March 29, 2025, 5am MDT
As a cast member of the 2024 music “The Savior: His Birth and Resurrection,” I have approached my Savior in several ways.
In Act 2 of the show, I usually joined the other cast members of the Coronade when I portrayed Angels, allowing me to see Act 2 almost entirely.
Looking down when the biblical story comes to life on stage, I realized that I was hoping for the same scene every night: the visit of the resurrected Savior.
As the actor portraying the Savior entered the stage, the light illuminated his purely white outfit, an overwhelming sense of peace and hope filled my heart, and tears filled my eyes. It felt like the Savior was there.
One night during the final week of the run I was asked to help with the behind-the-scenes tasks in Act 2. Having placed myself behind the panel, I realized I could not see the Savior. Disappointed, I thought that if I could not see the Savior, I would not be able to feel the spirit.
I listened to the depiction of Cleopus in the darkness and the disciples along the path to Emmaus. Luke 24:13-32 mourns the death of the Savior, and says that after he loses hope for him to return, he will not recognize him and meet the Savior on the road to Emmaus, because “their eyes were held” (v. 16).
In the production, Cleopus speaks of his experience and asks, “When was the first time you realised that he was yes?”
The disciple replies, “When he took the bread and blessed it.”
“Yes,” says Cleopus. “I felt that way when he fed 5,000 like Galilean.”
They question their sorrows and continue to question why the Savior appeared to them, and how they may have been late to believe. In response to each other’s doubts, they sing.
As the scene ended, I initially questioned how they couldn’t recognize the Savior while walking with them. But I thought, “How many times in my life have you walked alongside my Savior?”
After a while I heard the familiar tension of “I was all surprised” and recognized it as a production moment in which the Savior entered.
I tried desperately to find holes and cracks in the panels of the stage to see the Savior, but to no avail. However, I heard the familiar line. “Peace will become you” (Luke 24:36).
Unlike the other apostles, I listened to the rest of the show in the dark, including the portrayal of Thomas.
As Thomas sang, “I can’t believe it except that I see a nail print in his hand, put my finger in the nail print, and push my hand towards his side,” my first thought rivaled my first thought that if I could not see the Savior appearing on stage, the spirit would not be felt and the experience would not be the same.
In a July 2023 article in Liahona, titled “Our own path to Emmao,” Elder Patricio M. Zifra, the general authorities of 70, says that beliefs depend not only on physical evidence, but also on faith and spiritual discrimination. He taught that recognizing Jesus Christ in our personal lives and spiritual journeys requires spiritual care and openness to Christ’s presence in everyday life.
In “The Savior of the World,” the apostle Peter recalls whether Cleopus and his disciple had walked alongside the Savior, and speaks to him, but he does not recognize him. Peter told Thomas, “To see him, Thomas – to see who he is, who he is – we have to look with a heart.”
With tears, I listened and felt the deep presence of the spirit.
When the Savior returned to the stage and appeared to Thomas, I looked down from my place behind the scenes. I couldn’t see the actor portraying the resurrected Christ, but I could see the light illuminating him on stage. I could see the light, feel the spirit, and help me to know that the Savior was there.
On each person’s path to Emmaus, I taught Elder Juhura. “We may not see how he is with us, strives with us, working with us, and screaming with us.
I know now that I don’t need to see the Savior with my eyes to know that he is there. Also, there’s no need to know that he’s walking with me and that he’s with me at every stage.
– Emerson Manning recently completed his internship with Church News.
