Kelsi Vanada

Dear Friends,

I know I’m more than 50 years late to the party, but I recently “discovered” Jesus Christ Superstar.

The University of Arizona’s theater program put on the musical (technically a “sung-through rock opera”) last fall, and I was so taken with it that I’ve been listening to the soundtrack frequently since then. (I recommend the 2018 live concert recording with John Legend as Jesus and Sara Bareilles as Mary Magdalene.)

What’s most intriguing to me about the musical is the way that Jesus’ disciples become the main characters. We get to see their struggle as they are forced to reckon with who Jesus really is, and his assertion that he must die. One of my favorite songs is “Could We Start Again, Please?” It comes after Jesus has been interrogated by Pilate and Herod. Mary Magdalene and Peter worry that things are getting out of hand:

“I think you’ve made your point now
You’ve even gone a bit too far to get your message home
Before it gets too frightenin’, we ought to call a halt
Oh, could we start again, please?”

I have to imagine that the scene in our Gospel reading for today (Mark 8:27-9:1) is one of those moments when Peter and the disciples started to feel Jesus had gone a bit too far, to have a growing sense that the impact Jesus would have would come about in a very different way than they’d imagined. 

Even though Peter responds correctly that Jesus is the Messiah when asked, “Who do you say I am?,” he then rebukes Jesus when Jesus explains he will die and rise again. Jesus says to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

As Fr Robert wrote in his “From the Rector” note on February 23, Peter may have been hurt to be called Satan. I wonder if Peter’s growing sense of fear and dread about what was to come hurt just as much. Jesus Christ Superstar ends with Jesus’ crucifixion. But we have the reassurance that the story is more than a human one—and it doesn’t end with death.

“Who do you say I am?”

—Kelsi