You are about to witness tonight one more installment in a story that’s been told for 2000 years. This is the most important story ever told – ever to happen. When we were yet God’s enemies, He sacrificed Himself for us and prepared the way to salvation. When He told us to love our enemies and do good to those who hurt us, it wasn’t just advice – it was what he was demonstrating in his own life and death and resurrection.
In the 2000 years since Jesus’ death and resurrection, this story has been told and retold, debated and discussed. Why?
According to Romans 5:8, "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us".
Matthew 20:28, Jesus says "the Son of Man...came...to give his life as a ransom for many." 1 Timothy 2:6 states that Jesus "gave himself as ransom for all."
Two thousand years ago, God sent his only son, Jesus, to dwell among us. This is the seminal event in all of history. In his brief walk among us, Jesus taught us much. He pointed out that true religion is much more than outward appearances, and that giving up one's own desires is the only way to move forward with a life pleasing to God, and, ultimately, pleasing to the one living it. At the end of his earthly walk, he was offered as the ultimate and pure sacrifice for our sins, then rose from death to new life. We who follow him are promised that his atoning death covers our sins and that it is for us He died. Moreover, because he rose from the dead, so may we also.
This story has been told over and over again in Christian churches, passed on much like the Jewish Passover Feast, which foreshadowed Jesus, is told again and again, passing down to our children how God freed us from slavery to sin. We have performed versions of this play at St. Paul UMC and now Calvary Bible Church and Lexington Park Baptist Church over the 30+ years I have lived in Lusby
In 2006, the last time we planned to perform it indoors, I began to think, “How would anyone outside these brick walls ever know of this story, ever even know we were telling it, let alone the promise it holds for them?” God laid on my heart a desire to perform this outside. In the Spring of 2008, God showed me the perfect place to do it. In addition, He made it clear that He wanted something more. This story does not belong to just one church or one sect of Christianity. It is the root of it all. If this story is not true, then there is no sense to anything else we profess. Jesus told us "They will know you are Christians by the love you have for one another." He was calling this verse not only to my mind but to other Christians in Southern Maryland.
To make this work for The Passion of Christ, though, I understood that the play itself had to be too big for one church to perform. If we were going to present the story in a meaningful way, we also had to make things plain. To that end, Jennie Rose Pinkowski and I sat down to rewrite the script, adding scenes, improving others, always endeavoring to keep true to the scriptures.
Finally, in January 2009, I went back to the church leadership and asked their support to actually do this production. That first year four churches actively supported the program and members of 13 churches participated. In nine weeks, start to finish, God found the individuals needed to pull the show together. This year, once again, He has done that.
In 2020, as almost everywhere, we had to cancel the program and are now restarting it. This is our second year and the group has grown since last year.
We want you to leave knowing a couple of things. First, Jesus did not die 2000 years ago because of the some “bad” people back then. He died for us and because of us as much as any other humans that have ever existed. Second, because of Jesus you and I are free.