March 30, 2015. Madison, GA. We All Have a Role to Play

Life is a succession of events, planned or spontaneous; opportunities, embraced or passed over; temptations, yielded to or escaped; seasons of plenty or seasons of need. Life is a challenge and every day we are in the cross hairs of hundreds, if not thousands of assaults on our time, our money and our allegiances. We all have a role to play and many of us have multiple roles to play at the same time. Just think of all the things which tug at you, and you will understand what I am talking about.
This past week I had a role in the Passion Play at Centennial Baptist Church in Rutledge, GA. I was a Pharisee, a bad guy. I didn't smile a lot, or say very nice things about John the Baptist or Jesus. The only time I could have smiled or shown any satisfaction in my role, the lights were focused on Jesus being hustled out of the Garden of Gethsemane, I was in the shadows with my back to the audience and nobody was looking at me anyway. As Passion Play roles go, it was a juicy one with lots of opportunity to sneer, point fingers, demean people and be a pompous, self-centered know-it-all, kind of what I have been known to be for a good portion of my life. Then, it wasn't a role which won me much respect or "well-dones". A lot of people complemented me on my "performance" the past two nights, but I have been wondering how many people in Jesus' day would have complemented me if I were the one of the Pharisees who condemned Him to His fate on Calvary. While history would judge the Pharisees harshly, at that time they were probably well thought of and applauded. How would we have responded to the events of that day and time? How would we have responded to the message Jesus was delivering? Would we have been disciples or would we have been with the Pharisees?
When the Jesus character in the weekend play was thrown down next to the Cross and voluntarily crawled and laid hImself on that Cross before he was nailed to it, my heart (as a now out-of-costume actor) broke and I was once again convicted of how great a sacrifice Jesus Christ made for me, for you and for everyone past, present and future. What a magnificent role He played and what love He modeled to a world which needed Him so desperately then and needs Him even more desperately now. As we enter Passion Week we should rejoice as Christians and Christ-followers at the magnitude of what He did for us and what He asks us to do for others in gratitude for all we are and have IN HIM. Our role is to share with others what we have so graciously been given. To do anything less would be to not play our role to our utmost ability. Thank You Jesus and Praise You for the role You have given us in Your Kingdom, now and forever.

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