15-year-old girl will carry the cross as Jesus in Denville's Good Friday tradition

Everyone has a cross to bear. But Maddie Harmon of Parsippany will be bearing more than most.

On Friday, a heavy wooden cross, 12 feet in length, will be dragged through Denville for a distance of more than 2 miles — an agonizing task for anyone, as it was for Jesus.

But Maddie happens to be a 15-year-old girl. That's a departure for the Christian Drama School of New Jersey — which normally casts a boy in the Jesus role for its annual "Cross Carry," a Good Friday tradition for 23 years.

More formidably, she'll be doing so at a time when gender issues are a flashpoint with some on the Christian right.

"I definitely was a bit — not concerned, but I had some wavering feelings about that because of the climate of today's world," said Maddie, a freshman at Parsippany Hills High School.

'This is not anything about gender'

Not that any one at the school was out to make a "statement."

They simply had no boys, in this year's class, who were old enough and strong enough to shoulder the massive thing. Maddie is fit, a basketball player. She had the physical qualities, as well as the spiritual ones, that the Rev. Kim Padfield Urbanik, creator of the school and the event, looks for in a Jesus. Why not cast her?

"This is not me trying to be political or politically correct," Urbanik said. "This is not anything about gender. It's just that I needed this person who happens to be female to be Jesus. All of us, everyone who is a Christian, should be acting like Jesus."

And Maddie won't be carrying the cross all by herself.

Just as Simon of Cyrene helped Jesus drag the monstrous thing through the Via Dolorosa, so Maddie's burden will be taken up by some of the 25 kids, ages 13 to 21, from different churches in Morris County, who are participating in the event.

Together they'll be in procession, leaving the Rockaway River starting point, going through suburban and urban Denville, from Norris Road to Bush Road to River Road to Diamond Spring Road, and finally ending up in the parking lot of Denville Community Church, 2.1 miles away. They'll be escorted by police for the length of the route.

"They walk two by two, like Noah's animals," Urbanik said, "so they don't get hit by cars."

'Cross Carry' the climax of a day of drama

The "Cross Carry" is the climax of an event that begins at 11 a.m. at Tourne Park (Rockaway River Access Point), down by the water's edge.

The drama school — which does several other productions throughout the year, at Christmas and in the spring — enacts the last hours of Jesus' life, his trial, and his crucifixion and resurrection, in a performance that involves drama, dance, and both pop and Christian music, with a sermon from Urbanik sandwiched in between. From there, the actors take up the cross and begin their long trek to the church.

"I would say it's a very emotional thing," said Maddie, who has already rehearsed it. "It has transformed my view as to the type of person Jesus was, and his whole story. When you're feeling the weight [of the cross] it's a very impactful thing. It makes you realize how difficult it was. Jesus was actually whipped and beaten when he was walking up the hill. Even though it was a difficult task for me, it was even more difficult and painful for him."

The role of Jesus is not one to be cast lightly. Urbanik, originally — and appropriately — from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and a graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary, thinks long and hard about it each year. Of all the duties at her Christian Drama School of New Jersey, founded in 2000 and based at the Presbyterian Church at Morris Plains, this is one of the most solemn.

'They have to be Christ-like to get the part'

It's not merely that the actor has to play Jesus. He — or she — has to embody him. Literally, take up the mantle.

"I can't just put anybody in that role," Urbanik said. "They have to be Christ-like to get the part. You can't have some snotty, cocky kid, who thinks he's all that, play Jesus."

Maddie thought she would be good for the part.

"I think I will continue being a Christian for the rest of my life," Maddie said. "It's an essential part of who I am."

But walking that path — whether in a Good Friday exercise or any other time — is not easy.

"What I feel is that anybody putting on the Jesus costume should put on Christ, in much the same way as you put on a robe or sweater," Urbanik said. "You become him. Embody him. If you walk around saying you're a Christian, and you're not acting and doing and saying what Jesus did and said, you're missing the point."

Not an easy path to walk

That's the problem she has with some of her fellow Christians — especially these days. The ones who are a stickler for the letter but ignore the spirit. The ones who would say: Just what do you think you're doing, casting a girl as Jesus?

No one has actually protested yet. But Urbanik and her group are bracing for it.

"I've had a couple of people speak to me about it," Urbanik said "Their concern is that they're uncomfortable with a girl playing Jesus, especially in this climate."

It should be noted that in previous years, her drama students, in reenacting Jesus' last hour, have been subject to some of the same crowd behavior — good and bad — as Jesus.

Some people have rolled down car windows and yelled abuse. Others have left cups of water, to ease their thirst. And always, the kids help each other carry the load.

That's part of what believers do, when they take up the cross.

"The cross is extremely heavy and awkward to hold," Maddie said. "I think I'll definitely be in good enough shape to walk the 2 miles, but it's difficult. But other people help. I have lacrosse shoulder pads on. But I can ask to switch it from one side to the other side, if it gets too hard."

Go: "Cross Carry" begins, rain or shine, at 11 a.m. Friday, April 7, at Tourne Park (Rockaway River Access Point) and proceeds to Norris Road, Bush Road, River Road and Diamond Spring Road, ending at Denville Community Church, 190 Diamond Spring Road, Denville; christiandramaschool.org.

This article originally appeared on Morristown Daily Record: Good Friday play in Denville features a girl starring as Jesus