{"id":23064,"date":"2025-05-15T13:05:26","date_gmt":"2025-05-15T13:05:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/?p=23064"},"modified":"2025-05-15T13:07:49","modified_gmt":"2025-05-15T13:07:49","slug":"the-busker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/the-busker\/","title":{"rendered":"The Busker"},"content":{"rendered":"

8 May 2025 | Cooranbong, Australia [Aleta King with tedNEWS<\/em>]<\/p>\n

In the subway station, rush-hour commuters didn\u2019t notice the man in the baseball cap.<\/p>\n

He opened a violin case and started into Bach\u2019s iconic \u201cChaconne\u201d, the most emotional and difficult of violin solos. No-one cared.<\/p>\n

After a few minutes, a man turned for a quick look as he walked by. Then a woman dropped a dollar into the violin case and kept walking.<\/p>\n

No one noticed the four-million-dollar violin. Made in 1713 by Antonio Stradivari and named the Gibson ex-Huberman Stradivarius<\/em>, it was once owned by the Jewish virtuoso who founded the Palestine Philharmonic Orchestra just as Hitler was rising to power. Bronislav Huberman realised he could secure exit visas for Jewish musicians and their families to escape the Reich and join his orchestra. He raised funds for this mission during a packed concert tour of America in 1936, supported by Albert Einstein. The tour was a brilliant success\u2014except for one concert at New York\u2019s Carnegie Hall.<\/p>\n

Huberman decided to play the second half on his other violin\u2014and his Stradivarius was stolen from his dressing room. He was told the terrible news as he came off stage, but he stayed calm and returned for the encores. The Strad had been stolen once before in Vienna and recovered after a few days, but this time he wasn\u2019t so lucky. He never saw it again, though he did receive a large insurance payout from Lloyd\u2019s of London.<\/p>\n

The thief tried to sell the Stradivarius to a pawnbroker but was told it was \u201ctoo hot.\u201d So, for more than 50 years, he played it\u2014disguised with boot polish and stained by cigarette smoke from seedy bars. After serving a jail term for another crime, he confessed on his deathbed. His abusive, alcoholic girlfriend received a 263,000-dollar finder\u2019s fee from Lloyd\u2019s\u2014an enormous sum at the time. She blew it all within a few years and died in a trailer park.<\/p>\n

But nothing stopped Huberman from playing\u2014or from raising enough money to save more than 1,000 Jewish people from Hitler\u2019s gas chambers.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Huberman decided to play the second half on his other violin…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Back to the present\u2014and that subway station. The Gibson ex-Huberman Stradivarius<\/em> wept, laughed, flirted, questioned, raged, and worshipped through five other masterpieces, yet only six people stopped briefly to listen. After 43 minutes, the violin case contained just 32.17 dollars.<\/p>\n

Yet three days earlier, the same violinist\u2014minus the baseball cap\u2014had packed Boston\u2019s Symphony Hall, where the cheapest seats cost over 100 dollars, and his fee was 1,000 dollars per minute. Only one person in the subway recognised him as Joshua Bell, a superstar of classical music since his debut at Carnegie Hall at age 17. Bell\u2019s parents had realised they had a prodigy when, at four years old, he stretched rubber bands across dresser drawers and twanged out songs by moving the drawers to vary the pitch.<\/p>\n

Joshua Bell likes to think that his mother\u2019s Russian Jewish ancestors heard Huberman play his violin in Palestine. Every time he performs in Israel with the orchestra Huberman founded\u2014now called the Israel Philharmonic\u2014he knows there are musicians and audience members who would not be alive if not for what Huberman did with that violin.<\/p>\n

A music critic once said Bell\u2019s playing \u201cdoes nothing less than tell human beings why they bother to live.\u201d But none of the subway commuters queueing for lottery tickets even bothered to look.<\/p>\n

\"\"
One critic said Bell\u2019s playing \u201cdoes nothing less than tell human beings why they bother to live\u201d.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Similarly, when a luminous choir of angels exploded into song to announce the birth of God\u2019s Messiah\u2014Peace on earth! Goodwill to all people!<\/em>\u2014the leaders and priests didn\u2019t even notice. So the angels sang to a few shepherds who couldn\u2019t read but were fascinated by ancient prophecies.<\/p>\n

Messiah\u2019s birth took place in the city of His ancestor, King David\u2014but not in a palace. His relatives were all there for a tax census, yet not one of them offered the young mother a comfortable room for her first birth. An animal shed was deemed good enough for a pregnancy out of wedlock.<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s religious scholars knew the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, but none came\u2014only some foreign philosophers. They, at least, began to comprehend who was actually in front of them.<\/p>\n

At twelve, when He walked into the Jerusalem temple and asked questions of the learned elders, Messiah seemed bright\u2014but just another Bar Mitzvah boy.<\/p>\n

He worked hard in a rough town for another eighteen years, just another carpenter.<\/p>\n

When His teaching delighted crowds, He was called uneducated, illegitimate, a threat to Pax Romana. Even His mother and brothers at times wondered whether He was divine or simply not quite right in the head. But no man ever spoke like this Man. Lepers and prostitutes and tax collectors and fishermen\u2014and even a few priests\u2014sensed that this was God incognito. Even blind people saw it.<\/p>\n

When He healed the sick and raised the dead, He was accused of being devilish, and was finally executed in the most cruel and shameful way the Romans knew\u2014like just another criminal. Most of His friends ran, but a former prostitute, a few other women, His mother, and His youngest disciple stayed to witness His final minutes.<\/p>\n

The hardened Roman centurion who ordered all His pain saw such tough kindness that he blurted out, \u201cThis man was definitely the Son of God.\u201d One crucified thief recognised Him as Lord and was promised paradise\u2014but the crowd mocked, \u201cIf you\u2019re really God\u2019s Son, come down off the cross!\u201d<\/p>\n

It was just as Isaiah the prophet predicted six centuries earlier:<\/p>\n

\u201cWho believed what we tried to tell them?
\nWho noticed God\u2019s hand at work?
\n. . . He had no image or majesty to draw our attention,
\nNo special appearance that made us want him.
\nHe was despised and rejected by people,
\nA man who knew sorrow, well acquainted with grief.
\nPeople turned their faces away from him.
\nHe was despised, and we thought he was nobody.
\nYet it was our grief he was carrying, our sorrow that he shouldered . . .
\nHe was wounded for our arrogant foolishness,
\nAnd punished for our sins.
\nHe endured a flogging to make us well,
\nAnd because of his wounds, we are healed.\u201d (Isaiah 53)<\/p>\n

\"\"
He will one day take over this poor little rebel planet and reign as Prince of Peace.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Three days after dying, Messiah reclaimed the eternal life and glory He had shared in heaven as Almighty God. Ruling the vast universe, He will one day take over this poor, little rebel planet and reign as the Prince of Peace\u2014so that there will be no more death or pain, neither sorrow nor crying, and all tears will be wiped away\u2014from your eyes and mine, if we let Him.<\/p>\n

His music still plays today, though many ignore it, underestimate Him, laugh at His followers, or dismiss His teachings\u2014some even twist them to serve their own ends. But those who truly listen know: He gives joy even in sorrow, a love stronger than hate, hope in the worst of times, and a truth that makes you free.<\/p>\n

His music plays for everyone\u2014in everyday life, even during rush hour. Stop and listen.<\/p>\n

\n

[Featured image: AI Image generated on Midjourney. Other images: Shutterstock].<\/p>\n

The original version of this article first appeared in the Record.<\/a><\/p>\n

Dr Aleta King, a violinist and conductor, won scholarships two years running to the Kod\u00e1ly Institute of the Liszt Academy in Hungary. She is the director of the conservatorium at Avondale University and loves the music and theology of JS Bach, and once served as an Adventist Volunteer Service at Stanborough Park Church and School, England.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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