Scenes From The Great Passion Play Performance in Eureka Springs, Arkansas

Eureka Springs Great Passion Play The most attended outdoor drama in the United States, The Great Passion Play performance features authentic costumes and state-of-the-art sound and lighting. A cast of hundreds delivers an incredible performance, taking you on an inspiring and spiritual journey.

The Great Passion Play begins on a day now known as Palm Sunday. As Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey, an enthused crowd praises Him and eagerly accepts His claims to be the promised King, but the people do not truly grasp what that means.

Jesus enters the Temple to find His Father's house a site for sin as moneychangers and merchants seek financial gain during Passover. Jesus cleanses the Temple of the moneychangers and heals the blind and lame.

Religious leaders formally challenge Jesus' authority and seek to ensnare Jesus with a series of questions in order to have grounds to arrest and kill Him. On this day Jesus talks with several of His disciples on the Mount of Olives about the future, foretelling of the last days and of His Eureka Springs Great Passion Play own second coming.

The "Last Supper" is a time of fellowship for the disciples and their Lord. Knowing His time draws near, Jesus humbles himself as a servant to wash His followers' feet. He acknowledges Judas as His betrayer and enlightens the remaining eleven disciples of what is to come.

From the Upper Room, the men go to the garden Gethsemane, where Jesus thrice prays for His Father's will to be done. Knowing He will bear the weight of a sinful world as He hangs on a cross, He moves forward in obedience to be arrested by the chief priests.

Jesus endures a series of trials at the hands of the Romans. Finally, before an angry mob, He is handed over for crucifixion. His disciples desert Him with Peter three times denying him. Mock trials and torture lead up to His final moments on the cross.

Eureka Springs Great Passion Play Joseph of Arimathea asks Pilate for Jesus' body which is prepared for burial and placed in a tomb sealed by a stone. Before sundown Friday night, Mary Magdalene and Jesus' mother, Mary, see where he is laid.

An angel and an empty tomb greet the women who come to anoint Jesus' body. Bewildered, they flee from the site. The Resurrected Christ appears to Mary Magdalene and later to strangers and his disciples. Never forsaken, Jesus sits at the right hand of God after submitting to death.