4 reactions to spiritual, allegorical concepts in 'Wicked: For Good'

Premier NexGen

In a piece for Premier NexGen, Christian musician Michael J. Tinker reflected on what the Bible teaches about forming relationships with one another and with God, and how this relates to the song “For Good” in “Wicked.” 

“We are defined by our relationship first and foremost to Christ. If we’re trusting him, we’re adopted into a family,” Tinker wrote. “Who we are is now part of a body and a people, gathered around Jesus. We are relational beings, purposed to be in good relationship with each other and our maker.” 

The Christian singer and songwriter related this concept to the song “For Good,” a duet sung between Elphaba and Glinda about their friendship. Both characters express in the song how grateful they are to have met and how they feel as if their relationship has changed them “for the better.” 

“Glinda’s view of herself has been transformed. Far from defining herself with everyone below her, bestowing her charity on others, Glinda realizes that she has, in fact, been changed by Elphaba,” Tinker wrote. “Glinda isn’t a person defined in isolation; she is who she is because of someone else.” 

Elphaba also realizes that her friendship with Glinda has helped her grow, a lesson that can apply to viewers of “Wicked,” the Christian songwriter noted. 

“And that is the same for all of us. We cannot get away from the fact that we are only who we are right now because of all the people we have met along the way,” Tinker stated. 

While the characters credit their meeting and eventual friendship to chance, the Christian songwriter believes the Bible offers a “better story,” one in which a sovereign God “working things for the good of those who love him.”

“An author, if you will (which of course Elphaba and Glinda actually have, being characters in a play!),” Tinker said. 

As he has grown older, the singer and songwriter said that he has started to notice how “seemingly random meetings or events” have changed his life, often for the better, even if the outcome was not apparent at first. 

“I’ve been through some incredibly difficult times, which I could not understand at the time,” the songwriter revealed. “It is only with hindsight that I’ve been able to trace the author’s hand through that story.”

“Art has a way of prophetically challenging a culture and speaking to the very core of ourselves — even art made by those who don’t know Jesus. We just can’t get away from the fact that we are who we are because of our relationship to others (and ultimately God),’ he added.

“And that art will have longevity when other ideas and philosophies fall by the wayside, because it hints at truth we know subconsciously to be so,” Tinker continued. “Perhaps that’s why ‘Wicked’ has such longevity.”