology?“How will he explain Christianity?
Kanye took a breath, like I needed to, and said what seemed to be the dumbest answer of all time. He looked at James and calmly replied, “When you go to sleep, would you agree that you are asleep when you are asleep? And when you wake up would you agree that you are awake when you are awake? Would you agree that those are two different states? Well, people who don’t believe are walking dead. They are asleep.”
That is so freaking dumb… and by dumb, I quickly recant and mean the most brilliant answer of all time. Brilliant is a poor word for it. Brilliant makes it sound like it is just a smart or correct answer, which it is, but what Kanye said is more than correct. Kanye didn’t just answer the question correctly, he realized that James’ question wasn’t seeking information, just as a lot of our questions aren’t just looking for information. There was a question behind the question; a question not of the mind but of the heart. A question of the human experience (the question that Jesus typically answers). James wanted to know if Kanye could give a real answer, not a right answer, and Kanye did what I don’t often do. Kanye did not just give an informed answer; he gave his own personal experience. Kanye spoke the most theologically beautiful answer because he had experienced the most beautiful Person.
In short, Kanye said what Jesus, Paul, and the whole story of Scripture is saying: to be a Christian is to be woken up. Christianity is not just a set of correct beliefs or corresponding behaviors. Christianity is to be woken up from sleep. As C.S. Lewis once summarized, “Jesus didn’t come to make bad people good, but dead people live.”
Don’t even get me started on how both Paul and Jesus relate death to being asleep. Indulge me for just a moment; death is like sleep because the hope of Christianity is that one day we will be raised to life or woken up. Maybe that’s why Jesus talks about a dead little girl or his mummified friend Lazarus as “only sleeping.” Maybe that’s why Paul says that “We won’t all sleep but we will all be changed… at the trumpet sound.” Maybe because death is not the end, it’s just sleep, and the risen Prince of Peace is coming to kiss his bride and wake her from sleep.
Kanye answered the question behind James’ question. A lot of people have started their Christian journey by asking God a question. For some it was in tragedy and heartbreak, and for some it was in search of help. For some it was in anger, for some it was in desperation, and for some it was just in curiosity. At some point, we all call out to God with a question, and God doesn’t answer us with just information. God looks beyond the questions; He looks past the mind and the mouth. God looks at the heart. God doesn’t always answer our questions with words. He shows up and answers with presence. He answers with Himself.
God shows up and wakes us up. We often think we are asking questions about real life, but we are unknowingly asking about our sleep. But God. God shows up and wakes us up, and then the real life begins.
To be a Christian is to be one who God woke up. God did the work, God did the initiating, God did the shaking, God did the calling. I didn’t wake up; God woke me up. I didn’t even know I was asleep. No wonder Christianity is foolishness to others. Sleeping people don’t know about being awake, they don’t even realize they are asleep. Awake people, though sometimes tired, never really wish to live forever asleep. They have been made awake, or as Paul says “made alive.” Even though being asleep is easier and sometimes seemingly more fun, sleeping is not really living. Once we’ve been made alive, who would ever want to go back to the paralysis of sleep?