Jesus Christ Superstar

Of all of the Broadway plays and musicals I have seen over the years, perhaps the most controversial was Jesus Christ Superstar. Any time we play with a well known story, let alone what many Christians consider to be the crux of their faith, Christians rise up, and this show was no exception. While apparent to me that Andrew Lloyd Weber is not a biblical scholars, rather a story teller, others don't seem to get this point and think the show is supposed to be historical. On the other hand, who is to say what is actual historical.

At UM General Conference in Tampa the test vote was about who the delegates favorite disciple was. Something like 13% answered Judas, to which one tweeter responded that they must have seen Jesus Christ Superstar. This was in fact my favorite part of the show - the humanizing of Judas, Jesus, and Mary.

The Gospels were written for a specific audience and then transported/ transformed into something timeless. So while ancient readers may not have been worried about plot and character development, we crave this today. We want something or someone in the stories to connect with and Weber did just that. Judas became a real person with a real delemia when he though Jesus was getting out of control. In the words of the theme song,
"Every time I look at you, I don't understand, how you let things you did get so out of hand."

But what captivated me the most was the hook in the same song, "Jesus Christ, who are you! What have you sacrificed?" And this is where I think that people have the real problem with the show- it allows you to voice your doubts with the gospel story. But isn't that what is most authentic about our faith? That we don't always know everything. That we aren't always in a place where we believe every detail. And we are on a journey where different questions plague, captivate, or propel us forward from time to time. But we don't want people to know that - no one in or outside of the church, because it makes us vulnerable.

How can each of us accept and embrace the authenticity of our questions and confusion and faith, in order to be true to ourselves along this journey. Because if we are just acting like we know, believe, and accept everything all the time, we aren't helping anyone, including ourselves.

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