Such a Backwards Time and Such a Strange Land

Jesus Christ Superstar is the furthest thing from sacrilegious or blasphemous.

The rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar uses various vocal ranges, musical textures, and special effects to, ironically, strip away the glamour of how we see Jesus. It expands on the fact that Jesus slept and Jesus wept by showing Him as being overwhelmed, frustrated, and scared: all very human, very raw emotions that we tend to not think of Jesus as having. Even with the apparent Biblical accuracy issues, which mostly come from Andrew Lloyd Weber’s use of artistic license, I think Jesus Christ Superstar is a faithful interpretation of Jesus’s life as a person.

I do not think the show outright denies Jesus’s status as God. Instead, the show explores the way Christianity has (d)evolved over time and became what it is today. Current Christianity puts Jesus on a pedestal away from the social and political scene of His time, which inevitably distorts the truth of who He was. Pretending that Jesus was never influenced by social or political dynamics around Him doesn’t do anyone any favors, especially not Christians. Jesus was, in all likelihood, at least somewhat influenced by the environment around Him. The effect of environmental influence is one of the most important factors in the human condition. If Jesus did not…