Walking Home on Friday
Follow Peter as he walks home on a Friday evening and listen as he tries to make sense of the last few days. Hear his questions, his anger, his shattered hopes – his faith and doubt mixed together with tears.
But a word of warning – when I first heard this rendition by voice actor Steve Dawson it had me blubbering like a whale – and I wrote it! There’s a copy of the script below if you want to follow along.
Feel free to use this for personal devotions, as a listen-to in your Hour by the Cross service, for RE or collective worship in schools (great for a non-gory Good Friday), at a Bible study or youth group. You are welcome to add images and make a video. I’ve made a very simple video using the picture above, which you are welcome to use.
- Audio duration 5:22, downloadable MP3
- Video duration 5:44 Youtube video
- Both items and script (c) copyright 2019 Fay Rowland, permission to use granted for educational and religious settings
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Bless you. xx
I produce this stuff for love ‘cos I think it’s important, but I’m a free-lance writer and food don’t grow on trees (well, except for … oh, you know what I mean).Script
Walking Home on Friday
Well, that’s it I guess. It’s over. The whole giddy dream is over. I really did think he was The One – I even said it to his face. “You are the Messiah, the son of the living God”, I said. Guess I was wrong.
This isn’t like the other times. Those times when they were going to stone him or chuck him off a cliff and he just walked through them. My heart’s been in my mouth a few times, I can tell you, but … but those times weren’t like this. This time they won.
But why? He’s dealt with yelling crowds before, even the threats of the authorities, why not this time? Why didn’t he do something to stop it? He even told us, “Don’t you think I could call on my Father and he will send twelve legions of angels?” Yes, we know you could. So why didn’t you then?
“It is finished”, he said. I heard him say it. You can’t have it plainer than that. The daydream is over. There’s no new kingdom, no springs of living water, no eternal life. Those who are first will stay first and we who are last will stay last. Same as it always was.
He’s dead. I watched him die. And that’s that.
I know he said he was going to die, but I never believed it would happen. Not really. I thought it was, you know, one of his word-pictures, like the farmer and the seeds, or the shepherd and the sheep. I never thought he actually meant it. Not like this. Surely this can’t have been part of the plan. If he was God’s promised king, how come he got beat up by the Roman Empire? Maybe he wasn’t The One, just another wannabe who overstepped the mark. Was that all he was?
But all the stuff he said, the stuff he did. If not him, then who? Who could have cured the blind like he did? Who could have commanded the storm like he did? Man, that was rough. I was worried for the boats with those waves, and worried for my life. I don’t mind admitting it. I’ve never been much of a swimmer, so when he told me to get out of the boat and come to him … Hehasto be The One. And there was my wife’s mother – that was real. I know it.
But then, why this? How does getting yourself killed start a new kingdom? It doesn’t make any sense! Mind you, what does? I suppose this is what he was talking about at that meal, the body and blood and wotnot. It’s still weird and I still don’t get what he was on about. Did anyone? “Poured out for the forgiveness of sins.” What does that mean? Sounds more like a temple sacrifice than a man.
But I saw his blood pour today. That scene is going to haunt my dreams. It’s all so … so final. All our plans and hopes in pieces on the floor like a smashed plate. Some things can never be mended.
Mind you, I thought that with Lazarus. Three days in the tomb looked pretty final. Mary and Martha thought so too. I never understood why he waited. He could have gone to help as soon as he heard that Lazarus was ill. He could have stopped him dying. But instead he waited for three days and then – pow – mind officially blown! Man, what a party we had that night!
But that can’t happen here. There will be no celebration, no new life, no second chance. The grave is the end, and that’s that. Because there’s no-one to raise Jesus on the third day, is there?
