My Garden of Gethsemane Story

Since I was one of the men at my church with a beard, I was often asked to play one of Jesus’ disciples for onstage dramas.

One year we used pyrotechnics to blow open Jesus’ tomb during the Easter production.

As a safety precaution, we were told a flashing white light would appear up in the windows to the video control room just before the fireworks went off so we’d have time to get out of harm’s way.

I was getting a little pretend shut-eye during the Garden of Gethsemane scene when I noticed the pyrotechnics warning was going off!

I was lying right in front of the tomb entrance, so this was certainly of interest to me. Should I roll out of the blast radius or stay put?

I figured that Jesus was unlikely to bust out of the tomb—Michael Bay style—since he was elsewhere on stage at the time, but I wasn’t entirely sure. I decided to stay put, but I was feeling very alert, if you get my drift.

The pyrotechnics did not go off; I don’t know if it was a malfunction, a prank, or someone just goofing off. But this disciple was certainly motivated to “watch and pray” during that scene!

Oh, yeah! That was also the year the pyrotechnics caught an angel’s robe on fire!

I think maybe we didn’t use pyrotechnics after that.