Passage: John 6:35-58
Purpose: To feel the tension of following Jesus, whose message and calling are counter-cultural.
Time: 3 minutes
Setting: Woman comes in wearing apron with handkerchief tied around her head. She carries a bowl with dough in it, which she places on a table. She takes the dough out and kneads it as she talks to the audience.
Photo courtesy of creationswap.com
Script:
[Walks in with dough in a large bowl, resting on her hip]. The day that many turned back from following Jesus? Yes, I remember that day. Jesus was saying…
[Takes the dough out of bowl and begins to knead it]. I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.
For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
[Stands back from kneading, remembering.]
So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”…Jesus answered…
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life.
I am the bread of life. Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. But here is the bread [Pauses kneading, pointing to the dough] that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.
[Whipes across her forehead with the back of her hand.]
The jews disputed among themselves, saying “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” (John 6:52) and Jesus said…
I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man [Takes her hands off the dough, and looks at it horrified] and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food [Squeezes the dough with one hand as if channeling her confusion and horror there] and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. [Resumes kneading.] Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever.
[Shrugs her shoulders apologetically] After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. (John 6:66). We just wanted bread—[Shaking her head and packing up her dough] and we would have followed anyone who could give it to us.
