Seven Voices at the Cross

(The NARRATOR walks to the lectern. At the same time the CENTURION walks to his post and stands facing the cross, helmet on. He stays there, still, until his own turn.)

NARRATOR: On the day Jesus was crucified, there were people standing near His cross. Some came because they loved Him. Some were there because it was their job. Some were only passing by. Seven of them will speak now. Each one tells only their own part. In between, we will read what the Gospels of John and Mark record.

(In the shorter versions, the NARRATOR says "Three of them" or "Five of them," and leaves out "Some were only passing by.")

NARRATOR: From the Gospel according to John, the nineteenth chapter. "And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha: Where they crucified him, and two other with him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst. And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. And the writing was, JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS."

(THE PASSERBY comes up the center aisle from the back with his staff, walking fast, like a man with somewhere to be. At the witness spot he stops and leans on the staff.)

THE PASSERBY: I wasn't going up there. Nobody goes up that hill on purpose. But the road into the city runs right past it, and I had to be inside the walls before the sabbath. I'd been walking since before dawn.

You can't help reading a sign when it's nailed up over a man's head. Whoever put it there wanted it read. It was written three times: in Hebrew, in Greek, and in Latin. I read the Hebrew. I worked out the Greek. The Latin I only guessed from the other two. "Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews."

I knew the name. Everyone on that road knew the name.

I'll tell you exactly what I did, because I can't stop telling it to myself. I slowed down. I looked up at Him. A man beside me was shaking his head and calling up to Him, and I shook my head and called up with him. "Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself." I said that. Then I kept walking.

(He looks toward the back doors.)

I have a family in the city and a sabbath to keep. I'll be there before sundown.

(He starts to go, then stops.)

I can't get that sign out of my head. Three languages. As if somebody wanted the whole world to be able to read it.

(He goes back down the center aisle with his staff, fast, and out.)

NARRATOR: "Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments, and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also his coat: now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout. They said therefore among themselves, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be: that the scripture might be fulfilled, which saith, They parted my raiment among them, and for my vesture they did cast lots. These things therefore the soldiers did."

(THE SOLDIER WITH THE COAT comes in from the side with the folded robe over his arm.)

THE SOLDIER WITH THE COAT: Four of us on the detail. Four of us, four parts. That's how it's done. Whatever the man is wearing goes to the men who do the work, and we split it four ways.

Then there was this.

(He shakes out the robe and holds it up.)

Look at it. Not a seam anywhere. Woven in one piece, from the top all the way down. You don't cut a thing like this into four. You'd end up with four rags. So we threw for it, and I won.

(He runs his hand down it.)

I've never owned a coat like this. Somebody sat at a loom a long time to make it. Somebody cared what He wore.

I don't know their scriptures. I couldn't tell you one word of them.

Then we sat down and watched Him. That's the job. You sit, and you wait.

(He folds the robe carefully over his arm.)

It's mine now. I'll wear it in the barracks tonight.

(He goes out the side, with the coat.)

The script continues in the full PDF.