Jesus Christ Superstar

So our family and some friends saw a local production of Jesus Christ Superstar last night. Having never seen the production, I had been warned that it might be offensive, and some actually used the word blasphemous. I am publicly admitting today that I am either theatrically ignorant or more religiously tolerant than I thought. Or both.

In bullet points (because it's how I think and see the world) here are my observations:

• No one approaches the subject of Jesus' life without bringing a certain bias, and Andrew Lloyd Weber and Tim Rice are no exception. They are entitled to express their bias with their own creative and brilliant methods.

• The music of the 70's rocked!

• There is no biblical evidence for portraying Mary Magdalene as a woman with a sordid sexual past, but there it was. Again, I refer to my first point: you're the genius in theater - you get to portray the characters any way you like. Weber and Rice were certainly not the first, nor will they be the last to think of Mary as a former whore.

• Dan Brown (author of The DaVinci Code) probably loved this play. The whole Mary/Jesus love connection...I'm just sayin'.

• Jesus and Judas did die the same week. Fascinating premise to chronicle what that last week would have been like between them. (Also wondering how that era produced such high tenors that could melt your face with their singing. Who knew that's what Jesus and Judas had in common?)

• Staging the tongue in cheek numbers (think Herod in a spa and Judas in the all-sequined afterlife) just that way seemed apt in light of how off everyone was in their assessment of Jesus' purpose. Had Jesus jumped down off the cross to appease the crowd's thirst for sensationalism, everyone would have believed; but they would have believed in an incomplete Jesus. Bottom line: He had to die and rise to actually conquer sin and death. It wasn't the show-stopping number everyone anticipated. It was so much more. I miss it too, sometimes. "Prove you're who you say you are", I demand. As if this life is about me.

• I don't believe Jesus told the lepers, the lame, the poor, and the blind to heal themselves, as He did in the play, but I do believe He may have felt tempted to, if we're to believe Hebrews 4:15, which tells us that "we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are - yet was without sin."

• The song Jesus sang in the Garden of Gethsemane scene depicts every bit of anguish and desperation that I picture when I read the gospels. Gorgeous lyrics, heartbreaking delivery. What must that night have been like? Did it feel like Jesus was drinking poison to obey? How does that figure in with the description in Hebrews 12 that says Jesus endured the cross "for the joy set before him"? And what would it be like for me to have my mind so focused on an eternal perspective - so consumed with love for my Savior - that joy could be mingled with anguish? I think I've experienced that to some degree in my life at times, but nothing like Jesus.

So I think the 1973 movie might have to move up on my netflix list. Those rockin' disciples and their songs are going to be haunting me for a while.