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At first glance it appears to be a crowning symbol of obnoxious rock star excess, yet a closer look reveals a deeper story about how a band used a tiny candy to alert them to major problems.
The 1970s saw the rise of Van Halen. Like every band, when Van Halen was hired to play a show, they provided the promoter with a contract “rider” that outlined specific things the promoter would be responsible for. Standard riders include sound and lighting requirements, instructions for the set up of the backstage area, security needs and nutritional requests for the band and crew. These details can be as critical as the precise weight of the speakers or as trivial as the specific brand of toilet paper that the band demands in their backstage washroom. It’s all in the rider.
Buried amongst dozens of points in Van Halen’s rider was an odd stipulation that there were to be no brown M&M's candies in the backstage area. If any brown M&M’s were found backstage, the band could cancel the entire concert at the full expense of the promoter. That meant that because of a single candy, a promoter could lose millions. (1)
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The master has need of it
They sitting in the village playing backgammon as old men do. They sat there opposite Simeons house enjoying the sun. Bephage was a beautiful village - not far from Jerusalem, not far from Bethany. A little village. Despite being so close to Jerusalem they rarely saw strangers. They sat there playing backgammon when two strangers walked up the road. What were strange folks doing here?
Then the men looked saw Simeon’s house, looked a bit tentative and took his donkey, his colt that was tied up to the door post.
“Oi - what are you doing untying that colt?”
“The master needs it and will send it back shortly”
It wasn’t the words they said - it was the accent - Gallilean- northerners. They had to be followers of that Prophet guy who everyone was talking about.
Well if he was a Prophet he must have his reasons?
But why a donkey?
What on earth would he want with Simeon’s donkey?
Well - prophets did weird things. They knew the story of Jermiah s underpants?
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Jeremiah 13 “The LORD said to me: Go buy yourself some new underpants; cover your bottom and your privates with it- but DON’T put it in the wash. I bought the underpants, as the LORD commanded, and put them on….” (Jer 13:1-2)
Well I guess that’s better than St Francis who once got told to strip off all his clothes including his underpants. His dad had just told him “How dare you not appreciate all I have given. Everything you have I gave you- you can’t go and take my money and Serve God”. So - at the call God Francis said “Have it all back then - have everything back including my clothes (off they came) including my underpants (off they came). Luckily a local Bishop was there to throw a habit over the top of him so he wasn’t starkers for too long. But the weirder thing happened when God sent him up into the hills above the village to pray.
Or take the story of Noah and the boat. Sounds obvious to us because we know the end of the story. But there he is - sitting in his back garden somewhere in what’s probably modern day Iraq. And God tells him to build a boat. Not travel to the sea. Not find a river. Just build a boat. “But God there’s no water” “Just build a boat - you are going to need it”
And talking of boats - a boat heading east. In 1966 Jackie Pullinger felt God was calling her to be a missionary. She didn’t know where so she asked a vicar friend. “Get a ticket for the boat going on the longest trip you can - and don’t get off until God tells you to”. So she spent all her money with only £10 left and got on the boat. She thought she was going to Africa. But every port in Africa they docked at God did not tell her to get off. Was she going crazy? She tried to be faithful. She stayed on the boat…
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Are your ears open to hear if God is asking you to do something unusual? How would you know if God was speaking to you? Has he perhaps already asked you to do something? What did he ask you to do? How did he speak to you? Have you done it yet?
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The Master has need of it
We were used to Jesus acting differently from other people. That was part of what made him so attractive. His stories - little fables, little vignettes - yet none of them ever turned out the way you expected. The way he would touch a lepper - and instead of it being a disaster = the lepper got better. Or that time at the well - when we found him talking to a woman - a divorced woman. A samaritan divorced woman. That should have been his reputation in tatters. Instead it lead to the whole village coming to faith.
‘Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden; untie it and bring it.” (3)
Why would he want a Donkey of all things? And isn’t someone going to get upset?
3If anyone says to you, “Why are you doing this?” just say this, “The Master has needs of it and will send it back here immediately.” ’
So the two of us go. We walk into the small village. There are some men sitting there playing backgammon. Its clear they are not used to strangers. They eye us suspiciously.
We see the donkey,walk over and start to untie it from the post
“Oi - what are you doing untying that colt?”
Trying to appear supremely confident I say “The Master has needs of it and will send it back here immediately.” ’. Much much to my surprise this seems to satisfy them. They even help us untie the creature. I still don’t know why Jesus wants a ruddy donkey….
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Buried amongst dozens of points in Van Halen’s rider was an odd stipulation that there were to be no brown M&M's candies in the backstage area. If any brown M&M’s were found backstage, the band could cancel the entire concert at the full expense of the promoter. That meant that because of a single candy, a promoter could lose millions.
For decades this stood as a humiliating act of self-indulgence, a rock band forcing someone to search through candy, removing every last brown one, for no apparent reason. Yet when lead singer David Lee Roth finally divulged the real reason for the bizarre clause, an entirely different picture was painted, one that serves as a valuable lesson for business.
For decades the Brown M&Ms would be signal. He would walk straight into the dresssing room and look at the bowl of M&Ms. And if there were any brown M&Ms there it would set off plan B. Most of Plan B was very very important. And of course on top of the important bits, David Lee Roth would also trash the band’s dressing room to prove a point -- hiding the secrets of Plan B but also reinforcing his rock and roll reputation in the process.
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The great General Naaman was angry
On the advice of a Hebrew slave girl he had come with his vast retinue to see the Holy man in Israel. He laden with gifts. He expected a fanfar of a welcome. He expected sacrifices and incantations . He expected something dramatic to take his leprosy away.
He had just sent a servant out with a message. “Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed.”
Which river he asked his men. I haven’t seen any river
“That one there sir - it’s called the Jordan”
“But thats a stream!
“I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy. 12 Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be cleansed?” (3)
He turned to walk away in his rage..
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For American Pastor John Wimber It was the end of a long day of ministry and hewas exhausted. he had just completed a teaching conference in Chicago and was flying off to another speaking engagement in New York.At last the chance to relax…
But Shortly after takeoff, as he lay back in his chair his eyes wandered around the cabin, not looking at anything in particular. Seated across the aisle from me was a middle-aged man, a business man, to judge from his appearance, but there was nothing unusual or noteworthy about him. But in the split second that my eyes happened to be cast in his direction, I saw something that startled me.
Wimber writes “Written across his face in very clear and distinct letters thought I saw the word “adultery.” I blinked, rubbed my eyes, and looked again. It was still there. “Adultery.” I was seeing it not with my eyes, but in my mind’s eye. No one else on the plane, I am sure, saw it. It was the Spirit of God communicating to me. The fact that it was a spiritual phenomenon made it no less real.”
By now the man had become aware that Pastor Wimber was looking at him (“gaping at him” might be a more accurate description).
“What do you want?” he snapped.
As he spoke, a woman’s name came clearly into John Wimber’s mind.
Somewhat nervously, Pastor Wimber leaned across the aisle and asked, “Does the name Jane [not her real name] mean anything to you?”
(4)
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After the incident with his dad, young Francis spent much of his time wandering in the hills. One day he found a ruin. It was clear that once it had been a church. He stepped inside, found somewhere to kneel down and began to pray. Soon he came there every day. Then having made this choice, one day he an almost audible voice “Rebuild my church”. It was an on thing. This little chapel of St Damien was long abandoned. It was no where near where anybody lived and there were plenty of good churches in the town of Asssisi below. And what did a posh kid like him know about building? “Rebuild my church”. Well he guessed he could learn. Still unsure why, Francis began gathering rocks with which to rebuild it.
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But God there’s no water” “Just build a boat - you are going to need it” For year’s old man Noah builds a Boat. His neighbours (who are not very nice people mock him for it. “Why build a boat in your backgarden - there’s no water here?” but he builds it. Until one sunny day - just after he has finished building it - it stops being sunny. And it starts raining. And it rains and rains and rains
Months after the rain started Noah got out of the boat. 40 days it had rained. And that was just the rain. It took many more months for the waters to go down again. He had thought it weird when God had asked him to build a boat. He had thought it even weirder when God had asked him bring all the animals inside. But now he and his sons and the wives were just glad to be alive. It turned out God had known what he was doing. (6)
Jeremiah 13 continued
“ A second time the word of the LORD came to me thus: Take the underpants which you bought and are wearing, and go at once to the Perath; hide them there in a hole in the rock” Obedient to the LORD’s command, I went to the Perath and buried the underpants” (Jer 13:3-5)
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Are your ears open to hear if God is asking you to do something unusual? How would you know if God was speaking to you? Has he perhaps already asked you to do something? What did he ask you to do? How did he speak to you? Have you done it yet?
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When David Lee Roth would walk straight into the dresssing room and look at the bowl of M&Ms. And if there were any brown M&Ms there it would set off plan B. Despite how it appeared this was no rockstar eccentricity -
In now-departed arenas such as Toronto’s Maple Leaf Gardens, the original Boston Garden and Chicago Stadium, Van Halen was loading in massive amounts of staging, sound equipment and lighting. Unfortunately, these buildings were never built to accommodate a rock band of Van Halen’s scope. Without specific guidelines, old floors could buckle and collapse, beams could rupture, and the lives of the band, their crew and fans could be at serious risk.
Every aspect of the guidance had to be followed to keep people safe. To ensure the promoter had read every single word in the contract, the band created the “no brown M&M's” clause. It was a canary in a coalmine to indicate that the promoter may have not paid attention to other more important parts of the rider, and that there could be other bigger problems at hand.
Whenever the band found brown M&M's candies backstage, they immediately did a complete line check, inspecting every aspect of the sound, lighting and stage setup to make sure it was perfect. David Lee Roth would also trash the band’s dressing room to prove a point -- reinforcing his reputation in the process.
David Lee Roth might not be God - but he can have hidden reasons for reasons for making a weird request what about God?
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Jackie Pullinger sat on that boat. It docked in Nigeria, but God didn’t tell her to get off. It docked at the Cape of Good Hope but God didn’t tell her to get off. It docked in India but God didn’t tell her to get off. Perhaps she was making it all up? Perhaps she hadn’t heard God right? There was little she could do but stay on the boat. And then when she arrived at Hong Kong she felt a nudge in the back of her head and without a visa got off.
It turns out a godparent of hers was working there, and through his intervention she was allowed to stay and able to get going. She found herself in the wall city working amongst drug addicts, triad gangs and assylum seekers from China’s cultural revolution. It was absurd that a 22 year old like her who new nothing about Hong Kong could make any difference. But difference she did make, and through her work, thousands were both helped off drugs and led to Christ.
It turned out God had known what he was doing.
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General Namaan’s servants desperately try to turn back their master from his grumpy sulk
“My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, ‘Wash and be cleansed’!” 14 So he went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy.” (2 Kings 5:13-14)
It turned out God had known what he was doing.
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The other passengers face turned ashen. “We’ve got to talk,” he stammered at John wimber
They were in Business class (yes American pastors) so the man took John Wimber to the upstairs lounge at the top of the Jumbo Jet
“Who told you that name?”
God told me,” says Wimber and writes “ I was too rattled to think of a way to ease into the topic more gracefully.”
“God told you?” He almost shouted the question, he was so shocked by what Wimber had said.
“Yes,” Wimber answered, taking a deep breath. “He also told me to tell you … that unless you turn from this adulterous relationship, he is going to take your life.”
In a choked, desperate voice he asked Wimber, “What should I do?”
And so Pastor John talked him about repentance and forgiveness
After bursting into tears and praying the man said “The reason I was so upset when you first mentioned that name to me,” he explained, “was that my wife was sitting in the seat right next to me. I didn’t want her to hear.”
Wimber took him down to the man, who confessed to his wife and explained what Wimber had said - and they both gave their lives to Christ.
It seems crazy being asked to say to a stranger “Does the name Jane mean anything to you?” - but It turned out God had known what he was doing.
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Jeremiah 13 continued
“Many days later the Lord said to me, “Go now to Perath and get the underpants I told you to hide there.” So I went to Perath and dug up the underpants and took it from the place where I had hidden it, but now they were now ruined and completely useless.”(Jer 13:6-8)
Well what do you expect - bury a pair of dirty underpants in the soil - of course after a few weeks they are foul. But everyone had seen him go and ostentatiously buy this new pair of underpants. Everyone has seen him make a big thing of going off to bury them. And as he brings the foul undergarment back and waves it around - God reveals a purpose to the madness -
“I went to Perath and dug up the underpants and took it from the place where I had hidden it, but now they were now ruined and completely useless t.hen the word of the Lord came to me: “This is what the Lord says: ‘In the same way I will ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. 10 These wicked people, who refuse to listen to my words, who follow the stubbornness of their hearts and go after other gods to serve and worship them, will be like these pants—completely useless! As close as pants are to your most intimate parts so closely I bound all the people of Israel and all the people of Judah to me,’ declares the Lord, ‘to be my people for my renown and praise and honor. But they have not listened. (Jer 13:7-11)”
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“Rebuild my church” - the little church of St Damiano in the hills above Assisi was now finished. People had thought young Francis crazy as he worked on it - but they thought that already. Yet some - perhaps out of curiosity perhaps out of admiration - had begun to join him. They joined in teh praying. They joined in the working. They joined in wandering round the villages telling people in simple words about the love of Jesus. Soon a vast company had been formed. All over Europe “little brothers” as they called themselves “Franciscans” as others called them - were wandering, praying and telling people about Jesus. And revival came. And looking back Francis now understood what God had meant when he had said “rebuild my church” - it wasn’t really about stones, although it had commenced with stones. As he saw the changed lives, now Francis understood the words “rebuild my church” God had known what he was doing.
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So [the two disciples] “brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it; and he sat on it. 8Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields.” 9Then those who went ahead and those who followed were shouting,
‘Hosanna!
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
10 Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David!
Hosanna in the highest heaven!’”
It’s a spontaneous act no one told these crowds to act in this way - but in doing so Jesus is revealed as King. The old men playing backgammon in the village above - look down the valley and they can see the ever increasing crowds and and hear the chanting - and now it makes sense. The two disciples see it all - and as he rides like a king they are reminded of Zechariah 9:9 “Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, Humble, and mounted on a donkey, Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”
From when he wrote the Old Testament to when Jesus issued the command - weird as it was - God it seemed had known what he was doing
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Are your ears open to hear if God is asking you to do something unusual? Maybe it’s a nudge? Maybe occasionally it is an almost audible voice? Maybe the words that another Christian says to us that we cannot shake us. Maybe it’s a picture in our mind’s eye, like the picture in John Wimber’s mind of that word inscribed on the man’s forehead? Maybe its a dream? Maybe its a verse from scripture which keeps jumping out at us?
It might sound - buy some underpants, buy a boat ticket, get started on A DIY church repair that you are totally unqualified to do, build a boat, wash in a river, requisition a donkey - oh don’t think it will be any one of these. Because when God asks you to do something it will be something unique and new.
Has he perhaps already asked you to do something? What did he ask you to do? How did he speak to you? Have you done it yet? It’s only when we jump in and obey God’s prompting that we discover that he did know what he was doing all along.
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(1) https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/232420
(2) https://blog.np.church/jackie-pullingers-story-down-every-dark-alley/
(3) Mark 11:1-11
(4) 2 kings 5:11-12
(5) John Wimber - Power Evangelism Chapter 3
(6) Genesis 5:29-9:19
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