Isn’t it a bit ironic that evangelical Protestant churches which formed in opposition to Roman Catholicism today invite the public during Easter week and even on Easter Sunday to view dramatic Passion Plays whose origins come from the medieval Roman Catholic Church?

Every ten years you can travel to the small town of Oberammergau, Germany to experience the seven hour Passion Play. During one of the later infestations of the bubonic plague in the 1600s, the villagers vowed that if God spared them from the plague they would produce a play every ten years depicting the life and death of Jesus. Right after their collective vow, the local death rate rose and then fell sharply within a few months. The people of the village believed that God had spared them and set them aside for their sacred duty, and they kept their end of the bargain with the first play staged in 1634.

Even though this sounds like a very old, novel development, passion plays and Easter plays had been staged throughout Europe for over four hundred years before the first Oberammergau production. The plays developed slowly as an offshoot of the Latin liturgy and were hugely successful at teaching people the basics of the scripture for Holy Week. Over time, dramatic elements were introduced for entertainment value that had no basis in scripture. Eventually the plays would be moved outside of the church liturgy due to their length and production requirements.

In this season of Lent and Holy Week you have experienced some forms of drama introduced into our liturgy. There’s nothing wrong with that, provided we color our drama inside some well accepted lines: Drama in church should support the Word of God rather than supplant it. Drama in church should draw the congregation closer to sacred mystery of God in Christ Jesus rather than providing gee-whiz entertainment. And drama in church should stir up questions in you rather than spoon feeding answers.

These guidelines are why you will never find me clipping off rounds from my 12 gauge shotgun during a sermon nor will I surprise you by walking up the aisle disguised as a homeless person and then deliver the sermon while casting off the homeless disguise. These guidelines are why Grace Church will not, on my watch, stage big Easter plays as entertainment for the masses during Holy Week or on Sunday. Too much of our society wants the benefits of the resurrection, forgiveness of sins, and cheap grace without having to do the work or shoulder the responsibilities of the journey during Holy Week. To sum it up, “No cross, no glory.”

You can’t get to Easter without going through Good Friday. There is no shortcut to the life of faith.

During Holy Week we go on a roller coaster ride of emotions because that gives us just a tiny window into what Jesus surely experienced riding into Jerusalem crowned as a king and within five days crowned with thorns and hung on a cross. Drama does work by inviting us to connect our human experiences with that of the actors. What human experiences do we connect with Jesus during Holy Week? Consider these:

Acclaim followed by betrayal – How many of you have had stellar job performance reviews only to be laid off or fired due to office politics? How many of you have had an ex-spouse where love seemed to bloom one month and betrayal followed soon after?

Hope followed by abandonment – Have you ever gone into a new job or a new community or a new set of friends only to find that when trouble comes you were left all alone? Have you ever been actually lost in the wilderness somewhere? Have you ever had a friend whose moral decision surprised you and left you with the choice to either jump in the gutter with them or leave them?

Shock and awe – Have you ever witnessed a miraculous recovery from near death or serious harm? Have you ever seen an addict turn their life around and get sober? Have you ever seen a person turn from an angry, rage-filled life into a life of gratitude and praise? Have you ever seen real forgiveness and mercy at work?

These are the real human experiences of Holy Week. We just want to bring enough drama into our liturgy so that you can connect your own life experiences with Jesus. You are expected to do some work and in the process you will not be filled with answers to pie in the sky questions. Instead you will be filled more questions drawing you deeper and deeper into the mystery of God’s work in you.

If God is all-powerful, why did God allow Jesus to suffer through the pain and humiliation of the cross? If God is all powerful, why did God allow me or my spouse or my child to suffer a dreadful situation?

God created us in God’s image. God created Jesus and human beings with the ability to choose. Jesus chose to triumph over suffering and death. Through your baptism you are given the same choice. What will you choose?