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Watching Jesus Christ Superstar



Stephen Hornsby-Smith

Both Man and God died over Easter: Judas was condemned to madness and then suicide then hell, whilst Jesus was crucified and then was resurrected - there could not be so definitive extreme polar opposites of outcomes. But I'm not another apologist for Judas or a skeptic about the existence of Christ. Here are some of my thoughts: Judas witnessed a charismatic philosopher com carpenter com prophet, but that's as far as Judas went. He might well have thought that Jesus had become a rip-off merchant, indulged by a hooker believer who anointed Jesus with expensive oils. Judas might have been a Socialist who considered giving 30 pieces of silver to the poor. Yet I believe that Jesus took pity on Judas like he took pity on humanity in general. However, I think that Jesus reached out to all his followers in an individualistic way. He taught Peter to become a leader, he taught Mary Magdalene to express her soul not her body, Thomas not to be dependent on human logic, Matthew not to count his pennies, Paul to literally open his eyes from being blind to Christ, and , he taught Judas not to be obsessed with materialistic reductionism.(at great cost for Judas- pun not intended) etc. Psychologists today would say that Jesus cunningly offered people what they didn't know was their subconscious wish, but I'm more drawn to the idea that self-analysis was proffered by Jesus to enable people to make their own minds -up.

Jesus individualized his faithful to open their hearts and minds to reject ideas of control and power, centralized and dogmatic.He today would have harnessed the best of us all to open-up rather than repress, to accept rather than deceive ourselves, to explore our potential rather than drown in our self-inflicted guilt and shame. Moreover we have fixations on power and powerlessness, materialism and non-materialism, adherence to doctrine and adherence to counter-doctrine. I think in our lifetime scientists will disprove the ancient texts of Judaistic Christianity,and we should steel ourselves to be bombarded with a science that backs that up. Perhaps only when humanity disproves God's existence will Christ come again?

I believe that Christian repentance is a syntheses for forgiving ourselves and those who have sinned against us. There is a moral argument that the masochistic damage we do to ourselves is a human error and not part of the rock that Christ's was built upon.I believe in restorative values and not punitive sanctions, and I hope that one day the evil that visited Judas will be cast aside and he can hope for forgiveness..


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