Lent/Easter Musicals

FOREWORD Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. (Jn. 15:13) This biblical verse has always enthralled me. It is certainly a succinct summary of the sacrifice that Jesus demonstrated for His followers…and for us. It also reflects the immeasurable gift of this One who subjected Himself to hate, rejection, and ultimately a cruel death on the cross merely because He lived a life of service and love for others. Truly amazing! In our world, love is a prominent theme. It is addressed in all forms of media, from music to movies; from TV to think tanks. We yearn for it. We need it. We value it on a personal level. It is something all of us have experienced in some fashion. Yet, we struggle to define it, to receive it, or to adequately convey it to the important people in our daily circles of life. Jesus brought a whole new dimension to the meaning of love. In a world where selfish love was the norm, Jesus modeled a selfless form of love. He whole-heartedly gave of Himself while anticipating nothing in return. What does that kind of love mean for us? Our feeble words may attempt to explain and describe it. But it is in our actions that we validate what selfless love truly is. You or I may never be called upon to sacrifice our life for another person. But each day we likely have opportunity to sacrifice our preferences, our convenience, our time, our resources for the sake of others. Whether noticed or not, it seems to me that this is one of the great lessons to be modeled by those of us who claim to be followers of Christ, who lived a life of perfect love. We cannot journey to the cross and ultimately an empty tomb without again being challenged by Jesus to be conduits of love. That may mean offering a cup of cold water to a thirsty person or it may mean sacrificing our all to save another from catastrophe. Our Lord has demonstrated that love is something we live out in the daily deeds of life, be they large or small. Love one another as I have loved you. (Jn. 13:34) There is no greater love than this! —Lloyd Larson PRODUCTION NOTES Some of the cover-art images and graphics from this work are available as free downloads. We hope that you can use them to assist in the making of your bulletins, posters, flyers, website and email announcements, and in any other way that's within your organization and in conjunction with performances of this work. To access these files, please visit www.lorenz.com/downloads and navigate to the desired folder. PC users should right click and choose "Save Target As…" and Macintosh users should click and hold the link, then choose "Save Target As…" We have provided standard file formats that should be usable in most page layout or word processing software. Due to the vast number of differences in computer system setups, we are unable to provide technical support for downloadable images/graphics by either phone or email. 2 55/1206&07L-2

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