Surprise from the Audience

When I was a youth in youth group, our summer mission trips were service projects paired with a musical we put on in churches near where we were serving. My senior year our trip was to inner city Chicago, and I was fortunate to play the role of Jesus that summer. It was not because I was a great singer or actor, it was actually the opposite reasons I got the role. I could not sing well or remember lines, and the role of Jesus was a silent role! What actually got me the role was most likely because I was the only kid in youth group that had long hair and had no problem growing a full beard in a month’s time! The role seemed perfect.

We set out on our journey to Chicago, and one of the locations was a church in uptown. It was an inner-city church surrounded by poverty and many of the congregation were living in group homes where people are placed who might need a little extra help in maintaining a mostly independent lifestyle. Most of these folks had jobs, schedules, and responsibilities but need help in managing their day to day living. Some were dealing with emotional trauma, while others were mentally challenged.

While performing at the church on Sunday afternoon, we had a reasonable crowd there from the community. We were doing a musical that walked through the last week of Jesus’ life. We got to the scene where Jesus is being marched through town toward Golgotha, where He was crucified. Then things got a little crazy. There was this huge middle schooler playing the part of the Roman Guard escorting Jesus to the cross. He was doing his part of yelling and pushing me around. At one point I “dramatically” fell to the ground, and out of nowhere this even bigger guy from the audience jumps on top of our kid, the Roman guard, and pins him to the floor right in the middle of our performance! We immediately stopped the drama and I turned around to pull the guy off of my friend and began to attempt to explain that he was not really hurting me, and that we were telling a story that happened a long time ago. The kid who was the Roman soldier was a little freaked out at the time, and we had to calm him too, but he was physically unhurt. It was an event I never will forget!

I did learn a couple things from that experience. The first one was I learned real fast how to explain the love of Christ and how to begin to help someone begin to have that incredible relationship with Christ. Secondly, what am I really actually willing to give up for the sake of Christ in my own life? Or am I only willing to give up what is easy and does not take much effort in following Jesus? Am I willing to stand up for my relationship with Christ in the face of opposition that might cost me something? I know that our world is changing fast these days, and I worry about how little we seem to need God in our lives. I also observe how little we want to put Jesus as a priority in our day to day living. Are we all more like the denying Peter the night of Jesus’ arrest, or are we more like the Peter who preaches at Pentecost under the threat of possible arrest who begins to turn the world right side up? Which Peter would you want to be more like, and what are you doing to get there? I hope no one tackles you because of your faith, but I do hope you wrestle with your faith more than just occasionally!

Happy Lent!

Pastor Richard