DRAMA —SERIES A — 2 ADVENT
Bible reference - Matthew 3:1–12
JOHN THE BAPTIST SPEAKS
(This drama is in the form of a monologue by John the Baptist)
(Enters) Hi. My name’s John. Some call me ‘John the Baptist!’
Good morning.
Well, I was warned that you were a quiet lot, but not this quiet.
I said, ‘Good morning!’
That’s better. The first thing I learnt about being a prophet was to get people’s attention. What’s the point in telling people an important message if they’re not listening? For example, last time I had this job I had to do something really special. You see, people needed waking up because I was the first prophet that the Lord had sent for ages. So I dressed up in clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around my waist, and ate locusts and wild honey.
Let me just say that I made quite an impression. People certainly knew they had a prophet on their hands when they saw that. Huh, some of them thought that I was Elijah, and that he’d come back from the dead.
Anyway that’s all in the past. As you can see, things have changed. For a start, you just can’t buy a decent camel’s hair coat anywhere these days. The guy at the shop said these Yakkas were as tough as camel’s hide, but they don’t have the same visual effect as far as I can tell. As for locusts and wild honey, well, forget it.
But believe me, some things haven’t changed. Like the message God sent me to tell you this morning. It’s exactly the same message I gave the people last time. Let me tell it to you straight like a prophet should. I won’t beat around the bush, I’ll just tell it like it is.
Prepare the way of the Lord.
Yes, that’s it, ‘Prepare the way of the Lord’.
Some of you are looking rather blank.
I thought you might. You think that Jesus has already come and so this message is a bit irrelevant.
Well, let’s get a few facts straight. First of all, Jesus is coming again. And that could be any old day now. Like perhaps tomorrow. Had you thought of that? So you can prepare for his second coming. And also don’t forget that every day he comes into your life. In the Lord’s Prayer you say, ‘Thy kingdom come’. You’re asking Jesus to come into your heart and life right now.
OK. So, prepare the way of the Lord. Don’t just sit there. Get ready, because the Saviour is coming. That’s what I’m saying. Get ready. Prepare the way of the Lord.
Now let me tell you something about this ‘way of the Lord’. God is not talking about a goat track. He is talking about a freeway through the desert. Something that everyone will marvel at. Something that people will stop and recognise. GOD’S SALVATION FREEWAY.
A freeway like that involves major construction work. Blasting down mountains, filling up valleys. Smoothing out all the rough places.
Sounds like a lot of work, doesn’t it? Well, don’t worry. God has done most of the real preparation himself. He’s the engineer who constructs this freeway through the desert. He’s the one that flattens and fills so that the highway of salvation is wide and flat.
Just picture this world as an unhealthy spiritual desert. Nothing but death and desolation. Everywhere people are wandering about with no idea where they are going. In the midst of this desert, Jesus builds a freeway that leads straight to God. That’s the ‘way’ God is talking about.
Remember, Jesus said, ‘I am the way.’ He means that he is the way to God.
Your preparation doesn’t involve making your own highway to God. Forget that. Jesus has already done it. Instead, your preparation involves just one thing. REPENTANCE.
Let’s not beat around the bush. The fact is that you are sinners. I can’t put it any plainer than that. You need a saviour just like the other people I talked to. You need Jesus, to get you on God’s way of salvation. Otherwise you’ve had it. Otherwise you’re just wandering around on a winding goat track going nowhere.
Have I made that clear? I must admit that I had a terrible time trying to get through to some of the Pharisees about this one. I ended up calling them a nest of snakes to get their attention.
They seemed to think that just because they were Jewish that they were OK with God. Just because they had Abraham for an ancestor. Some of them even thought that they didn’t sin. Huh. Nothing could be further from the truth with those snakes.
Be warned. That kind of thinking gets you nowhere. Perhaps there are a few snakes in the grass here who think that being an ex-Lutheran college student or suchlike means that you’re OK with God. Listen, God can make Lutheran college students out of these pews here, just like that.
You might think I’m rude blasting in here and telling you you need to repent. Perhaps I am. But what I really want to do is to lead you to Jesus.
You see, repentance means that a person sees what is wrong in their life. They see the sin that’s there and they realise that they need Jesus’ help to set that right.
Repentance for sin leads people to Jesus.
Ultimately that’s what counts: faith in Jesus, because he is the way to God.
Let me repeat God’s call once more: ‘REPENT’. Turn away from your sins. Leave them behind, put them aside, turn them over to God and travel along the Salvation Freeway that Jesus has made.
That, my friends, is God’s message.
‘Prepare the way of the Lord’. (Exits)
© Mike Fulwood 1997
Permission is given for the owner of this disk to make sufficient copies of this script for their congregation or group, for rehearsal and performance purposes only.
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