Mary could not find a place to stay over for the night in Bethlehem and had to give birth to her
child in a stable:
“But there’s no room,
No space to rent in this town”.
Jesus came to the Earth to bring people faith and the meaning of life. He started preaching, but
nobody but a few followed him:
“You out of luck
And the reason you had to care,
The traffic is stuck
And you’re not moving anywhere...”
This feeling of despair and endless frustration is known to everybody. It’s hard to overcome the
misfortune, bring up your spirits and move on to the future. Bono shows that just like Jesus
people should carry their faith throughout bad times and go forward.
The next strophe carries a reference to another fact of Jesus’ life- the betrayal of Judas:
“You thought you’d found a friend
To take you out of this place
Someone you can lend a hand
In return for grace…”
According to the synoptic gospels, Jesus celebrated the Passover meal with his disciples-
subsequently known as the Last Supper- in which he predicted his future betrayal by one of his
apostles and his ultimate execution. Judas Iscariot did betray Jesus by identifying him to the
guards with a kiss: everything happened as Jesus had foretold.
The following lines are probably about the crucifixion:
“The sky falls
And you feel like it’s a beautiful day…”
Even at the moment when the “sky falls” and Jesus knows he would be killed, he know it is for a
reason and his death would be a sacrifice for humanity’s salvation and the atonement for sin
which had entered human history though the sin of Adam. That’s why Bono uses the words “feel
like a beautiful day”, because in the reality this day is torturous.
The lines:
“You love this town
Even if it doesn’t ring true
You’ve been all over
And it’s been all over you”
may convey the Christian belief that even after all the sins that humans have committed, Jesus
still loves this world and he would never leave it. As long as people will keep faith there will be
a reason for them to live.
The end of the song is a pray to Lord to teach people to keep the faith in bad times and to
enjoy every moment of life. He is saying that the world is beautiful and people should see all the
miracles that God has created for them. They should live in peace and take care of the planet
instead of ruining it. The meaningful symbol here is “the bird with a leaf in her mouth”. It is also
taken from the Bible from the story of Noah’s Ark, when he sent out a dove from his vessel and
it brought back a leaf, indicating that the water dried out from the earth and a new life can begin.
This biblical symbol is meaningful because according to the Bible, when the flood was over and
Noah stepped on earth and made a sacrifice to God, God made a promise that he would never
destroy the world in this manner ever again. Thus, no matter how bad our world is and no matter
how many terrible acts have been made by humans God will not destroy our planet and we
always will have a hope for a better future. According to Bono we can build this future by
returning back to timeless values of love and faith. This is what the last lines are about:
“What you don’t have you don’t need it now
What you don’t know you can feel it somehow…”
These words do not coincide with the values of today’s civilization, in which every human being
strives for more material pleasures and forgets about spiritual life. That’s why Bono wants to
remind the society about the universal values: love, kindness, generosity, faith.
