Life Before Death

As part of our preparation for Holy Week and Easter this year, our churches have had a study group in Lent looking at the key characters in the story through the lens of how those characters are portrayed in Jesus Christ Superstar, the musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. This was inspired by the Bashaw Community Theatre production over the Palm Sunday weekend, Good Friday and Holy Saturday.

There’s been lots of debate about JCSS since it first appeared as a rock album in 1970 and subsequently became a popular stage musical. It’s the story of Jesus’ last days, but it’s not particularly “biblical.” That’s not its point. It imagines the relationships between Jesus and the one dimensional characters that surround him in the narrative and gives them depth and personality. It imagines a different way to see the story and from that vantage point invites us to think more deeply about what was happening.

At least, I think it does, whether you’re familiar with the story, both the gospel narratives and the traditions we’ve developed around them, or you don’t know the story at all, and then it offers a deeply passionate exploration of relationships, love, power and sacrifice. Passion is the key word there.

In one of our last group meetings, someone commented that they’d been listening to excerpts of the St. Matthew Passion by J.S Bach on the radio when they realized that Jesus Christ Superstar was a “Passion.” The Passion is what the church formally calls the narrative of Jesus’ final days, his arrest, trial and crucifixion. Just like the movie title, The Passion of the Christ. Reading “The Passion” as part of the Good Friday service or, more recently, the Sunday before (calling it “Passion Sunday”) means reading that portion of one of the gospels that covers those days. Many classical composers have set that to music and J.S. Bach’s are among the most famous.

I agree, Jesus Christ Superstar is a “Passion,” though it offers a different perspective on telling the story, one which is, in all ways, passionate.

The Passion, as the church titles it, is the arrest, trial, and crucifixion of Jesus. In other words, it’s about suffering, agony and death. The characters in the story - the good, the bad and the fearful - serve that narrative simply, without much colour or complexity. JCSS takes the time to explore some of those characters and their relationships. How Mary struggles with her love for Jesus, for example, and, more importantly, how Judas does, too. Yes, Judas. And Jesus. Is he, as the song says, “who they say you are?” What’s really going on with the temple authorities? What do they really think of Jesus? And Pilate and the colourful Herod, too. 

The point is, it raises questions that dive deeper into the story because it develops the characters in order to understand their relationships, their love, their devotion, even their sacrifice. Though it ends in death, it explores life, love and yes, passion for that. It’s emotional and deep and passionate in the best possible way.

I wonder if we might spend a little more time with the stories of the living rather than simply how they serve death. That was really the point of Jesus, to bring life, not with his death, but with his living and loving. Jesus was passionate about life.