Cast
Narrator
Sick Man/Healed Man
Kind Man (Jesus)
1st Religious Leader
2nd Religious Leader
Curtain Rises
Narrator: In today’s Bible story, John, chapter 5, Jesus heals a sick man. This man was so sick he couldn’t even get up to walk. Do you know how long he was sick? He was sick for almost forty years. That is a long time! It is difficult to imagine being sick that long.
The man was lying at the pool of Bethesda. This man and many other sick people were crowded around the pool. The reason they were crowded around the pool was that, every once in awhile, the water in this pool did something strange. It would start to bubble.
The people believed that the first person to go into the bubbling water would be healed from their sickness. Alas, the sick man never could make it to the pool in time. (pool starts to bubble and two sick people move towards the pool each trying to get there first.)
Sick Man: Oh dear! I didn’t make it to the pool again. All these other people are too fast for me. There are sure a lot of sick people here. Some people are blind, some people are lame, and some people can’t move, just like me. What hope is there for me? Is there no one to help me?
Narrator: Then the sick man saw a very kind-looking man walking toward him. The kind man spoke to the sick man.
Kind Man: Would you like to get well?
Sick Man: I sure would like to be well! But I don’t have anyone to help me to the water when it starts to bubble. Everyone else beats me to it. Would you be willing to help me to the water?
Kind Man: I’ll help you. All you need to do is get up, take your mat and walk out of here.
Sick Man: (Hesitates getting up, then slowly rises to his feet).
This is wonderful! (takes a few steps)
I can walk again. (skips around and sings)
“Oh, happy days are here again…”
(skips around once more while carrying his mat, then skips off stage).
Narrator: Now today was the Sabbath day. The Sabbath day is the seventh day of the week. It is the day we call Saturday. God had told His people to rest and to worship Him on the Sabbath. For many years the religious rulers had rules of what a person could and could not do on the Sabbath. They had a very long list of rules.
Healed Man: (Walking back on stage, carrying his mat, walking around the pool singing) “I have that joy, joy, joy, joy, down in my heart…" (Starts to walk off stage).
1st Religious
Leader: (Calls to the healed man). Hey there! Don’t you know you are breaking the laws? You aren’t supposed to carry your mat on the Sabbath.
2nd Religious
Leader: (Unrolls a scroll) Yeah man, that’s law 158: “Do not carry your mat on the Sabbath.”
1st Religious
Leader: (Angerly) Who told you to carry your mat on the Sabbath?
Healed Man: (Looking surprised) The kind man who healed me said I could carry my mat.
2nd Religious
Leader: What is this man’s name?
Healed Man: I, I really don’t know his name. I was so happy to be healed, I forgot to ask.
2nd Religious
Leader: (Sighing) Okay, you may go.
Narrator: (Healed man walks off stage) There were a lot of places the healed man wanted to go. The first place he went was to the temple to thank God for what happened to him.
While the healed man was at the temple, who should come up to him but the kind man who healed him.
Healed Man: (Comes back on stage) Hello there. Thanks again for healing me. By the way, what is your name?
Kind Man: My name is Jesus. Now that you are well you must stop doing wrong or something worse might happen to you. (healed man and Jesus walk off stage)
Narrator: The Bible doesn’t tell us what the healed man had been doing wrong. But the man knew and Jesus knew. The healed man wanted to obey Jesus. He wanted to do what was right, instead of doing what was wrong. So the first thing the healed man did after Jesus talked to him was to go back to the religious leaders who had been angry with him.
Healed Man: (Comes back on stage and walks over to the religious leaders)
Hello sirs, I found out the name of the kind man who healed me.
1st Religious
Leader: Oh yeah? What’s his name?
Healed Man: (Smiling and happy) His name is JESUS!
Curtain Falls
THE END
If you died today, are you absolutely certain that you would go to heaven? You can be! TRUST JESUS NOW
Read more articles by Theresa Millward (Vogel) or search for articles on the same topic or others.
