What Will Your Legacy Be?

by Rolaant McKenzie

Born in a London rail station used as a bomb shelter during World War II to Polish Jewish refugees escaping the Holocaust, Jerry Springer (1944-2023) was raised in Queens, New York City. His public career included the roles of journalist, attorney, politician, actor, local newscaster, and radio and television show host. But Springer was best known for hosting The Jerry Springer Show, a television talk show that ran from 1991 to 2018.

For the first three years, The Jerry Springer Show was run as a traditional talk show that discussed political issues, current events, and social matters. However, the program experienced low ratings and was losing money. Eager to make the show profitable, Springer and the producers transformed it into a tabloid format. The show started to cover controversial and confrontational topics such as adultery, paternity, and familial dysfunction and became characterized by profanity, physical altercations, sexually explicit guests, and audience heckling. This succeeded in increasing show ratings, which brought in corresponding greater wealth from the advertisement revenue.

This new version of The Jerry Springer Show, redesigned to create controversy and confrontation, helped to pioneer a new genre of entertainment that came to be called "trash TV." Its popularity greatly increased the revenue of the television networks on which the show aired, and it spawned several similar daytime shows on other networks. Through the tenure of the show, Jerry Springer's fame and personal wealth increased.

Jerry Springer appeared on the November 8, 2022, episode of David Yontef's Behind the Velvet Rope podcast, just over four years after the last episode of his show aired, and about five months before his death. When asked about whether he considered himself the "granddaddy of reality TV," given the kind of material he covered on his show, he ruefully said:

"I just apologize. I'm so sorry. What have I done? I've ruined the culture. I just hope hell isn't that hot."

Despite having a long-running and highly popular show, which made him and the television network very rich, and becoming a cultural phenomenon, Springer's legacy is the coarsening, corrupting influence his show has had on popular culture and on future generations.

Judas Iscariot was chosen by Jesus along with eleven other men to be His disciple. He was commissioned along with them to preach the gospel to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and was empowered to heal the sick, raise the dead, and cast out demons (Matthew 10:1-15). Later in his ministry he was appointed treasurer for Jesus and the disciples and entrusted with the money box that held the donations of money given to them to aid in their work.

Over time Judas began to covet what was in the money box and began to surreptitiously steal some of its contents for himself (John 12:1-6). His greed for money grew, and it eventually led him to betray Jesus to the chief priests for thirty pieces of silver (Matthew 26:14-16). After seeing that Jesus had been condemned to death, he felt remorse regarding the outcome of his sin, but not true repentance for it. He felt sorrow about betraying innocent blood, but not for doing it. After tossing the money away in the temple, Judas went out and hung himself (Matthew 27:1-10). The desire for financial gain caused Judas to commit a terrible sin against the Lord, and his legacy is that his name to this day is synonymous with being a traitor.

James 3:4-12 speaks of how the tongue can be likened to a small fire that can set aflame a forest or a restless evil full of deadly poison. Social media has become an environment where an increasing number of people acquire news about the world and their entertainment. Some podcasters or online influencers have adopted the business model of using their tongues to promote sensational fables, sow discord, engage in innuendo, spread gossip, promote historical revisionism to support false narratives, slander others, and incite hatred against Jews, Israel, and those who love and support them to increase the clicks to their content and magnify their wealth. They have influenced many others who, seeing their financial success, create online shows following the same hateful and destructive pattern.

Some of these online influencers will claim to be followers of Jesus by saying "Christ is King" and having a cross in the background during their programs, but they use their voices to advocate for nations that are adversaries of the countries in which they reside, and they also advocate for Islam, whose adherents worldwide persecute and massacre Christians and others who refuse to bend the knee to their false god Allah.

The way they use their razor-sharp tongues to devise destruction and devour others for favor and financial gain reveals that Jesus Christ is neither their Lord nor King, but they are betrayers of Him as was Judas. Their legacy is the corruption, weakening, and destruction of civil society in the countries they profess to put first unless they repent, turn to the Lord in truth, and use their voices and talents to build up others rather than to destroy.

Zaccheus was a Jewish man and a resident of the city of Jericho. He was deeply hated and considered a traitor to his people because not only was he a tax collector for the Roman occupiers of Israel, but a chief tax collector who oversaw others who gathered revenue for the Romans. He was very wealthy because he was able to tax more than the Romans required and keep the difference for himself.

One day Jesus entered Jericho, and Zaccheus very much wanted to catch a glimpse of Him. Perhaps he heard that this remarkable Man accepted even tax collectors like himself and that one of His disciples was formerly a tax collector. But Zaccheus was of small stature and could not see Him through the crowds. He was so intent on seeing Jesus that he set aside his dignity and ran a little ahead of where Jesus was and climbed a sycamore tree.

But Jesus came to the tree and kindly called him by name to come down, for He would stay at his house. Moved to his heart, Zaccheus came down from the tree and received Him gladly. Showing true repentance, he promised to give half of his possessions to the poor and return fourfold to anyone he had defrauded.

Jesus, ignoring the grumbles of those in the crowd that said He was going to be a guest of a sinner, said to Zaccheus:

"Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost." (Luke 19:9-10)

Zaccheus changed from a man lost in sin and his greed for money to a man saved by a close encounter with the Lord Jesus Himself. His legacy is that wherever the gospel is preached, his story will be told. It has and will continue to provide hope to the most wretched of sinners that even they, if they trust in the crucified and risen Savior from the dead, the Lord Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of their sins, can receive salvation, peace with God, and eternal life with Him in His kingdom.

What will your legacy be? Will it be like those of Jerry Springer, Judas, or an unscrupulous podcaster? Will your legacy be a futile life of ruining others and, in the end, ruining yourself in the pursuit of wealth or following those who do (1 Timothy 6:3-12)? Or will it be like that of Zaccheus, a new permanent life through faith in Jesus Christ that builds up others and spreads God’s grace in the world?