Preface: A few years ago I wrote an article discussing how the Greek tragedy of Orpheus and Eurydice, especially as interpreted by the Broadway musical Hadestown, could help teach about Jesus Christ. At the time I was very much a committed Latter-day Saint and that shows as my original is full of quotes from LDS leaders and references to temple sealings. But I think this is too beautiful a story to ignore and so I wanted to rework my article to point squarely towards Jesus who is the one who never once looked back, but endured the cross for us:
One of my favorite mythological stories is the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice. This ancient tragedy features Orpheus a young poet who falls in love with Eurydice, a beautiful young woman. Eurydice tragically dies—traditionally by a snakebite, but in modern retellings she descends by choice—and enters the underworld. Orpheus is overcome with grief and pursues her. He plays a song so beautiful that even Lord Hades himself is moved. Hades allows them to leave the underworld but places a condition on their journey. Orpheus must walk ahead and cannot look back to verify that Eurydice is following. If he looks back she will go back to the underworld and this time for good. He almost makes it. Almost. But in a moment of doubt, he turns—and she vanishes.
In the haunting retelling of this story in the musical Hadestown, we feel the weight of Orpheus’s failure. This sad tale reflects mankind’s fleeting hope of redemption and escape from the way that things are. But for Christians, this tragedy can point us towards Jesus who is the one who came once and for all to redeem us from sin and death.
The difference between Orpheus and Jesus is that Jesus never looked back. His love was not merely idealistic and hopeful—it was powerful and victorious. He descended into the depths, not with a lyre but upon a cross. And He did not fail, but came and secured his bride.
Here are three truths about the Gospel of Jesus Christ that this story helps illuminate:
- The Power of Redeeming Love
In Hadestown, Eurydice flees into the underworld and begins to forget who she is. Her confidence in Orpheus falters, and in her fear, she accepts Hades’s seductive offer of safety. Like the unfaithful bride in Hosea, she turns away from love and chooses false security. But still, love follows her into the dark.
But still, Orpheus comes for her. He descends into the underworld after his love even though she has arguably betrayed him and spurned his love.
The Bible describes God’s love in similar terms.
For instance, God directs the Prophet Hosea to marry an adulterous and unfaithful woman in order to demonstrate God’s enduring love for unfaithful Israel. The prostitute is sold, and yet God directs his prophet to go and redeem her.
The incredible truth is that Christ came and rescued us when we were on the “road to hell” and indeed, when we had reached the “end of the line.” He came to rescue us when we were sinners.
If we truly understood the power of Christ’s redemption and depths of his love for his elect bride, then we would have greater assurance. We would trust that “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” We would have confidence that “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8).
2. The Limitations of our Human Capacity
When Orpheus is told that Eurydice has gone to the under world, he is asked “Just how far would you go for her?” He responds with the assurance that he would go “To the end of time. To the end of the earth.”
His words seem to echo those brash promises of Peter the Apostle, who boldly promised to follow Jesus unto death—only for his courage to falter just hours later.
The story of Orpheus and Eurydice is a tragedy because it reveals the limits of our own capacity to create the world we dream of.
Orpheus longs to sing a song that will “fix what’s wrong, [t]ake what’s broken, make it whole” and to “bring the world back into tune, back into time, and all the flowers will bloom.” He is confident that his love and sincerity and optimism will conquer.
But in the key moment when he is pressed, “doubt comes in.” Orpheus begins to doubt that the future could be brighter. He despairs and loses hope in the the promise of better days ahead. He no longer “see[s] the way the world could be.”
That is what the human story would be if we were left on our own devices. However ingenious our efforts, however sincere our endeavors, it would all end in failure and ultimately death. All our efforts would be futile and vain. But fortunately, that isn’t the end of our story.
3. Look to the One Who Never Looked Back
Orpheus walked a lonely road no one had walked before. But he faltered.
Jesus walked a road only He could walk. Through Gethsemane and to the cross. He bore the weight of our sins and took the punishment from God that belonged to us.
In the Garden, Jesus was overwhelmed by the weight of the atonement, and he asked his Father if there was another way. But Jesus did not give in to fear or look back. He pressed forward. And he did it for us. The author of Hebrews declares that “For the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Because Jesus accomplished this for us and never faltered, we can confidently press forward “keeping our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.”
As Hadestown sings:
“Show the way so we believe / We will follow where you lead.”
Jesus did show the way. And more than that, He is the way (John 14:6). Where Orpheus failed to save his bride, Christ has perfectly redeemed His. He doesn’t lead from ahead waiting to see if we follow. He carries us. He covers us. He promises that nothing—not even our faltering faith—can undo what He has done.
We don’t have to keep trying to walk this lonely road alone “[a]s if it might turn out this time.” We walk in the footsteps of the One who already won. Because He lives, we can follow—not in fear, but in hope. We can look to Jesus and trust fully in him. He is our light in the darkness. He is our shepherd as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, our redeemed who never turns back. He is the one who finds us when we are lost, or paralyzed by fear, and carries us home on His shoulders.
