THIS weekend is a ‘high’ Holy weekend for all Christians — Easter Sunday, Resurrection Sunday. Many a great film has been about this story. Many have been moved and changed by The Passion of the Christ. Some of us recently saw the musical TV version done by Tyler Perry, The Passion. Well, imagine a modern film about a young man who is born to an unwed teenage mother, who falls in love with and marries a simple man — a carpenter — who loves her in return.

In this film, the simple man decides to leave the city where they would be persecuted because of her situation: unwed pregnancy. There would be questions about how a woman could be found pregnant saying she’s had sex with no one?! A pregnant virgin?! But the simple man believes her and marries her. Together they leave town on foot and head to country in search of peace.

Upon their journey to somewhere safe for them and her unborn child, let’s call her Mary, goes into labour. Imagine this young woman of about 16 with no mother to guide her, no father to support her, pregnant walking with a man she hardly knows, who simply loves her. They come across a city and there is no room for them. There is no nurse, no hospital, no doctor, there’s only a chicken coop, where she gives birth to a beautiful baby boy to the sound of dancehall music being played on a cellphone by a little boy as chickens cluck and scratch.

They are visited by three strangers from foreign nations, who are surprised by what they see, but know that that’s what they left Africa, Europe, and Asia to see — a miracle.

Jump cut to a scene now 12 years later, where the young boy is wreaking havoc in church, urging people to spread peace, stop talking about hate, where he challenges the members to support one another because “if one of us fails we all fail”. He throws out those who would take money from people who are doing bad things just to get ahead. He challenges his community to do better.

He and his family must pack up and leave in search of peace in another community because surely this boy is crazy!

Jump cut again another 20 years later, where we see this young strong, dreadlock, handsome man, now in his 30s, who walks with his own crew of 12. They sing in a conscious reggae band and he sings songs of praise and preaches. They say he is a prophet, others say he is fraud.

He dares to challenge the church asking: How can you preach hate against anyone, when my father says we must preach love?

Imagine the rest of the film, where he goes to play a huge concert in town on a Friday and is welcomed like a superstar. By the end of the next week, he has been arrested under false charges. In court, they choose to let the drug dealer and the murderer go free, but he is sentenced to death. He is whipped beaten and called a king with a crown of thorns placed upon his head as his music is played to mock him.

He is hanged and his beautiful dreadlocks swing in the wind as the darkness of a hurricane approaching cover the city. His body is wrapped temporarily and placed in the morgue due to the hurricane. The next day after the devastating hurricane, his body has disappeared, but many claim to see him walking amongst the rubble.

This is just an idea for a movie, but if Jesus were to walk amongst us again today what would we do?

Sheryl Lee Ralph is an American actress, singer, and activist with Jamaican roots. She also originated the role of Deena Jones in the Broadway musical Dreamgirls.