In “Jesus Christ Superstar” Judas Asks All The Right Questions

Curiosity…

Doubt…

Questions…

Themes raised in the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar which has been playing from Broadway to school auditoriums since 1970.

Full disclosure: JCS is the first musical theater I ever saw when my parents took me to see it at the tender age of seven.  I still remember the lights going down as the electric guitar notes of the Overture echoed through the theater.

I was hooked… and subsequently wore out the double LP album on our turntable over the years.

Just this week I found myself listening and watching Youtube clips from the show and stumbled upon one from the 2012 Broadway revival where the cast performed the song Superstar at the Tony awards.

Jesus Christ
Superstar
Do you think you’re what they say you are?

For those unfamiliar with the show, Superstar is sung by the actor playing Judas Iscariot as Jesus is being crucified at the end of the show.  In the song Judas is asking questions…

…questions every honest person would ask.

* Jesus, are you really what you say you are?

* Jesus, why did you let the things happen the way they did?

* Jesus, did you really plan your death this way?

* Jesus, who are you? And what did you sacrifice?

He begs Jesus “not to get him wrong, he only wants to know”

Just like us…

As “Judas” sang at the Tony Awards suddenly the large screen behind him filled with the person of Jesus as he spoke from the Sermon on the Mount:

You have heard that it has been said, You shall love your neighbor, and hate your enemy.

But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them who despitefully use you, and persecute you; That you may be the children of your Father who is in heaven:

Matthew 5: 43-45

At the end of the song Jesus emerges from behind the screen with the cast representing a lot of humanity that we would probably NOT first associate as being religious.  Across the giant screen behind them the words appear:

To The Ends Of The Earth

Most of the church culture today would have little time for the Tony Awards or the people and culture that swirls around it and yet I couldn’t help but feel the audience there wants  Jesus to be who he says he is and wants the Good News that he brings.

I rather suspect the crowds around Jesus when he delivered his Sermon on the Mount 2000 years ago were a lot like the audience at the Tony awards. Despised by the religious leaders of the day…  not particularly good at the spiritual stuff …full of questions and full of doubt.  Wondering if this Jesus is who he says he is…

…is he the real deal?

The crowd probably had a lot dirt in their lives but they were drawn to a man and his message that proclaimed to the them:

“Cheer up, because for those of you not so good at being spiritual, the Kingdom of Heaven is for you too!”