bible

053. Hebrews 11:40

Alex Russell The Life of the World to Come , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The song “Hebrews 11:40” contrasts with the source of its title by arguing for a more immediate reward after suffering.

Track: “Hebrews 11:40”
Album: The Life of the World to Come (2009)

You have to read all of Hebrews 11 to figure out what’s going on in the final verse. I’m certainly no Biblical scholar, but some of it is very straightforward. It opens with “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” and closes with 11:40. We’re talking about faith as a shield, but a shield for a life that’s coming after this one. The faithful will eventually be rewarded, the chapter says, but they will suffer in this life.

“I’m gonna get my perfect body back someday,” John Darnielle promises in “Hebrews 11:40.” The song really challenges the whole message of The Life of the World to Come fairly directly. The chapter Hebrews 11 is obviously designed to bolster the faithful with assurances that their suffering will not go unnoticed, and it serves to strengthen people who may be experiencing weakness. The song “Hebrews 11:40,” like the rest of the album, is interested in the idea, but not so much the intention of the chapter or the verse. In the Bible, the dead faithful must wait for the rest of the faithful. In the world of the Mountain Goats, sometimes you have to take things into your own hands.

The righteous dead are told to wait for their reward, but John Darnielle says that you should “make your own friends when the world’s gone cold.” The difference is that the chapter tells people that their suffering is sign of better things to come, but the song argues a more active approach. “I feel certain I am going to rise again” is a message they both share, but “Don’t wanna hurt anyone // probably gonna have to, before it’s all done” is Darnielle’s alone.

023. Philippians 3:20-21

Alex Russell The Life of the World to Come , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

“Philippians 3:20-21” deals with the theological question of how a just God could allow a person to be suicidal.

Track: “Philippians 3:20-21”
Album: The Life of the World to Come (2009)

Philippians 3:20-21 talks of Jesus making the bodies of humans like his own after their death. It’s open to interpretation beyond that, but it generally means that you’ll join Jesus and be redeemed (physically and otherwise) with him once you die. The song “Philippians 3:20-21” is about how anything that requires you to die to feel better is a really tough sell.

John Darnielle wrote the song about David Foster Wallace, who hung himself because he couldn’t stand to be alive. The chemicals in his brain conspired against him, as they do in everyone with some kind of mental illness. John worked professionally with the mentally ill as a younger man and it’s a cause that is close to his heart. For Wallace specifically, he has said that he thinks one of the most difficult messages of Christianity is that it only deals with redemption and solutions post-mortem. In the song, “nice people said he was with God now,” which is a polite way to speak of the dead, but it didn’t do anything for him while he was alive.

For a person whose life is plagued by thoughts of suicide and self-harm, the idea that death will provide a spiritual respite is cold comfort. The rest of the chorus talks of the voices of angels being “smoke alarms,” since they signal the fire of his death but don’t do anything to stop the flames from coming. John has said that he thinks it’s difficult to understand how a kind and loving God could not give a person the chemistry needed to fend off dark thoughts and survive, and the “neuroleptics and electric shock” of “Philippians 3:20-21” are his way of saying it would be easier to believe if the salvation worked a little bit earlier.