THE STORYTELLER'S BIBLE
Act  VI - The Gospel of John, Scene 3
Script by Bob Allen
For four voices

Scene 3

1          3          4          2

VOICE TWO: The Death of Christ, according to John.

VOICE ONE: In contrast to the rest of the gospels, John gives the predominant portion of his book over one week in the life of Christ, the Passion Week.

VOICE FOUR: The Sabbath was approaching, a high Sabbath, celebrating the Day of Atonement. Jesus and His disciples needed a place to observe their Passover meal, so they came to the Upper Room, graciously provided for them by an unnamed host. It was there Jesus took off his outer garment, tied a towel around His waist and knelt down to wash the dirty feet of the disciples who were too proud to assume the role of a servant toward their peers. It was there Jesus told His disciples that one of them would betray Him.

VOICE THREE: Almost immediately Judas excused himself and went out to earn his thirty pieces of blood money.

VOICE TWO: Then Jesus predicted that the proud leader of the band, Peter himself, would deny the Lord three times before daybreak.

VOICE ONE: In that very room He predicted His death and instructed them to remember Him by breaking up a loaf of bread as if it were His body being broken apart, and pouring out the fruit of the vine as if it were His blood pouring from His wounded side.

VOICE FOUR: But they didn’t want to think about death. They didn’t want to hear that He was going away. Talk like that was turning an exciting evening of joy and celebration into one of discouragement and disillusionment.

VOICE THREE: (STAND) So abruptly, He got up from the table, put His sandals back on His feet and said, “Let us be going.”

(READERS #1, #2 AND # 4 STAND)

VOICE TWO: Back down the narrow stairs He led them, through the Kidron Valley and up the other side to a familiar vineyard called the Garden of Gethsemane. He had just shared with them the blood- red cup, the fruit of the vine. All around them were the vineyards and as they walked He shared with them His final message.

(ALL READERS WALK SLOWLY TOWARD DOWN RIGHT)

VOICE ONE: I am the vine and My Father is the Gardener.

VOICE FOUR: I am the vine, and you are the branches.

VOICE THREE: This metaphor of the vine and its branches laid the foundation for everything He wanted to tell them in His final hours. He was the source of their very Life. There was no abiding apart from Him and no choice other than union with Him. He was their Life or they were without Life.

VOICE TWO: As they walked from the Upper Room to the Garden of Gethsemane, the thought of leaving was uppermost in His mind. He was going away through death and He needed to prepare them for what was in store for this little band of disciples. They belonged to Him, and His death would not end the hatred of the world which up to now had been directed toward Him. In fact, after He was gone it would be directed against them.

(READERS PAUSE DOWN RIGHT)

1 3 4 2

VOICE ONE: They would be put out of the synagogue.

VOICE FOUR: Separated from access to spiritual life. No place of worship, no place of prayer. They would not have any way to read the Scriptures because the Scriptures were kept in the synagogue. To the Jew all of life was spiritual. Being put out of the synagogue would mean the end of life as they knew it.

VOICE THREE: He also told them that some of them would be killed.

VOICE TWO: James beheaded.

VOICE ONE: Peter crucified upside down.

VOICE FOUR: Stephen stoned.

VOICE THREE: And the killing would be done by people who were convinced they were offering a service to God. They would persecute and slaughter the disciples as an act of worship.

VOICE TWO: The third danger they would face was that of going astray, of
apostasizing.

VOICE ONE: He warned His twelve disciples that the world would hate them so that when it happened they would not be caught by surprise and deny Him. And what happened? They were caught by surprise when He was arrested and they all denied Him. They weren’t listening.

VOICE FOUR: Christ did not want them to go astray. He knew that as soon as His physical presence was gone they would all forsake Him and flee. So He was not going to leave them alone. He was going to give them the Holy Spirit who would carry on His work in the world.

VOICE THREE: Through them.

VOICE TWO: The Holy Spirit would take on flesh and blood.

VOICE ONE: Their flesh and blood.

VOICE FOUR: As hard as they found it to believe, it was good for them that Jesus was going away. He had been with them, but the Holy Spirit would be in them.

VOICE THREE: They would be His body.

VOICE TWO: Their hands would be His hands.

VOICE ONE: Their feet would be His feet.

VOICE FOUR: Their mouths would be His mouth.

VOICE THREE: What the Holy Spirit came to do in the world was identical with what they were to do in relationship to the world. He would be doing Christ’s work through them.

VOICE TWO: They would convict the world of sin.

VOICE ONE: The work of the Holy Spirit in regard to the sinfulness of men would be like the work of Christ—it would be a gracious invitation to believe.

VOICE FOUR: He would convict the world concerning sin because they do not believe in Christ.

VOICE THREE: Their work would be the same, offering a gracious invitation and allowing the unbelief of sinful men to convict their conscience.

VOICE TWO: They would convict the world of false righteousness.

VOICE ONE: The work of the Holy Spirit was to test the righteousness of the world and put them to shame by demonstrating that their claim to righteousness is an empty claim.

VOICE FOUR: The Holy Spirit takes up this work because Jesus is leaving and men will no longer be able to see Him and be reminded of the emptiness of their claims to righteousness.

VOICE THREE: But the Holy Spirit would do this work through the disciples. He would produce the righteousness of Christ in them. He would make them holy. He would reproduce in them such a clear image of Christ that people would recognize the emptiness of their own false righteousness.

VOICE TWO: He would convict the world concerning righteousness because Christ was going to the Father and they would no longer see Him. Now they were to see Christ in the disciples.

VOICE ONE: They would convict the world of false judgment.

VOICE FOUR: The Holy Spirit continues the work of Christ by convicting the world of its profoundly wrong standards of judgment.

VOICE THREE: The world listens to the lies of one who has already been judged. He is their prince and it is his impaired judgment which they follow.

VOICE TWO: The Holy Spirit wanted to use the disciples to prove that Satan’s lies were wrong.

VOICE ONE: The greatest problem in society would not be the prevalence of sin.

VOICE FOUR: The greatest problem in society would not be false religion.

VOICE THREE: The greatest problem in society would not be bad judges.

VOICE TWO: The greatest problem in society would be professing disciples who were not controlled by the Holy Spirit and were therefore not bringing conviction upon the world.

VOICE ONE: And when He comes—

VOICE FOUR: In you!

VOICE THREE: Yes, He was leaving them.

VOICE TWO: But He was not leaving them alone.

VOICE ONE: I will give you another Comforter.

VOICE FOUR: I will give you the Truth, My Word.

VOICE THREE: The Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of Truth, tells us about Christ who is the Way, the Truth and the Life, repeating what He has heard from the Truthful God who cannot lie.

VOICE TWO: The Word will glorify Christ.

VOICE ONE: The Word will reveal God’s will.

VOICE FOUR: The Word will be your means of knowing God.

VOICE THREE: And the disciples said? (To each other, that is!)

VOICE TWO: (PULL READER #3 ASIDE) We don’t understand.

VOICE ONE: (PULL READER #4 ASIDE) What is this about going away in a little while?

VOICE FOUR: What is He talking about?

VOICE THREE: But they didn’t ask Him. They were standing close enough to the Son of God that by taking no more than one or two steps they could have touched Him. He was the one they didn’t understand. And yet they were asking each other what He meant.

VOICE TWO: Jesus knew why they didn’t understand. Their sorrow over His announced departure was so great that they couldn’t get beyond the thought of His leaving. So instead of answering the question He meets their spiritual need.

VOICE ONE: He deals with their grief.

VOICE FOUR: With great depth of understanding He describes the way in which their grief at His death would be compounded by the fact that others would be celebrating with unrestrained joy.

VOICE THREE: During those three days when Christ would lie in the grave the disappointment and despair of the disciples would be overwhelming. To them His death would seem a complete tragedy. All their hopes and dreams would be buried with Him.

VOICE TWO: But He would never speak of the cross in terms of tragedy. With the resurrection the disciples would come to recognize the cross as a cause for joy rather than a cause for sorrow.

VOICE ONE: The symbol of hate would become a symbol of love.

VOICE FOUR: The symbol of shame would become the symbol of glory.

VOICE THREE: The symbol of tragedy would become a symbol of triumph.

VOICE TWO: Sorrow would endure for the night, but joy would come in the morning.

VOICE ONE: (ALL FOUR READERS GATHER CLOSE TOGETHER TOWARD CENTER STAGE) They had been somewhat scattered as they whispered to one another and asked their questions of each other instead of asking Him. But then He gathered them tightly around Him and began to pray.

VOICE FOUR: In public!

VOICE THREE: Somewhere on a street in Jerusalem.

VOICE TWO: He stopped! Stopped and looked toward heaven—and prayed.

VOICE ONE: First He prayed that God would glorify Him.

VOICE FOUR: If He were simply a man that prayer would be the height of presumption. “God, glorify me. Show everyone just how wonderful and intelligent and powerful I am.”

VOICE THREE: As the God-Man, He is simply asking that the others will know what God has always known—that when God and only God existed in the perfection of all His attributes and in the effulgent splendor of inapproachable light before the world began—Christ was One with Him.

VOICE TWO: Next He prayed that the disciples would be sanctified.

VOICE ONE: It was not their own glory that Christ wanted the disciples to bring to Him. They wouldn’t bring Him glory by their great deeds or amazing accomplishments.

VOICE FOUR: Glory would come to Christ through those who recognized their sinful state, realized they had offended a holy God by a life of rebellion against Him, and would place their faith and trust in the blood of Jesus to cleanse them from their sin and transform them from darkness to Light.

VOICE THREE: Glory would come to Christ when people saw the lives of the disciples transformed by the power of His grace. Lives that were once lived for self and Satan would now be lived for His glory in obedience to the Word of God.

VOICE TWO: Lives characterized by Christ’s joy even in the midst of a hateful world system.

VOICE ONE: Lives that, like Christ’s, are lived in this world without bowing to the authority of the prince of this world.

VOICE FOUR: Lives that are like Christ’s in their purpose: to be totally committed to the work of God—that of bringing glory to Himself through the announcement of the good news concerning His death and resurrection.

VOICE THREE: The third concern on the heart of Christ as He stood on a street corner in Jerusalem and prayed was the unity of His people.

VOICE TWO: Christ prayed that His disciples would demonstrate a unity of love, a unity of relationship that would be so different from the conduct of the world that others would be compelled to recognize God as the source of such unbelievable love.

VOICE ONE: He wanted them to be one, and the model for that oneness was none other than the example of love between the Father and the Son.

VOICE FOUR: Finally, He prayed for the evangelization of the entire world. The disciples had not been known for their ability to get along, but Christ was confident that they would not only become united, but would form the nucleus of a great body of believers who would be known as Christians by their love.

VOICE THREE: The disciples had a mission to reach the world, and they had the means to do it. He prayed that they would be faithful in giving out His message. That they would be holy to glorify His name. That they would be loving in unity with His people—that the world may know that God had sent Him.

VOICE TWO: That the world may know.

VOICE ONE: And He didn’t pray for them alone. He prayed for all who would believe through their word.

VOICE FOUR: He prayed for us!

ALL: That the world may know!