A Song-by-Song Review of Raising Up the Dead: Family

He’s on the run from a bad break
His soul’s worn down to the skin
He’s got the scars of a heartache
So you can see everywhere he’s been

Where he was he was the only one
So he went looking for his mother’s son

With my family around me now,
Takes me to a new place
When my family surrounds me now
You see it on my face

But his own people didn’t know him
Couldn’t take the bad with the good
There’s so much he couldn’t show them
Left him sneaking around the neighborhood

He just wanted to be known and loved
But sometimes flesh and blood is not enough

So with my family around me now,
Takes me to a new place,
When my family surrounds me now

You see it on my face

Who’s my sister?
Who’s my brother?
Who’s my father?
Who is my mother?
Those to whom I cannot sell anything
Those who cannot buy my love

This one is definitely about the family of God. The bridge alone makes that clear. Christ makes it obvious in Mark 3:35 that “whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.” When we become a part of the family of God, we are made new, transformed. The old has gone, the new has come. I’m not sure who the “He” in the song is, if it’s a generic person, or perhaps even Christ. His own people didn’t know him (John 1), he was scarred, he wanted to be known and loved, and he gave his flesh and blood for our sins.

On the other hand, it could just be a representative “he,” who is experiencing the rejection of flesh and blood relatives. This person, an outsider, finds a family in the family of God.

Regardless, it is the outcast who finds a family in the family of God. And we don’t have to do anything to buy God’s love.

At first I was not sold on the music for this song. The lyrics and the message of hope for those who are downtrodden and who have no family overpowered my initial indifference.