From Deseret News archives:
Parable: Acting part results in reflection
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"I'm tending gardens as well as I ever did," Sandy said. "There is nothing else to tell. And there's still work enough to keep us all."
When filming began, Sandy no longer tended gardens, and while some of the crews worked as hard as ever, others did not. Therefore he lost more customers, and, sadly, Sandy dismissed the workers who had not done well in his absence.
With his business shrinking and his family isolated in their neighborhood and ward, Sandy faced the days of filming full of worry. Each day he performed the actions of the Savior, lifting up the man with palsy, anointing with mud the eyes of the blind man, turning when the woman touched the hem of his robe and blessing her, raising Lazarus from the dead.
Finally he knelt in the garden and bore the scourges and hung upon the cross, then stepped forth from the tomb led by the hand of an angel. He stood before Mary in the garden and let his apostles touch the wounds in his hands and feet and side.
In the mirror he thought that now he saw himself, though still he did not see the Lord.
At last the filming ended, and Sandy went home and without a word cut off his beard. His wife wept as she cut his hair. "I will miss the presence of the Savior in our home," she said.
"It was always only me," Sandy said.
"You walked in his footsteps every day," she answered him, "and brought him home to us."
At church, people looked at him with surprise. Some were relieved, others still suspicious, but gradually the family's isolation ended. Sandy was made assistant financial clerk. Children once more visited their home.
The filmmakers added the computer effects that made the miracles look real. They recorded the words of Christ and added music and at last, two years later, the film was finished.
Sandy and his wife and children attended a private screening. She held his hand throughout, and at the end she wept. "Oh, Sandy," she said, "it was worth it."
Their oldest daughter looked at her father in awe. "Daddy, that was you," she whispered.
"I never did those things," he told her. "Jesus did."
The film did not do very well at the box office. In previews, people saw that it was black and white, and did not come. Many who came were bored when none of the actors spoke, and left.
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Rob | Feb. 23, 2008 at 11:30 a.m.
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