Not My Daddy's Jesus.

I was born and raised in the Catholic church and my family went to church, well, religiously. My parents were both active members of our parish and served God as they were asked. I was also an altar boy, who often walked the wrong direction or lit the wrong candle, but I tried my best and my parents were still proud. I was a big fan of my family’s Jesus, but that was all about to change.

After graduating high school, my brother Larry was involved in the local community college’s theatre group and they were going to be performing Godspell. The lead actor quit less than a month before opening night and Larry asked if I’d consider stepping in. But one doesn’t agree to play the role of Jesus without at least one good night’s sleep! That night, I put the soundtrack of Godspell in before going to bed. Hours later, I literally felt hands on my shoulders, shaking me awake but when I sat up, no one was there. The 8-track was playing “Preeeepare Ye the way of the Lord!!” At first, I felt like one of my siblings was behind my middle of the night wake-up call and I went to confront them. But upon determining their innocence, I took that awakening as a real awakening that prompted me to not only accept the role of Jesus, but eventually changed my life forever.

Now, if you are not familiar with Godspell, it is basically the Gospel of Matthew set to music, sans the miracles and Resurrection. So, I set to committing to play and music to memory. I not only learned my lines, but I learned EVERYBODY’s lines, and had to be prompted to not mouth them in every scene! I learned every part of every song and listened to them night and day. I started falling in love with this radical Jesus!! He loved the scorned and neglected. Jesus had his biggest beef with those who thought they had their religious act together; in favor of piety and show, they all but abandoned love.

On the final night of the play, as I was being “crucified”, my hands bound to plywood, it all began to sink in. I thought about the mild discomfort I was feeling: no nails in my wrists or feet, no lashings on my back, no spear in my side, no crown of thorns on my head. I began to weep uncontrollably as I thought of the suffering that this perfect human endured on MY behalf bearing the weight on my sins. Suddenly, my parents’ Jesus became MY Jesus. The audience was unaware of what was going on; they just thought I was portraying the Passion of Christ like no community theatre had ever seen! But I’m not that good of an actor; at that moment, I became His and He became mine. Although my calling into music ministry would come much later, that moment is when my life really began.