Who You Are: According to Jesse J, Jon Jorgenson and Jesus
Over the past several months the video Who You Are: A Message to All Women has been liked and shared on Facebook a good number of times. To date the video is closing in on 1 Million views. Obviously, the message, by wordsmith Jon Jorgenson, is quite appealing to women (and men) who are looking to be told that they are not as bad off as the world, their friends and family and that little voice inside their heads tell them they are.
I don’t know this for certain, but I was told by a teen, who is much more deeply immersed in YouTube culture than I am, that Jon Jorgenson based the idea for his video off the 2011 hit song Who You Are performed by Jesse J. In a dramatic heartfelt way, Jesse J lyricizes on the struggles of a young woman trying “to fit the mold”. Like Jon J, Jesse J is (albeit in a very different way) reaching out to the struggling soul looking for hope and peace and comfort in a world that gives it anything but those.
Both Who You Are videos have a message for women (and men) struggling with identity. Both seek to deal with the fact that we are constantly failing “to be all that we can be”. To women (and men) exhausted by the pursuit of fitting “into the mold”, Jesse J sings, “But tears don’t mean you’re losing / Everybody’s bruising / There’s nothing wrong with who you are.” Jon J yells, “You are awesome. And don’t let anybody tell you otherwise.”
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Who are you really? You have heard from Jon Jorgenson… You have heard from Jesse J. But what does Jesus say about “Who You Are”?
Lutheran Church Missouri Synod Pastor, Jonathan Fisk, of World View Everlasting tears Jon J’s Who You Are video to pieces, while accurately explaining “Who You Are, In Christ.” Spoiler alert it’s not AWESOME.
Who You (Truly) Are: According to Jesus
When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.” (Colossians 2:13-14 NIV)
And
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:17-21 NIV)
Mark Parsons
Originally from Montrose, Colorado, Mark served the family of believers at Christ the King Lutheran in Port Charlotte, FL from 2009-2013 and since January of 2014 has been serving as Pastor of School, Youth and Family Ministry at Faith Lutheran in Fond du Lac, WI. He and his wife Molly have three children, Jonas, Annabella, and Emmalyn. He enjoys dance parties with his children, working out in his basement with his wife, and running around Fond du Lac training for Tough Mudder or a marathon. Pastor Parsons and his family are faithful Denver Broncos fans in a sea of green and gold. In addition to his roles and responsibilities at Faith, Pastor Parsons is the chief content curator for Bread for Beggars and the director of Fuel Student Ministry.
