ATCIntro

At the Cross

Part 1: Seating of the Board of Inquiry and Statement of the Thief

Seating of the Board of Inquiry

It is 5:30 p.m., on a Friday, A. D. 31, Jerusalem. Jesus of Nazareth, a popular preacher, has just died at the hands of the Roman overlords. His cross still stands on the promontory they call Skull Hill, but some of His followers have taken His body away.

Some have said that this Man was no ordinary Man. Some say He was the Creator of the universe. Some say He was to be the Saviour of the world.

A board of inquiry has been called to determine the significance of this death. The testimony of five witnesses is to be heard. Each must answer the same question: What did the death of Jesus mean to you?

Time stands still. We encounter each witness in the midst of his or her activity just moments after Jesus' body has been removed from the cross.

The question each member of the Board of Inquiry must answer is: What is the meaning of this death? What does it mean to me? What difference will it make in my life?

YOU are the Board of Inquiry. Tonight, YOU are being asked: What does the death of Jesus mean to you?

Musical number

The first statement to come before this Board of Inquiry is from one who died with Jesus. An unnamed bandit. His statement was taken just moments before his death. It will be read into the Inquiry Minutes at this time.

THIEF (read by narrator)

I never thought it would actually come to this. I never thought it would happen to me.

I thought . . . no I knew that I was on God's side, and that He would preserve me. I would never have to suffer. All the way from the prison, up that long hill with the cross on my back, I kept reciting the psalm I had cherished all my life. "A thousand shall fall at thy right hand, and ten thousand at thy left, but it shall not come nigh thee."

Forty-six years. Forty-six years I've held onto that promise. For the last 15 years I've roamed from one village to another, and then from one brigand band to another. Always doing what I could to make life miserable for the Romans.

What we did, we did for God. We knew it couldn't be His will for those despicable Gentiles to rule the promised land.

I believed in God. Everything I did, I did in His name. When I killed the garrison guard, I shouted God's name as I plunged the dagger into his belly.

When they captured me, I knew my God would deliver me. He would triumph and glorify His name.

Then they drove the nails into my arms and legs.

The pain came roaring through my illusions about deliverance. It seemed that God had abandoned me. My faith had been so strong, but now it evaporated like morning mist in the noonday sun. It couldn't abide the heat of reality.

I was angry. I was sick. I was in pain. Fever shot through me, then a cold chill. The sun was too bright, and then it seemed dark.

I'm not talking about the darkness that came later. This was just mental darkness. I couldn't see the future anymore. I'd always been a fighter, but now I had nothing to fight for. It was the end. And I had no hope.

Then I heard the voices. "He trusted in God, let God save him!"

As I brought the scene into focus, I realized they weren't taunting me, but the Man next to me.

Their words echoed my own anger, frustration, and despair. I turned on that Man and vented all the gall of my soul on Him.

When He turned and looked at me, I started to spit in His face. But His eyes stopped me. I looked right into them. They seemed to draw me in--right into His soul.

There was no hate, no gall there, no anger, no despair. There was faith there that soothed my spirit like a quiet mist.

I fell quiet then. Peace and pain merged inside my mind. And then I realized who was beside me. It was the Teacher I had listened to once up in Galilee.

I had even followed Him for a couple of days. But I wasn't one to just around listening day after day. And it seemed to me that He focused too much on peace and appeasement. I thought we needed action to vindicate the name of God.

I left Him then, but His words about forgiveness, and turning the other cheek went with me. In quiet moments I couldn't help but wonder about what He had said. It didn't seem like what the God that I served would want. But His words haunted me.

If I hadn't been so busy, I would have gone back to hear more.

Why would they be crucifying Him? My groggy mind groped for an answer, but found none.

They kept up their taunting for a long time. Then, just when the sun was highest in the sky, it suddenly went dark.

That silenced them for a bit. They seemed afraid--like they expected Him to come down off the cross and take vengeance on them or something.

But when He didn't, they grew bold again.

For me the darkness was like a foreboding of what I knew lay ahead. Darkness, and no hope at all.

I looked over at Jesus. In the flickering light of the soldiers' torches I could see the other man who had been crucified with us. He had joined the crowd in mocking Jesus.

I couldn't hold my peace. "You fool," I shouted at him. "We're here because of what we did! He is innocent, and you revile Him?"

Jesus looked at me again just then.

I expected a look of appreciation. But what I saw was pleading eyes. He seemed more concerned about me than about Himself. Even in His moment of pain, He was thinking of me. I could see hope in His eyes. Hope that I might not be beyond His power to save.

Those eyes silenced me again.

And then from somewhere inside of me came words I hadn't anticipated. Somehow all the hope I had ever had in God welled up. I knew suddenly that what Jesus had said about God was right. I could see it--in Him.

The spark of faith that He had ignited back in Galilee exploded into flame. . . .

It wasn't just the gasp of a dying man grasping at straws. Suddenly all my faith in God focused on Jesus.

"Lord, remember me when You come in Your kingdom," I said.

I didn't fully understand what He meant when He promised me that I would be with Him in paradise. But the peace I felt was like paradise already.

All the striving, believing, wishing of my life came down to that one moment . . . and I realized that Jesus had just handed me the very thing I had tried so hard to win on my own.

The rest of the pain, the thirst, the ebbing of life, is a memory now. But the hope He gave me goes on forever.

What about you? What are you struggling and striving for? Jesus can give it to you.

Turn to Him. Look at Him there on the cross. Look into His eyes. And live.

Read Part 2 the testimony of Martha

Complete directions for producing this drama as reader's theater complete with music is available. For information, e-mail spiritquest@sbcglobal.net

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