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Andrew Klavan, Jesus Christ Superstar, and Gritty Christian Realism
Andrew Klavan of Daily Wire and Ricochet Audio Network fame is a talented author of fiction and a stern critic of contemporary Christian works. He often says he gets flack from Christians for including profanities and, um, non-Christian behaviors in his novels and screenplays. But, he finds most overtly Christian movies unrelatable and clunky attempts at messaging, which end up only delivering pablum. I agree. We Chauvinists haven’t paid to see a Christian movie in the theater since Fireproof (2008), which was uninspiring enough for us to forswear God’s Not Dead, its sequels, and all the rest.
However, when Mr. C found a theater production of Jesus Christ Superstar (JCS) playing in Denver, we jumped at the chance to see it. Our tickets were for Black (Good?) Friday. Coincidence?
Jesus Christ Superstar is a rock opera written by Andrew Lloyd Weber and Tim Rice about the Passion of Christ as told from the perspective of Judas, Jesus’ betrayer. The story itself — some would say the greatest story ever told (I would) — is about as gritty as it gets, but the rock element takes the production into the realm of high art, in my opinion. The screaming guitars and wailing vocals delivering Tim Rice’s brilliant lyrics (which authentically represent the Biblical account) portray the Passion in a way modern audiences can get. It’s art, and yet it’s devastatingly real. True Myth, C.S. Lewis would say.
It’s the insight into fallen human nature that gives JCS its power. The actor Will Smith got into trouble several years ago for saying (paraphrased), “Hitler didn’t wake up in the morning and say, ‘I’m going to make the world a worse place.’ He thought he was doing good for Aryan Germans, at least.” Weber and Rice made the same controversial statement first about Judas, though.
In the scene where Mary Magdalene is anointing Jesus, Judas complains that the money used to purchase the oil could have been spent to help the poor and starving.
Jesus’ response brings us back to harsh reality:
Surely you’re not saying we have the resources
To save the poor from their lot?
There will be poor always, pathetically struggling.
Look at the good things you’ve got.
Think while you still have me!
Move while you still see me!
You’ll be lost, and you’ll be sorry when I’m gone.
Judas has tried to warn Jesus of the consequences of exciting crowds and drawing the attention of occupying Roman forces:
Listen Jesus I don’t like what I see.
All I ask is that you listen to me.
And remember, I’ve been your right hand man all along.
You have set them all on fire.
They think they’ve found the new Messiah.
And they’ll hurt you when they find they’re wrong.I remember when this whole thing began.
No talk of God then, we called you a man.
And believe me, my admiration for you hasn’t died.
But every word you say today
Gets twisted ’round some other way.
And they’ll hurt you if they think you’ve lied.
Nazareth, your famous son should have stayed a great unknown
Like his father carving wood He’d have made good.
Tables, chairs, and oaken chests would have suited Jesus best.
He’d have caused nobody harm; no one alarm.Listen, Jesus, do you care for your race?
Don’t you see we must keep in our place?
We are occupied; have you forgotten how put down we are?I am frightened by the crowd.
For we are getting much too loud.
And they’ll crush us if we go too far.
If they go too far….Listen, Jesus, to the warning I give.
Please remember that I want us to live.
But it’s sad to see our chances weakening with every hour.
All your followers are blind.
Too much heaven on their minds.
It was beautiful, but now it’s sour.Yes it’s all gone sour.
Listen, Jesus, to the warning I give.
Please remember that I want us to live.C’mon, c’mon
He won’t listen to me …
C’mon, c’mon
He won’t listen to me …
Does this sound like anyone you know? Judas wants to serve the poor; he wants to protect Jesus and the Jewish race; he’s afraid for Jesus and his followers and just wants them to live. What’s wrong with any of that? He has good intentions.
The problem from a Christian perspective is Judas has no faith. He puts his trust in men — especially himself. This calls to mind the whole progressive mindset for me. It’s Greta Thunberg writ large.
Of course, unlike the prophet-of-doom Greta, Judas isn’t wrong about the consequences of Jesus’ rise to prominence. Jesus will agonize over his forthcoming suffering; he will be flogged and humiliated; he will fall under the weight of his Cross — the instrument of his torture — and our salvation; and he will die crying out to God the sorrow of his abandonment. But, Judas doesn’t foresee the Resurrection. And, while he turns out to be right about Rome crushing Israel and the Jews through the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD, he does not understand that the mighty Roman Empire will become the means by which Christianity will ultimately spread throughout the world to become a universal blessing in the ultimate fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant.
God’s repeated question to us throughout Old and New Testaments is, “Do you trust Me?” All too often throughout history and today, we tell God to “talk to the hand,” we’ve got this, rather than seeking to do His will. It is a particular characteristic of the progressive mindset to implore God to “listen to me!,” I have the answers — and to value good intentions above all. But, JCS’s portrayal of Judas shows us good intentions are not exculpatory. It is by our fruits we can know whether we’re accomplishing God’s will, which is always for glorious purposes. Whether we’re progressives or not, though, we’re all the same species — Homo Betrayus — and we need a Savior.
I doubt Weber and Rice meant JCS to be a method of evangelization, but it is for me. I think it’s a modern Christian work of genius. I wonder what @andrewklavan makes of it?
Published in General
I never thought it Jesus Christ Superstar in that way. For me, it is hard to look past the theatrics, but I will have to rewatch it with new eyes.
Thank you for this explanation of Jesus Christ Superstar. I had this thought, and I can’t point to where it came from, that JCS was sacrilegious garbage and best kept away from. I didn’t know the plot and you make it sound interesting. Makes me want to track down a production to watch. Any ones on video that I should search out?
I liked breakthrough
It made me have feelz.
Another view
What made me see it this way is the twinges of sympathy it elicits for Judas. We all have a little Judas in us.
I think you can find the entire movie on YouTube and possibly some more recent theater productions. I wish I could share the one we saw, but I’m not sure they’ve released a recording yet. I’d recommend looking for a theater production over the movie.
I never saw the movie, but I wore the soundtrack out.
Me too!! I saw the movie long after my cassette tape wore out!
JCS is standard orchestra music. The Everett Symphony played selections often, and Ray’s accordion band has a snippet in their Andrew Lloyd Weber medley.
I never saw it live, but like @RandyWebster I wore out the 8 track. I credit it with contributing to my finding my way to Christianity. Afterwards I had some folks tell me it was the work of the devil! I looked back at the message and the story and I just don’t see it. It is pretty close to what I got from the new testament. I think back then the fact that it was a rock opera made it suspect to many, rock was the devils music and all that tripe.
I didn’t like the move much, found it hard to follow. I always wondered if I would have responded to the stage version better than I did the movie.
Facing the Giants is pretty good . . .
I can not remember not knowing all the lyrics to the whole rock opera. My parents had the four-record vinyl set. We played it over and over and over and over.
I remember learning to leap off the raised fireplace in my parents’ living room (our stage, of course!) so gently that the record would not skip as we danced and belted out the lyrics, especially to Judas’ numbers.
“Every time I look at you I don’t understand, why you let the things you did get so out of hand? You’d have managed better if you’d had it planned. Why’d you choose such a backward time in such a strange land?”
“Don’t you get me wrong! Don’t you get me wrong! Only want to know! Only want to know now!”
I couldn’t help head waggling and toe tapping while watching it on stage.
I had it on cassette. I was such a JCS nerd my older brother bought me some Elton John albums to try to lure me into more mainstream (for the time) music.
We have the 2-CD set and have for 2 decades, but it’s funny, my parents had the stage version and the CDs are the movie version. Of course all the differences (which are admittedly minor) still seem “wrong” to me, more than 20 years on….
Well done, WC. I worked crew for my high school’s production. It subverted my incipient atheism. I don’t think that was the intent of Weber and Rice. It doesn’t matter; it did anyway.
The movie had come out a few years before our school production. Despite the kind of clunky visual elements (Roman soldiers in mirrored modern combat helmets and toting automatic weapons) it was pretty good. Ted Neeley and Carl Anderson had the pipes for it.
You can buy both JCS and Godspell on CD from Amazon. I bought both. I prefer some of the music from Godspell. Interesting to listen to both.
It didn’t keep me from going down that road, but the power of it stayed with me, and now that I’m out in the deep, I have new insights and greater appreciation for it.
Is Godspell the one where Oliver popularized “Good Morning, Starshine?”
Here’s the three-minute history of the making of JCS
And for particular interest of Catholics, when people complain about the ornate gold sacramental vessels and monstrances used in the Church (typically progressive liberation theology types (and youngsters like me, once)), doesn’t it remind you of Judas complaining about the expense of the anointing oil? How else should we treat the Real Presence of Christ??
Don’t be like Judas.
Yeah, it’s in there.
“Godspell” isn’t quite the “listen to over and over” soundtrack that JCS is.
I always liked “All For the Best” though.
No idea. I will have to put the CD on again. I just like the joyful sound of it.
I love Jesus Christ Superstar as rock opera – I have it on DVD and pull it out now and then – and I agree it can be inspirational, but it’s also very problematic from an orthodox Christian (Catholic) perspective.
Aesthetically, it is quite subversive as Judas, not Christ, is the real star of the show. Even after he’s committed suicide, Judas gets to sing the show-stopping finale while Christ passively submits to his fate. Giving the “bad guy” the most dramatic role and “final word” is a not so subtle way of undermining the traditional Christian story.
And the JCS version of Christ is, well, a bit of a letdown. He spends a fair amount of his time in self-pity, e.g. “There is not a man among you who knows or cares if I come or go.” At the last supper, there is “For all you care this could be my body”, which is also, incidentally, problematic for Catholics. Worst of all, at Gethsemane, Christ seems confused about why he’s there and apparently has no idea why he’s headed for crucifixion. He seems to think he should get a reward out of it (“If I die what will be my reward”) and rages at the Father for starting this thing. In a crescendo of self-pity, he ends up acquiescing to his fate mostly in spite, because he doesn’t have a choice (“you hold every card.”) The actual Christ, of course, while fearful of the fate that was before him, knew exactly what He was doing and why He was there, and prayed for the courage to carry it through (as an example for us.) The result of his prayers in Gethsemane were loving submission to The Father, peace and a calm determination to finish the task before him. (Gibson’s Passion of the Christ does an excellent job of showing this). And he knew full well that His Death would be followed by His Resurrection. That was the point. The JCS Christ seems just as confused as Judas as to what the point of it all was.
You can’t blame the JCS Christ as Superstar ends with the crucifixion. Everyone gets on a bus and goes home. There is no Resurrection. And as St. Paul tells us, without the Resurrection there really was no point to it. (“And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.” 1 Cor. 15:14).
If I was Christ, I’d be pissed too.
But the songs are great and I can never get enough of Ted Neeley.
I take your points. But, Christianity is full of paradoxes (Jesus as fully human and fully divine, for example). I think it leaves enough room for artistic license that the Jesus of JCS’s seeming human frailty works in the story even if it’s not strictly theologically accurate.
But, you’re right, Judas has the best songs and eats up the scenery. I’m just glad he tells us something about ourselves, and it’s not all that flattering.
I didn’t think of it your way, either, when I first saw a performance back around 1971. But your point is a good one.
I had the original album, too, and listened to it many times.
I think it also works as a tool of evangelization, perhaps despite itself. It did for me. When I began reconsidering Christianity in my 20’s (after leaving at after high school), for some reason I was drawn to JCS and watched it over and over again on VHS. I found the scenes with Pilate especially powerful. I think the brief scene of the scourging in JCS is more powerful than the much longer one in Passion of the Christ.
I remember pondering for a long time that ending scene in JCS… when everyone gets on the bus and drives away, leaving Christ on the cross. The End. And that’s what should have happened… but it didn’t. Instead, the Apostles were soon energized in a way that was inexplicable without the Resurrection.
Of course I was already familiar with the historical arguments for the Resurrection, one of them being the dynamic evangelization of the Apostles post-Crucifixion. It’s one thing to hear the argument, however, and another to ponder through JCS the fact that without the Resurrection there is simply no more story to tell. Also, that without the Resurrection, the story of Christ Himself loses its dramatic center and meaning, which is why from a plot perspective JCS is something of a muddle. The Resurrection is the heart and soul of the story, and without it, even a great storyteller like Andrew Lloyd Webber can’t ultimately make the story work.
The fact that the orthodox story is simply a much better story as a story had a big effect on me. I eventually realized that JCS drew its dramatic power from the power of the Gospel, but in an attenuated form through its distortions, that nonetheless revealed the glory of the true Gospel in contrast. Really, JCS got me to actually listen to the true Gospel for the first time.
The movie is set in Israel, and it was very poorly thought out in terms of scenery. I mean, there has to be tremendously beautiful places in Israel; I’ve never been there but have been to several places in the US where the church or temple and its terraced grounds were supposedly duplicates of places there. And those were stunningly beautiful.
A youtube of a stage production, if available, is probably a lot more compelling.
Great points. Without the Resurrection, Jesus might have been “forgotten ten minutes after” he died, as the lyrics say — just another Jewish peasant slain by the Romans.