[Verse 1]
His teeth were white and all in place.
His skin was fair; his hair was lace.
His hands were strong; his waist was slim.
His robe was clean; his beard was trim.
And he was of my own design:
a nodding friend who fell in line.
He never yelled; he never screamed.
He never glared or so it seemed.
[Chorus]
Meet my former idol:
the one I labeled Jesus.
He looked like all those pictures
they painted just to please us.
He met my expectations
in stained-glass incarnations.
He changed as I desired,
and gave all I required.
[Verse 2]
My golden idol fell apart.
The god I'd served was my own heart.
My ev'ry whim was his command;
my ev'ry wish was his demand.
And he had never questioned me.
My thoughts became his sole decree,
but in the end, my idol failed.
My fancied notions were derailed.
[Chorus]
Meet my former idol:
the one who posed as Jesus.
He acted like those movies
they filmed and showed to seize us.
He met my expectations
in stained-glass incarnations.
He changed as I desired,
and gave all I required.
[Verse 3]
Who is he? I came to ask,
And finding him became my task.
I had no clue about his days,
Nor understood his people's ways.
His age and culture made no sense.
The gulf between was too immense.
It stretched my mind to comprehend,
How foreign was this age-old friend.
[Chorus]
Meet my former idol:
the one I hailed as Jesus.
He sounded like those sermons
they preached to mold and squeeze us.
He met my expectations
in stained-glass incarnations.
He changed as I desired,
and gave all I required.
[Verse 4]
Eventually I stopped one day,
and saw my own naiveté.
Then a thought emerged: “Surely he
was not the one I thought I'd see.”
I haven’t found the one
they called God's only son.
Why won’t he just conform
to our accepted norm?
[Chorus]
Meet my former idol:
The one I hailed as Jesus.
He sounded like those sermons
They preached to mold and squeeze us.
He met my expectations
in stained-glass incarnations.
He changed as I desired,
and gave all I required.
[Outro: spoken against softer music]
But when I took some time one day
to ask myself was he that way?
I pondered then that, “Maybe he
was not the one I thought I’d see.”
I'm looking for the one
they called God's only son,
but Jesus won’t conform
to my accepted norm.
Lyrics, Bill Graham
