THE STORYTELLER'S BIBLE
Act VI - The Gospel of John, Scene 9
Script by Bob Allen
For four voices

Scene 9

(READERS HUDDLE TOGETHER IN A TIGHT GROUP AS IF IN HIDING.) 

                                                1  4

                                                3  2

VOICE FOUR: Lock the doors! Turn out the lights!

VOICE THREE: Did anyone follow you, Bartholomew?

VOICE TWO: Do you think they know where we are?

VOICE ONE: Where’s Thomas? Has anyone seen Thomas? Do you think they captured him? He knew we were going to meet tonight? What will they do to him?

VOICE FOUR: What will they do to all of us? Andrew, check the door again. We can’t risk some temple guard stumbling in here by chance. Those rulers would like nothing better than to capture all of us and place eleven crosses out on that hill in place of three. Now listen, men. There are some strange rumors floating around. Peter and John went out to the garden this morning and they say the body is gone. Mary—well, you’ve all heard what she thinks. She says she has seen Christ and He is alive. But until we know for sure we need to play it safe. I don’t mind telling you that I’m afraid, and all of us should be if we know what is good for us.

VOICE THREE: Who’s that! Andrew, I thought you said you locked the door?

VOICE TWO: Jesus came and stood among them.

VOICE ONE: Appearing from nowhere. Through their locked door. Unhindered by all their precautions. Their closed-door planning session to figure out how they could escape the fate of their crucified leader, interrupted by the One they thought they had lost.

VOICE FOUR: He had promised them peace at the very beginning of the Passion Week. But since He had made that promise they had faced anything but peace. They faced the swords in the Garden of Gethsemane. They faced the hatred of the Jews and the vindictiveness of Pilate. They faced three sleepless days and nights mourning the loss of the One in whom they had placed all their hopes and dreams.

VOICE THREE: But now Jesus was alive, and He greeted them with words of peace.

VOICE TWO: Peace be with you.

VOICE ONE: Peace!

VOICE FOUR: Peace, with God.

VOICE THREE: Man had been at enmity with God ever since the fall—and Christ came to bring peace.

VOICE TWO: Peace was the fulfillment of His promise and on the basis of His own work.

VOICE ONE: They would not know peace in the world, but they could know peace with God.

VOICE FOUR: He had promised them joy, over and over again, during those intimate times of fellowship at the Passover feast. But the last few days had not been days of joy. They had been days of weeping, mourning, and unrestrained grief. They had been days of sorrow. Peter had wept at the realization of his denial of Christ. The women had wept at the cross. Joseph and Nicodemus had mourned as they prepared the lifeless body of Christ for burial. Mary had wept in the garden when she found the empty tomb.

VOICE THREE: But now Jesus was alive, and when He showed them His hands and His side, they greeted Him with rejoicing.

VOICE TWO: They had grieved over His wounds at His death. They rejoiced over His wounds at His resurrection.

VOICE ONE: He had promised to give them a purpose for living. He told them repeatedly that He had chosen them to go and bring forth fruit. But what could be more purposeless than hiding away in a darkened room behind locked doors for fear that someone might be looking for you? They weren’t there to worship. They were there to hide. Purposelessness personified.

VOICE FOUR: But now Jesus was alive, and He greeted them with words that restored purpose to life.

VOICE THREE: As the Father hath sent me, so send I you.

VOICE TWO: They were to be one with Him as He was One with the Father. They were to obey Him as He obeyed the Father. They were sent to a life of ministry—Christ’s ministry—to see His mission on earth continued. What a task! What a purpose! What a goal!

VOICE ONE: He had promised to give them another Comforter, another member of the Godhead, like Himself, who would be with them forever. But as He hung on the cross they felt deserted, totally alone and certainly powerless to do anything He had asked them to do.

VOICE FOUR: But now Jesus was alive, and He greeted them with the Promise.

VOICE THREE: Receive ye the Holy Spirit.

VOICE TWO: He was not going to leave the disciples to do His work alone. In fact, He was staying with them, in the person of the Holy Spirit-- because the Son and the Spirit were One just as the Father and the Son were One. He would be with them forever. He would guide them into all truth. He would, through them, convict the world of sin, righteousness and judgment. God Himself was taking up residence in them!

VOICE ONE: A dead Christ had left them in despair.

VOICE FOUR: A risen Christ transformed them by giving them, in Himself, all the promises of God.

(READER # 1 STANDS AND CROSSES LEFT WITH BACK TO THE REST OF THE READERS.)

VOICE THREE: But Thomas was not with them when Jesus came.

VOICE TWO: When the other disciples tried to tell him what had happened, tried to share their excitement at having seen the Lord—he would not believe.

VOICE ONE: It wasn’t enough for Thomas that others had seen Him.

VOICE FOUR: It wasn’t enough for Thomas that they had touched Him.

VOICE THREE: He had to see for himself.

VOICE TWO: He had to touch the scars himself.

VOICE ONE: Eight days later he had that chance.

VOICE FOUR: Again the disciples were gathered for a meeting. Apparently they were in the same house where they had met the week before. Again the doors were locked. They still feared the Jews even though they had known about the resurrection for a week.

VOICE THREE: Jesus stood in their midst.

VOICE TWO: Reach here your finger and see my hands; and reach here your hand, and put it into My side; and be not faithless, but believing.

VOICE ONE: (TURN RIGHT) My Lord and My God.

VOICE FOUR: “My” Lord—a statement of personal conviction. His faith brought him to a personal relationship with the risen Lord.

VOICE THREE: Lord, and God. Thomas was subscribing deity to Someone he had known as a man in a very physical way. He had walked and talked with Jesus for years and now he saw Him as he really was—the divine Son of God Himself, come in the flesh.

VOICE TWO: Believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God—A body of knowledge that must be accepted, the intellectual aspect of faith.

VOICE ONE: (CROSS RIGHT TO REJOIN OTHER READERS) That believing you may have life in His name—A Person who alone can give new life, the experiential aspect of faith.

VOICE FOUR: John wrote his gospel so that we might have both. Give mental assent to the truth concerning Christ and come to Him that you might have Life.

VOICE THREE: True faith will change the mind, but it will also change the life.

VOICE TWO: Thomas accepted the Truth!

VOICE ONE: Thomas accepted the Life!

VOICE FOUR: The Way!

VOICE THREE: The Truth!

VOICE TWO: The Life!