“Beer for My Horses,” by Toby Keith and Willie Nelson
— Friday, September 16th, 2011 —
Years ago, Toby Keith asked Willie Nelson if he’d record a song with him. When he heard that the song would be called “Beer for My Horses,” Nelson—to my understanding—was sold on the spot.
Their song is about vigilante justice, about a desire to see wrongs righted. Days after we’ve commemorated the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, I think it’s worth our stopping to think together: why is that we—even those who don’t know Christ—desire justice? Why is it that even those who’ve never heard the gospel preached possess some standard of right and wrong?
And why is it that we, when we are wronged, want to lash out and seek some form of vengeance—if only the kind of vengeance that keeps in mind a record of wrongs? And why is it that we, when wrongs are righted, want to celebrate and rejoice?
In this week’s episode of “The Cross and the Jukebox,” we address such questions—and how Jesus answers them all.
Fantastic stuff. Blends in well with what I’ve been reading in Tempted and Tried, and my own 9/11 reflections on my blog.
Good message, but really goofy song.
One of my all-time favorite country songs in the past decade. The song itself is a very serious song about vigilante justice, which is often very impulsive and condemned in the Bible for that reason, but then deliberately takes a goofy turn when the vigilantes celebrate at the saloon asking the barkeep for the aforementioned beer for their horses. :)
If I’m right, this is the same Toby Keith who wrote and sang “Where Were You When The World Stopped Spinning?” and “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue” in reaction to 9/11, and those songs are rightfully soaked in anger, grief and vengeance. However, since we are sinful human beings, our instinct is to let our anger overtake us and we demand far more than an eye for an eye. We want to strike back seven times as much as we’ve been struck, and that’s how everything from office politics to gang violence and wars esclate out of control.
Heck, I see that in the church all the time with different leaders attacking different denominations–and each other–for lesser things such as not being politically active, not voting Republican, not supporting the Tea Party movement, not believing in the charismatic Gifts of the Spirit, using real wine instead of grape juice for communion, or not believing in a pre-tribulational rapture. On that last matter I have had my own salvation questioned because I am a Lutheran who abandoned pre-trib for amillennialism (like R.C. Sproul and Hank Hanegraaff) after all the hype, hysteria and lies in the evangelical church about the Y2K bug.
And even though I am a temperance-minded teetotaler who doesn’t drink because I come from a family of alcoholics, I get a real kick out of horses being treated to beer. :)