In Search of the Real Thriller
On Thursday, June 25, 2009, Michael Jackson’s death stunned the world.
Millions, unprepared and shocked by the incident, immediately began a bout of Jackson mania that has not been witnessed since the legendary performer debuted the moonwalk at the Motown 25 special in 1983. This will be a death in which people will remember where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news—much like John F. Kennedy’s or Martin Luther King’s.
The highlights of Michael Jackson’s stellar career are well known. Born on August 29, 1958, in Gary, Indiana, Michael Joseph Jackson showed exceptional musical talent at a young age. In the late 1960s an adolescent Michael and his four brothers took the world by storm as the Jackson 5, a highly famed pop music group. Michael was the lead singer and outstanding star of the group, and although he would continue to work with his brothers, in the late 1970s he began his solo career.
The 1980s were dizzying for Michael, and it was during this decade that he became perhaps the most famous musical performer in earth’s history. In 1982 Jackson released his second solo album, Thriller, and the insanely popular album remained at the number one Billboard slot for more than three years, eventually selling more than 110 million copies worldwide, making it the highest selling album in history.
Jackson was later invited to the White House by President Ronald Reagan in 1984. He also engaged in many highly successful charitable endeavors in the 1980s, the most famous being his coproduced single “We Are the World,” the highest selling single of all time, which raised $65 million for famine relief in Africa.
However, Michael Jackson soon began to show alarming signs of buckling under his massive fame. What began at first as necessary medical procedures, since Jackson sustained several injuries and suffered from the skin condition vitiligo and lupus, later turned into excessive bodily alterations. Jackson had numerous rhinoplastic and other face-altering surgeries, and his skin became lighter and lighter. Then the bizarre behavior began. Jackson and a chimpanzee named Bubbles became coresidents. In 1988 he purchased the famed Neverland property that ultimately became both his home and a private amusement park.
By the mid-1990s Jackson was showing signs of imminent collapse. Perhaps the beginning was a 1993 interview with Oprah in which he divulged that he had been abused by his father as a child and that he suffered from chronic loneliness. Then accusations began to be leveled at Jackson—accusations of the worst kind. He was accused by several underage boys of sexual abuse. The charges were settled out of court. Michael Jackson then married Lisa Marie Presley, daughter of perhaps Jackson’s only musical equal in terms of fame, Elvis Presley. The marriage would last only two years. It was around this time that Jackson likely became addicted to painkillers after taking them for various medical conditions. Later Jackson entered another doomed marriage, divorcing in 1999.
In the 2000s Jackson’s troubles increased even more. His music career was buttressed only by the inertia and celebrity of his glory days of the 1980s. His stardom continued to diminish. Jackson, in a now-infamous episode, dangled his infant son from a balcony with a cloth over his face in Berlin in 2002. Then in 2003 Jackson was accused of sexual abuse by a male minor. Throughout the trial insiders say that Jackson continued his downward descent into drug dependency. Jackson was acquitted on all counts. Rumors began to circulate about gross monetary mismanagement on the part of Jackson and imminent bankruptcy, possibly resulting in Jackson announcing his last tour while in London in March 2009. But it was not to be, as Jackson’s life would soon end without warning on June 25, 2009, at the age of 50.
What can we make of Michael Jackson’s life? Indeed, everything that Jackson trusted in seemed to have eventually failed him. His father was a source of unending pain and terror. His fans seemed to desert him when his bizarre behavior persisted. The institute of marriage did not work for him, even when he married the daughter of Elvis, the famed “king of rock and roll.” The children whom he seemed to adore so much ended up accusing him of pedophilia. His coveted dance skills inevitably faded with age. His money ran low, as he faced mounting debt.
Michael Jackson’s life portrays a frantic human attempt to obtain what only Jesus Christ brings and sustains. Although loved and admired by countless numbers of fans, Jackson apparently did not experience the only lasting and unconditional love—that which comes from Jesus Christ. From all indications, Jackson did not feel accepted by others—a need that can be met only by Jesus. He frantically tried to hold on to his youth without realizing that Jesus alone can give eternal life.
The greatest entertainer in the world needed Jesus as desperately as anyone else. Nothing else can sustain humanity. The only hope for a troubled or normal life is a genuine relationship with Christ. For He Himself said: “I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing” (John 15:5).
What a thrilling difference Jesus could have made in Michael Jackson’s life!
BENJAMIN J. BAKER is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in history at Howard University in Washington, D.C.
|
