Heaven on Their Minds

I may have mentioned before that what I love about musicals is the addition of an emotional connection through powerful music. In preparing for this musical I am constantly changing what my favorite song is. I vacillate pretty consistently between "Heaven on their Minds" and "Everything's All Right". I am also quite partial to "Pilate's Dream."

Heaven on their minds is one of my favorites because I think it vocalizes the real concern with the movement Jesus is leading into Jerusalem. The crowd is getting bigger and louder and the setting is not entirely open to change. While the bulk of the followers are on board to press forward there are a handful of them that have fear, doubts. Not fear of change, more fear of authority and consequences.

In this song Judas vocalizes his concerns. He's taken this journey with Jesus, been "his right hand man all the while" but he sees that the followers are "blind" and driving forward at a pace that is dangerous for the movement to survive. What exactly is that movement? We are developing that as we go. Solidifying what changes Jesus was advocating. The changes that Judas feared and the Priests and Priestesses are determined to destroy.

Unfortunately this situation is not unique to the story being told here. There have been many times in the history of man that a movement, a crying out for change, has scared authorities or people in power. Subsequently the leaders of such movements are eliminated as we see in this story. Not always does it come to a brutal death but certainly there is a strong resistance to the change. If there aren't enough voices and strength to survive opposition the movement either dies or suffers set backs. We can see this in civil rights movements, in countries trying to gain independence from a group holding power, and in class warfare between the haves and the have not's. It's documented over and over again in history.

I believe that human beings have the power to change that. I believe we hold within us the absolute power to achieve peace. I believe we, as a civilization, make a conscious choice to not accept others. I believe we can all do better.