Central Church Ministries

Good Friday 2005 Script©

Summary: Five characters (Jesus' mother Mary, an anonymous Pharisee, the Centurion who presided over the crucifixion, Peter's daughter, and the thief who did not repent) who were present at Jesus' crucifixion give their perspectives. The overall result is an evangelistic call to follow Christ. [May use musical interludes between each character]

Mary I never knew I could feel so much pain and yet so much peace at the same time, as though the sun were setting and rising all at once. Watching my son die was horrifying. I do not know how I survived, except that the grace of Almighty God was with me.

As I watched him slowly dying I recalled all the things my son taught. How the kingdom of God was upon us, ready to come at any moment, and yet somehow present in him. He wanted nothing else but to bring us all to a place of knowing God's blessing and peace and forgiveness. Everywhere he went he talked about it. And God was with him, giving him power to perform wonders and signs like none Israel had ever seen.

I don't know how it came to this. How could anyone refuse belief if they saw his miracles and heard him teach? It was apparent that the Spirit of the living God was upon him. Even when he told us that the Son of Man must suffer and die we did not understand. People were flocking to him, the lame were made to walk, the blind were given their sight, the deaf their hearing, even the dead were raised back to life. How could God allow someone like this to be killed, especially the way he was killed?

They said he blasphemed. It was a made up charge. No one upheld the dignity of our God more than Jesus. To treat him like a common criminal was all designed to make it seem like God discredited him. But I saw him on that cross. I listened as he spoke words of grace and power. He forgave those who condemned him. He counseled one of the thieves and promised him paradise. He committed himself to God and me to one of his disciples. He said, "It is finished," and gave up his spirit long before most would have died.

It was as if he was prepared for this very moment, and it reminded me of the gifts he received at his birth. The frankincense and myrrh were fitting gifts for one who would need a burial. God has put many things into my heart to ponder and meditate on. I did not expect this part. But I have come to believe that God does nothing by mistake. He meant for my son to suffer this way. Somehow He will use this to accomplish His purposes in bringing the kingdom back to Israel. When he told me that my son would be named Jesus for he would save his people from their sins, I believed it. And I believe it now.

God's ways are not our ways. He will find a way to bring good out of this.

Pharisee Mary, you have spoken like a true Jew. God's ways are not our ways. But it is quite apparent what is going on here. Jesus was a threat. How many times have we had to endure a Messiah-would-be? How many times have the people's hopes been stirred up only to have them crash down around them when the "Messiah" is exposed as a fraud. How many times have we risked the wrath of the Romans when these Messiahs led their followers in rebellion against the government?

I don't endorse the use of violence to accomplish our purposes. But don't you see? It had to happen this way. He was such a promising young rabbi, but he strayed over the bounds. He challenged too much of the accepted teachings, set aside too much of the Law, received too many of the rabble and sinners. It was as if he were purposely defying all our traditions. He said you couldn't put new wine in old wineskins and he was right. What he had to say would have destroyed all the fabric of our religion.

I know you would point to his miracles and say that we should have acknowledged him as our Messiah, that the miracles pointed clearly to the fact that God sent him. But I also know that Satan can produce miracles. Moses himself taught us that even if a prophet performs miracles, if his message says to worship another god, we are not to believe him.

So I am satisfied that it had to happen this way. It was all that we could do. It was either him or us. As the chief priest said, and I am not a supporter of his, but in this he was right, one man had to die in place of all the rest. He had to be a sacrifice for us. And Mary, as much as it hurts you to hear that, you may take comfort in it because it served the people as a whole.

I do not mean to hurt you in this either, but I believe that this movement will now go the way of all the rest. If it were of God, as you supposed, it would not have come to this, and the movement will die just as its leader did.

Centurion You Pharisees are crazy! How could you witness what took place here not and recognize that something amazing happened here and to some One amazing. This could not have been an ordinary man, some fraud of a Messiah, some pusher of the bounds of your religion who caught an unfortunate, or in your minds, a fortunate break.

I know a little about the relationship of our governor and your leaders and how things work. There was no reason to crucify this man. It was all political. I have seen it many times and it still sickens me. There was no honor in this, no justice. So I know that Jesus did not deserve to die and that only serves to make more important what took place here.

I watched as he was brutally flogged before he bore his cross up this hill. I saw the way he acted before the governor and the crowds. Most men would have been begging for their lives, trying to strike some bargain and so be spared from death. But not him. He took it all in absolute silence. He made no pleas for mercy. There was a strength in him. It was as if he was meant for this and he knew it.

I watched him walk up the hill to this place of death. I saw the looks of his admirers as he passed by. They were in shock, but they were also in awe and worship. I have never seen such devoted followers. And then he willingly stretched out his hands and took the nails through his wrists and feet. And I listened to what he had to say as he hung there in unbelievable pain and agony. Every word from his mouth was full of grace. I've never seen anyone die like this.

You should know that I have not turned a blind eye to what has been going on in your country. It is part of my job to be aware of what is happening among the populace. I have heard about his miracles and I have seen some of those who have been healed. I believe the reports about his friend Lazarus being raised from the dead. But nothing prepared me for what I saw on this hill. When three hours into his agony the sky grew dark I knew somehow it was not a normal day. The way it lifted as soon as he died and the way the ground shook. I'll tell you, my men have never seen anything like it.

This man was a son of God. Of that there is no doubt in my mind. I wish now I had taken some opportunities to hear him when he preached. I could follow a man like this. And I would think you Pharisees would be glad for a champion like him to lead your people. But instead you had him killed. I cannot believe your God will be smiling on you for that.

Who was this man? I want to know?

Peter's Daughter My father Cephas has told me all about Jesus and I have spent time with Jesus on many occasions. Right now my heart is broken. Can I tell you what my father told me about him? Can I tell you about Jesus?

In our religion we have been waiting for many hundreds of years for God to bring his kingdom to earth and once again have all his creation willingly under his rule, like it was in the garden of Eden before Adam and Eve sinned. He promised that the seed of the woman would come and crush the serpent's head. He promised that this offspring of Eve would come from the tribe of Judah and the family of David. We were taught that he would come in glorious power to establish our nation as the leader among nations, so that all mankind would come to us to learn about the Lord.

But when Jesus came and we began to realize he was the Messiah, we were confused. He did not come with great worldly power. His power was that to heal, to free, to forgive, to teach the truth, to give life. Although a child, I was held spellbound by what he taught because it spoke to the very heart of my being. I had said I believed in God, but I did not really live for him. I kept the rules of our people, but my heart was not pure.

One day I asked Jesus how I could live such a life as he described. I told him I wanted to but did not feel the strength to do so. He looked at me and said, "Little one, why would you ever think you would be strong enough to live God's way. That is why I came. When I am with you and your trust is in me, you will find the strength in me to live the way God wants you to."

He told my father and the other disciples that he had come to give his life as a ransom for many. My father told me how when Jesus had said he must die, my father tried to persuade him to stop talking like that. But Jesus said only Satan would try to keep him from God's purpose for him. He felt he had to go to this cross and somehow die for us. I still don't understand that. But I was here when he said, "It is finished!" I heard him say to the man next to him, "Today you will be with me in Paradise." I, too, saw the darkness and felt the earth tremble when he died. And I can tell you that it was God's way of saying He did not approve of what was done to our Savior and that we had best believe in him or perish.

I don't know what good it is now to believe in him, though, if he is gone. But somehow that is what I feel I must do. I will never be the same because I met him. It all seemed so simple when he was here. As long as my life was in his hands, I felt I could do anything. I don't know how I'll live without him now.

Thief who rejected Jesus I am here as one who has experienced death. I too died on a cross right next to Him. I too was in agony. I begged for my life. They had to force my hands on the beams to nail them in place. I deserved to be up there for my crimes. And in my anger and the malice of my darkened soul I joined in with those who spit hatred at him.

"If you are the Messiah," I said, "save yourself and us." I suppose in the stupidity of my heart I may have hoped that by allying myself with my executors I would regain some dignity. I didn't really believe that they would release me. All I felt was bitterness; bitterness that I had been caught and that I was left here to die for my foolishness. And because some thought this Jesus to be special, I felt bitter toward him, too. Who did he think he was. He was on a cross just like me. If I deserved to die, then so did he.

I knew the man hanging on the other side of him. A thief just like me. Yet he had the audacity to rebuke me for what I said to Jesus. "Don't you even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation?" And he was oh so careful to point out that we were receiving a just reward for our deeds but Jesus was innocent. I didn't need to hear that and it made me hate Jesus all the more. I didn't know what to think when, as this little girl mentioned, my fellow thief asked Jesus to remember him when he came into his kingdom. "Hah," I thought, "the fool! What kingdom can a dead man have?" I thought Jesus' answer was only meant to comfort a fool like this one. "This day you will be with me in Paradise," he had said. "A pathetic promise from a dying false prophet," I thought to myself.

When he said, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit," I thought, "Where has God been all my life? Why should I commit my spirit into his hands? He's never been there for me." The only thing I envied about Jesus was how quickly he died. My death had to be hastened by the soldiers breaking my legs. Oh the agony!

I only thought I knew agony. When I came to in Sheol, my whole self was in agony. Every crevice of my soul groaned with a gaping emptiness that felt like fire consuming me. It was as if the very thing I had been running from all my life - God - had actually been there giving me any hope I ever had, any joy I ever experienced, any love I ever received, and now he was gone completely from my life and there was nothing but pain. I didn't want him in my life and now he had granted me my wish and his absence was total torture.

I can only assume that I am here to tell you that I made the wrong choice. I am only here to warn you, so that you will make the right choice. If you see yourself as somehow responsible for his death, you had better decide to ask him to remember you when he comes into his kingdom. I do not pretend to know how such a thing will be possible now that he too is dead, but I wish I had humbled myself like my compatriot in crime. What a fool I have been! What a fool I have been!