“Unless I see nail marks put my finger into His side, I shall not believe that He is alive ” Thomas after hearing from the disciples that Jesus is alive.  Taken from Risen!- The Musical.

“How Great Are His Signs” featuring Thomas (played by James Townend)  and The Original Cast from Risen!- The Musical

Jesus Christ Superstar has, of course, been immensely successful over four decades, however it does not include the Resurrection of Jesus. Stephen Schwartz’s 1970’s musical Godspell  is  regarded by most as “Christian” as it is based on the parables told  in St Matthew’s Gospel,  however,  even in Godspell , the Resurrection of Jesus can, at best, be described as problematic.

There is nothing problematic about the resurrection appearances featured in Risen!- The Musical whose double CD was released  11 days ago, in fact the majority of the 110 minute production focuses on the many appearances Jesus made to His followers during the 40 days from His Resurrection on Easter Sunday to His Ascension to heaven.

In John’s Gospel we learn that the first person to see Jesus alive was Mary Magdalene- that was very early on the morning of what we now call Easter Sunday. Luke’s Gospel tells us that later that afternoon He appeared to Cleopas and his friend as they were walking to the village of Emmaus. Later that evening Jesus again appeared to His disciples but John tells us that Thomas was not with them. When the disciples  exclaim to  Thomas “ We have seen the Lord” (John 20:25) Thomas  does not believe them and  says “Unless I see the nail marks in His hands and put my finger where the nails were and put my finger into His side, I will not believe it.”

And this is why poor Thomas has forever been referred to as “Doubting Thomas.”  I had always felt this to be completely unfair – we learn from John 11:16 that Thomas was, in fact, a courageous man who told the rest of the disciples that they should all follow Jesus into danger when Jesus decided to travel to Bethany near Jerusalem- in fact Thomas said to the disciples “Let us also go that we may die with Him.” – hardly the words of a man who doubted Jesus!  Risen!- The Musical portrays Thomas’ “doubt” as being caused  by him being  so overcome with grief, after seeing Jesus crucified, that he just did not dare believe the disciples when they told him that Jesus was alive. He did not want his hopes dashed yet again.

John tells us that Jesus appeared to the disciples again one week later and this time Thomas was with them and proclaimed to Jesus “My Lord and my God.”  In Risen!- The Musical  I took a little poetic licence and imagined what Thomas would have done in that week between hearing from his friends that Jesus was alive and then seeing Jesus Himself.  I have portrayed him going somewhere in solitude, immersing himself with those Psalms that focus on trusting God and then returning to the rest of the disciples reassured that what they had told him could, in fact, be true – in fact Risen! -The Musical has Thomas leading the disciples in a worship song, the words of which come from the Book of Daniel, Chapters 4 and 6. This is the featured song for today “How Great Are His Signs.”

Next week I hope to have news of how the rehearsals are going with our cast from the London College of Music and we should also have the Risen! – The Musical double CD available to be downloaded from ITunes and Amazon.