If you play Beethoven wrong, do you blame Beethoven?

So many people (including myself, at an earlier time) have vowed never to be a Christian, saying that they are all hypocrites! And while I disagree with the assertion that Christians are all hypocrites, I can’t deny that some Christians’ (like non-Christians’) actions are often contradictory to what they claim to believe. We’re all imperfect human beings and we all do things that are at least somewhat inconsistent with the self-portrait we display to the world. There are, I will admit, countless “alleged” followers of Jesus who don’t practice what they preach. In fact, many of them are known to call out others for “sinful” behavior while they themselves also guilty of those same sinful behaviors, or other comparable sinful things.

The problem is this: We shouldn’t use anyone except Jesus–and the true definition of Christianity (the gospel)–to define what a Christian is supposed to be. Anyone who is interested in learning about Christianity should refer to the Bible and to the faithful servants of its Truth. “Faithful servants of the Truth”, by the way, can usually be authenticated by referring to the Bible. If we depend on the behaviors and actions of any so-called Christian, we may conclude that there is no validity to their beliefs and that we have no interest in becoming one of them. Even a true Believer, one who genuinely follows Christ and produces “good fruit” as the Bible states in Matthew 7:17, is not capable of fully aligning his or her actions with the ideals of God. Christians struggle with these things as much as anyone else, often even more than non-Christians. But that doesn’t mean they are all hypocrites. They just fall pathetically short–as all of us do.

Now, having said all of that, there are people who claim to be Christians but show little or any evidence which would give credence to those claims. When a person encounters someone like that, I think it’s fair (though not conclusive) to surmise that they are not, in fact, Christians after all. They may go to church, read the Bible, say the right things, tithe to the church, and generally perform good works towards others. Yet, If these things are done only to prove their human “goodness” to God and Man, but are not actually the result (or fruit) of believing in the “Goodness” of God then I’d have to say they are probably not “real” Christians.

So, this brings me (somehow) to Beethoven. “How’s that”, you say? Well, I remember when I used to practice my classical pieces on piano in college. I was a music major with an emphasis on piano performance. I had to practice for many hours every day, memorizing very difficult pieces and performing them in front of my professors, peers, and other interested observers (like family and friends mostly). While it is was exceedingly important to play those pieces both expressively and accurately, the overall goal (I think) was to interpret them in a manner which clearly represented the intentions of the composers who had written them. This is NOT to say that we couldn’t sort of “make them our own”. Hopefully, every musican has a unique–and beautiful–approach to producing the music created by the great composers of the past and present! This, however, IS to say that the notes written by the composer, and the directions given to us in such ways as dynamics, phrasing, tempo, and even some explicit expression markings in the piece, should be followed as closely as possible. Otherwise, the performance of that piece will not truly reflect the character of either the music or the composer.

If you’re with me so far and concur, for the most part, that what I’m saying here is true, you might think that, having practiced it long enough, a person could perfect the performance of a musical piece with regard to accuracy, expression, and the intention of the composer (per the written account of the musical notes and the directions he or she gives us). In reality, I found this to be far from the truth in my actual experience and, for that matter, in any of my professors’ experiences playing the masterworks of Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, Chopin, Debussy, or even composers of significantly less stature than these.

I recall, in my senior year, playing Chopin’s Ballade in F minor. Many musical scholars and concert pianists have rated this piece as one of Chopin’s greatest, perhaps even as one of the greatest piano compositions ever written. Now, before I continue, I’m using an example of a Chopin composition even though I used Beethoven’s name in the title of this post. I did that because, despite the greatness of both Chopin and Beethoven, I felt that the name of Beethoven may be more universally recognized than the name of Chopin. At any rate, my example would be true for many Beethoven compositions as well. To continue, I diligently practiced the Chopin Ballade throughout my entire senior year in order to prepare for my final senior recital. Meanwhile, I knew a piano professor at my music school who had performed this piece, publicly, many times in his life. He told me that, while he had been working on the piece, intermittently, for over 50 years, he believed, sadly, that he still was not fully competent to play it exactly as Chopin had intended it to be played. I was flabbergasted, terrified in fact, by what he said, particularly since I was a mere 22 year-old and it was the first time I would be performing this piece in front of people.

My main point here is to demonstrate that there is no Christian, no matter how hard they try or how sincerely they believe, who can truly achieve what Christ intended. We become better Christians through various efforts, but essentially, it is only because of the Grace and Forgiveness granted to us by Christ Himself that we can make any progress at all. So, in the end, similar to my example of the Chopin piano piece (or Beethoven, of course), it is infinitely better to use Jesus Himself, together with the Bible, as the model for how real Christianity is defined. This represents a far more stable platform on which to base our decision as to whether or not we wish to become Christians.