Too Much Heaven on Their Minds
I will confess that I really like Jesus Christ Superstar. I like the music, I like the over-the-top staging. I just like it. And, in a true upset, the live version on NBC Easter Sunday night was actually really well done. Judas (Brandon Dixon), Mary Magdalene (Sarah Bareillis), and Simon the Zealot (Erik Gronwall) were particularly good, Alice Cooper was appropriately ridiculous as Herod, and John Legend as Jesus brought a soulful note to the character. The live audience was a nice touch, and the staging was very industrial and interesting.
But, watching in Sunday night, it hit me as to the real reason why I like Jesus Christ Superstar. People talk about how Jesus Christ Superstar is a "modern" take on the Jesus story, and that's true. People talk about how it shows a more human Jesus, and that's true, too. But the real reason why Jesus Christ Superstar is modern is that the whole story is really a reflection on cynicism and pragmatic politics, to the extent those are two different things.
My favorite song in Jesus Christ Superstar is the first one, "Heaven on the Their Minds." Judas makes a case for what we would now call a secular social justice movement. Everything was great, Judas argues, as long as Jesus was healing people and lifting up the poor. But now Jesus is going on about God and spiritual things, and this is both (1) distracting us from the "real work," and (2) raising unwelcome attention that might jeopardize the good work we are doing. It is a perfectly pragmatic, reasonable conclusion to draw, so long as one looks at the world in a pragmatic matter.
"Simon Zealotes" is a song about power politics. You have all these people here who are willing to follow you--don't you have an obligation to do something about the Romans? "This Jesus Must Die," with Caiaphas and Annas plotting to arrest Jesus, is also about the power politics of people who believe they have found a way to survive as an occupied people and will do the "hard things" necessary to maintain this status quo. Both Pilate and Herod see Jesus entirely in pragmatic terms.
Jesus Christ Superstar works because it both acknowledges that these perspectives are completely reasonable on their own terms, and is unambiguous in having Jesus (and, by extension, the story as a whole) reject them. This is both a rather sophisticated theological point and one that is absolutely relevant and timely. We live in a world where a wide array of forces are trying to reduce the Christian message to a pragmatic program. The Trump religious conservatives are the most obvious example, but they are not the only example. The moral and theological center of Jesus Christ Superstar is the song "Poor Jerusalem":
Neither you Simon, nor the fifty thousand
Nor the Romans, nor the Jews
Nor Judas, nor the twelve, nor the Priests, nor the scribes
Nor doomed Jerusalem itself
Understand what power is
Understand what glory is
Understand at all
Understand at all
If you knew all that I knew, my poor Jerusalem
You'd see the truth, but you close your eyes
But you close your eyes
While you live, your troubles are many, poor Jerusalem
To conquer death you only have to die
You only have to die.
Pragmatism and power politics, no matter how reasonable they may seem, are a dead end. The only way to win the game of thrones is to lose. That's the message of Jesus, and it is one we need to hear in 2018.
Something else that struck me watching it this time around is the last song, "Superstar." I always thought it ended the show on a weird note, but watching it this time it came across as deeply ironic and subversive. The complaint that Jesus should have waited for modern media technology seems like a joke--as if people Tweeting Jesus's recent sayings would improve our consumption and reception of His message. Only the most clueless and self-absorbed tech bro, someone like Mark Zuckerberg, could possibly believe something like that. I don't know if that's how it came across in the 70s, but that's how it seems now. Ending with that song reinforces the idea that no one, with the exception of Jesus and maybe Mary Magdalene, really has any comprehension of what Jesus was really about or trying to do. "Superstar" is the ultimate expression of modern cynicism.
Also, speaking of Mary Magdalene, this may have been obvious to other folks, but it is now clear to me that she is a kind of audience avatar, an every-woman. "Could We Start Again, Please?" and "I Don't Know How to Love Him" are the cries of a person that has no agenda or set of expectations. She is someone who had an encounter with something that she doesn't understand and is going to ride it out and see what happens. Jesus Christ Superstar famously doesn't talk about the Resurrection, but the show perfectly positions Mary Magdalene to be the first witness to the Risen Christ and the first Apostle. She, uniquely among the characters in the show, has no pre-conceived notions about what is going on, so her eyes are open to see what is to come. She is the only real believer.
If you believe, as I do, that Jesus was/is really the Son of God, it stand to reason that no singular vision or portrayal of Him can capture the full reality. I mean, there is a reason there are four Gospels. We will always be coming back to this story, bringing ourselves and our situation, finding the things in it that speaks to our time and our place. People who think that Jesus Christ Superstar is anti-faith are either blinded by the rock-and-roll presentation, or are not comfortable hearing what it has to say about our pervasive and destructive cynicism (including, and perhaps especially, in our churches). Jesus Christ Superstar may not be the story for our situation, but it certainly is a story that speaks to our time.
But, watching in Sunday night, it hit me as to the real reason why I like Jesus Christ Superstar. People talk about how Jesus Christ Superstar is a "modern" take on the Jesus story, and that's true. People talk about how it shows a more human Jesus, and that's true, too. But the real reason why Jesus Christ Superstar is modern is that the whole story is really a reflection on cynicism and pragmatic politics, to the extent those are two different things.
My favorite song in Jesus Christ Superstar is the first one, "Heaven on the Their Minds." Judas makes a case for what we would now call a secular social justice movement. Everything was great, Judas argues, as long as Jesus was healing people and lifting up the poor. But now Jesus is going on about God and spiritual things, and this is both (1) distracting us from the "real work," and (2) raising unwelcome attention that might jeopardize the good work we are doing. It is a perfectly pragmatic, reasonable conclusion to draw, so long as one looks at the world in a pragmatic matter.
"Simon Zealotes" is a song about power politics. You have all these people here who are willing to follow you--don't you have an obligation to do something about the Romans? "This Jesus Must Die," with Caiaphas and Annas plotting to arrest Jesus, is also about the power politics of people who believe they have found a way to survive as an occupied people and will do the "hard things" necessary to maintain this status quo. Both Pilate and Herod see Jesus entirely in pragmatic terms.
Jesus Christ Superstar works because it both acknowledges that these perspectives are completely reasonable on their own terms, and is unambiguous in having Jesus (and, by extension, the story as a whole) reject them. This is both a rather sophisticated theological point and one that is absolutely relevant and timely. We live in a world where a wide array of forces are trying to reduce the Christian message to a pragmatic program. The Trump religious conservatives are the most obvious example, but they are not the only example. The moral and theological center of Jesus Christ Superstar is the song "Poor Jerusalem":
Neither you Simon, nor the fifty thousand
Nor the Romans, nor the Jews
Nor Judas, nor the twelve, nor the Priests, nor the scribes
Nor doomed Jerusalem itself
Understand what power is
Understand what glory is
Understand at all
Understand at all
If you knew all that I knew, my poor Jerusalem
You'd see the truth, but you close your eyes
But you close your eyes
While you live, your troubles are many, poor Jerusalem
To conquer death you only have to die
You only have to die.
Pragmatism and power politics, no matter how reasonable they may seem, are a dead end. The only way to win the game of thrones is to lose. That's the message of Jesus, and it is one we need to hear in 2018.
Something else that struck me watching it this time around is the last song, "Superstar." I always thought it ended the show on a weird note, but watching it this time it came across as deeply ironic and subversive. The complaint that Jesus should have waited for modern media technology seems like a joke--as if people Tweeting Jesus's recent sayings would improve our consumption and reception of His message. Only the most clueless and self-absorbed tech bro, someone like Mark Zuckerberg, could possibly believe something like that. I don't know if that's how it came across in the 70s, but that's how it seems now. Ending with that song reinforces the idea that no one, with the exception of Jesus and maybe Mary Magdalene, really has any comprehension of what Jesus was really about or trying to do. "Superstar" is the ultimate expression of modern cynicism.
Also, speaking of Mary Magdalene, this may have been obvious to other folks, but it is now clear to me that she is a kind of audience avatar, an every-woman. "Could We Start Again, Please?" and "I Don't Know How to Love Him" are the cries of a person that has no agenda or set of expectations. She is someone who had an encounter with something that she doesn't understand and is going to ride it out and see what happens. Jesus Christ Superstar famously doesn't talk about the Resurrection, but the show perfectly positions Mary Magdalene to be the first witness to the Risen Christ and the first Apostle. She, uniquely among the characters in the show, has no pre-conceived notions about what is going on, so her eyes are open to see what is to come. She is the only real believer.
If you believe, as I do, that Jesus was/is really the Son of God, it stand to reason that no singular vision or portrayal of Him can capture the full reality. I mean, there is a reason there are four Gospels. We will always be coming back to this story, bringing ourselves and our situation, finding the things in it that speaks to our time and our place. People who think that Jesus Christ Superstar is anti-faith are either blinded by the rock-and-roll presentation, or are not comfortable hearing what it has to say about our pervasive and destructive cynicism (including, and perhaps especially, in our churches). Jesus Christ Superstar may not be the story for our situation, but it certainly is a story that speaks to our time.
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