Church Skits & Plays
An Easter monologueWrapped1 actor · 5 min

Easter · 1 actor · 5 minutes · One woman, about 30 and up

Wrapped

On the evening of the day He rose, Mary, the mother of Jesus, sits in John’s house folding a strip of cloth she has kept since the night He was born. A warm Easter monologue for one woman, with gentle humor and a hymn to follow.

$8USD, tax included
  • Instant PDF download, yours to keep
  • Performance rights for your whole church
  • 30-day refund if it doesn’t fit your church
Running time5 minutes
Cast1 role · One woman, about 30 and up
PrepMemorized, with two rehearsals; the part is about 530 words, and her hands are busy with the cloth the whole time. Tell your musicians she walks off straight into a hymn.
Best forEaster Sunday morning or evening service, a women’s Easter breakfast or tea, the Sunday after Easter, before a sermon on John 20:1–10
ScriptureJohn 20:1–18; John 19:25–27, 38–42; Luke 1:43; Mark 15:46 (KJV)
ThemeMary wrapped Jesus as a baby, and two friends wrapped Him in linen for the grave. On the third day the tomb held only His grave clothes: He had risen and left them behind.
FormatPrintable PDF

About the skit

“Mothers are always folding something.” In John’s house, the home Jesus gave her from the cross, Mary folds a narrow strip of cloth she kept from the night she wrapped her newborn Son. She remembers Elisabeth’s greeting, years of sawdust in a carpenter’s sleeves, and the Friday she won’t describe.

Then Mary Magdalene comes pounding on the door, and John comes home with news from the tomb. What he saw there, from John 20, gathers up every fold of her story. The crucifixion gets one line, the laughs are warm, and she ends smiling.

One woman, two rehearsals and a strip of cloth. She walks off straight into “Thine Be the Glory,” whose first verse sings of the folded grave clothes. The staging notes cover folding the cloth like laundry, never like a relic, keeping Mary a mother rather than a painting, and a 4½-minute version.

Read the first page

(MARY walks in with the cloth over her arm and sits down. She shakes the cloth out over her knee and smooths it. She looks up at the congregation as if they had just come in.)

MARY: Sit down, sit down. I'll keep going, if you don't mind. (She smooths the cloth.) Mothers are always folding something. I've been folding since I was a girl, and I have never once reached the bottom of the basket.

(She holds the cloth up by its two ends, so everyone can see how narrow it is.)

MARY: This one is from the night He was born. I wrapped Him up tight in strips of cloth, the way my mother showed me, so He'd settle down and sleep. Afterward I kept one. (She folds it in half.) Don't ask me why. You keep things.

MARY: Before He was born, I went to see my cousin Elisabeth. I'd barely said hello at her door, and she cried out, "Whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" (a small laugh) The mother of my Lord. And a few months later, my Lord wouldn't go to sleep unless I wrapped Him up just right.

The script continues in the full PDF.

Characters

  • Mary, the mother of Jesus: warm, practical and a little dry; a mother, not a figure from a painting

Props

  • A strip of plain cotton or linen, a hand’s width wide and two yards long
  • A plain chair or a stool of ordinary chair height
  • A plain shawl over her shoulders

What you get

  • The full script with stage directions
  • Cast list, props list and simple staging notes
  • Four discussion questions for a small group, youth group or Sunday school class
  • Performance rights for your church: perform it as often as you like and print copies for your cast

Performance rights

One purchase covers one church or ministry. Perform it as many times as you like, make copies for everyone in the cast and crew, adapt the lines and include it in your livestream. Please don’t resell the script or share the file publicly. Read the full license.

More for your Easter program

Questions

Can I change the names or lines?

Yes. Change names and genders, trim lines for time or adapt a joke for your church. The script is yours to fit to your people.

Can we record and stream the performance?

Yes. You can include it in your livestream and post the recording on your church’s own channels.

How do I get the file after I buy?

Right after checkout you get a download link on the confirmation page and by email. It works for up to 20 downloads, and each copy is marked with your order so it stays licensed to your church.

Who is the seller on my receipt?

Payments are processed by Link, Stripe’s checkout, which acts as the reseller. Your card statement shows LINK.COM* CHURCHSKITS. Questions about the script itself come to us at hello@churchskits.org.

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