Because, in one sense, that’s exactly what we saw on Sunday night’s television production of “Jesus Christ Superstar.”
The lyrics of the accompanying musical number leave little to the imagination. True to at least some of the Gospel accounts, the Jewish leaders need Jesus’ death.
For a largely illiterate population, the Passion play was the way that they learned the story of Jesus’ arrest, trial, execution and resurrection — along with the classic anti-Semitic elements that defined the story.
The Passion play tradition did not end with the coming of modernity. The problematic passion play in Oberammergau, Germany, continues to this day.