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Peter is a fun character to play. I've been reading the gospels again with a sort of Peter lens, and it's been unexpectedly interesting.
The main reason is this: Peter's kind of a screwup. All four gospels are very different, but they agree on Peter making mistakes. He's the main example used to show that the apostles Don't Get It. That old cliche "the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak"? That's Jesus talking about Peter. "Oh ye of little faith"? Peter again. With Jesus's help, he walks on water for a few seconds, then when the wind blows he panics and sinks. Jesus asks him to stay awake with him. He says "sure"...and promptly falls asleep--unable to pull a simple all-nighter for the Lord.
And of course there's the final screwup: after everything that happens, he lies and says he never heard of Jesus. When Jesus is dying, it's the women who stay with him; Peter and the rest are nowhere to be seen.
He talks the talk but doesn't walk the walk. He's plenty pious when times are good, surrounded by the cast of thousands, but when he's alone and the pressure's on he collapses like a house of cards.
His name is Rock. ("Peter" didn't become a common name until after this first Peter became famous. His name really was more like "Simon the Rock.") Seems like a shaky rock to build a church on. And yet. He must have had some kind of incredible transformation to go from this failed apostle denying any involvement to leader of the new church. It didn't happen in this show, though.
Our director pointed something out: in Jesus Christ Superstar, there are a few characters--Jesus, Judas, Pilate, maybe Caiaphas--who show degrees of awareness of the "future." Pilate even has a dream foreshadowing the Nicene Creed. But Peter is the most clearly ignorant of the future. He lives in the present. He acts the way the rest of us do, making assumptions about the future that often turn out to be wrong. I get the feeling he thinks, even near the end, that Jesus is going to be dictating terms to Caesar within months. (Which may explain why he panics when his miraculous leader dies a painful, humiliating death.) I imagine him thinking "With Jesus in charge, what could possibly go wrong?"
The main reason is this: Peter's kind of a screwup. All four gospels are very different, but they agree on Peter making mistakes. He's the main example used to show that the apostles Don't Get It. That old cliche "the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak"? That's Jesus talking about Peter. "Oh ye of little faith"? Peter again. With Jesus's help, he walks on water for a few seconds, then when the wind blows he panics and sinks. Jesus asks him to stay awake with him. He says "sure"...and promptly falls asleep--unable to pull a simple all-nighter for the Lord.
And of course there's the final screwup: after everything that happens, he lies and says he never heard of Jesus. When Jesus is dying, it's the women who stay with him; Peter and the rest are nowhere to be seen.
He talks the talk but doesn't walk the walk. He's plenty pious when times are good, surrounded by the cast of thousands, but when he's alone and the pressure's on he collapses like a house of cards.
His name is Rock. ("Peter" didn't become a common name until after this first Peter became famous. His name really was more like "Simon the Rock.") Seems like a shaky rock to build a church on. And yet. He must have had some kind of incredible transformation to go from this failed apostle denying any involvement to leader of the new church. It didn't happen in this show, though.
Our director pointed something out: in Jesus Christ Superstar, there are a few characters--Jesus, Judas, Pilate, maybe Caiaphas--who show degrees of awareness of the "future." Pilate even has a dream foreshadowing the Nicene Creed. But Peter is the most clearly ignorant of the future. He lives in the present. He acts the way the rest of us do, making assumptions about the future that often turn out to be wrong. I get the feeling he thinks, even near the end, that Jesus is going to be dictating terms to Caesar within months. (Which may explain why he panics when his miraculous leader dies a painful, humiliating death.) I imagine him thinking "With Jesus in charge, what could possibly go wrong?"
