Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Jesus Christ Superstar has always been one of my favorite pieces of music and film, definitely the high point of both composers’ careers. It’s been pretty much my only source of learning about Jesus, sad to say. It’s a lot less effortful than actually sitting down to read a Bible. It does raise the question, or the feeling, that it’s somehow vaguely wrong to be getting so much delight from a story that, after all, didn’t end so well for its protagonist. Should Christ’s last days on earth really be so much fun for us? I realize the authors were less concerned about Biblical accuracy than in making Jesus and disciples accessible to modern rock fans. Both in play and in movie, accuracy isn’t the point. No one had the intent or the budget to recreate Biblical Jerusalem or period manner and garb faithfully, and instead compensated with humorously intentional anachronisms. Which again makes you wonder if there’s some sinful element in having a laugh at the movie’s flamboyant Herod or the rack of postcards displayed at the temple, all the while Jesus is having the worst times of His life. On the other hand, I know of a certain someone who made a movie of the exact same storyline and the degree of historical and medical accuracy in that movie made damn sure the audience was as miserable as Christ Himself, which I don’t think is a preferable approach. Frankly, flayed and bleeding is not how I want to see Jesus. I want to see Jesus singing and dancing.
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