The seventh annual Easter Passion Play was held Saturday, April 3, on the campus of Andrews University in Michigan. This indoor/outdoor walk-through experience depicted the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. About 600 volunteers from local schools, university, community actively participated in the Easter Passion Play. Several thousands people were expected to attend this event.
Rotations begin every half hour starting at 9 a.m. Most of them were in English and two of them were in Spanish. We got reservation for 10:00 a.m.
My kids were excited to see different scenes from the times of Jesus Christ. They liked animals, asked me about the tax collector, Roman soldiers, about the scene showing Jesus Christ during the Palm Sunday. They enjoyed many other features from the Market Sale in the 1st Century A.D.
The drama about life of Christ brought many other questions related to life, suffering, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ in the minds of young and old observes.
The first Easter Passion Play was organized for the first time on the Andrews University campus in 2003 and it got wide publicity in the local area and in much broader community. The Easter Passion Play has brought new meaning to the understanding of God’s salvation for people, told me several of people that I have talked. Some of them were adults, some of them were in middle age, others were students.
People came this year from Chicago, Detroit and some other distant locations in different states to watch this drama. In the past there were impressive 5,000-person crowd to an estimated 8,000 number of attendees expected at this year’s production. The rain reduced probably the number of attendees this year.
We were very fortunate to watch the entire Passion of Christ before it started to rain. The first scene took place at the Howard Performing Arts Center. The audience was then be guided through the sights, sounds, smells and tastes of a Middle Eastern marketplace complete with live animals and merchants “selling” their goods.
Participants witnessed the Last Supper, the betrayal of Jesus Christ by Judas, arrest of Jesus Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane and a moving reenactment of the crucifixion. The final scene took place in a darkened Johnson Gymnasium where the stage was transformed into the tomb where a resurrected Christ emerged from the tomb.
@ Text and pictures AM
More pictures from Easter Passion Play at:
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