The Heckler

The Heckler

Several years ago at a passion play, an incident took place during the scene where Jesus was carrying the cross. A man in the audience was heckling the character playing Jesus, throwing out jeers, taunts and dares. Finally the character could no longer tolerate the heckler; he dropped the cross and went over and punched out the man. The director was aghast, and after the play pulled the actor aside and told him in no uncertain terms he was ever to do that again. But the next night the same heckler was back and again did the same thing; this time, Jesus had to be restrained. The director called the actor in and gave him an ultimatum of either quitting or keeping his composure. The young actor assured the director he would keep himself under control. The third night, the heckler was present again and taunted even more strongly than the two previous nights. The man playing Jesus rose to his full stature, gritted his teeth and told the heckler, "I’ll see you right after the resurrection."