Walk of Witness - 2006

A series of open-air dramas acted out at three points
in Epping High Street and on the Green.

Levi , the Tax Collector

The voice of LEVI

I can’t quite remember how I got into tax collecting. It was a case of needing a steady job that would put food on the table and working for the Authorities seemed a pretty safe bet.

I started out with great ideas that I wouldn’t be like the other tax collectors - they all overcharge and skim off the profits for themselves - I thought I’d be different. And to begin with that was true… But we tax collectors have got a bad reputation and within a few months I was doing the same as all the others… Mostly because of the way that people treated me; they’d see me coming and they’d harden their faces and get aggressive and abusive with me. I began to wonder why I bothered being fair - if people were going to treat me like this why didn’t I start charging a bit more to make up for the inconvenience.

So that’s how it was - I was comfortably off, with money salted away for my retirement, but I wasn’t exactly popular down by the shore where I had my Tax Booth. And then it happened: that chance encounter with Jesus:

He was with a group of men I knew slightly. I’d grown up in the same area as one of them - although he and his family stopped talking to me when I became a tax collector. It was getting towards dusk and I was about to shut my booth and go home to eat. I hung back slightly as the group came past me, not wanting to draw attention to myself and they had almost gone past when Jesus stopped, look straight at me and smiled. You could see the others thinking ‘what’s he doing? Who’d waste time talking to that turncoat?’ But Jesus looked at me intently - it was as if he had read my feelings and understood me. As if he saw the real me - not the well-to-do tax collector, but the Levi who used to play on the beach as a kid and was good at running.

And then he was saying to me ‘Follow me’ and he drew me into the group and before I knew it, they were all coming to my house to eat with me…

And now I’m one of his disciples - they call me Matthew.

That’s how Jesus is - he sees the real you, he sees who you could be and he gives you the chance to be that person.

Prayer - Seeing God in others

Loving Jesus,
You called Levi to follow you,
You saw beyond the greedy tax collector
and recognised the person that he could become.

Help us to see the best in others
and to show them the best of ourselves
for Your sake,
Amen.

Rachael, a woman of Jerusalem
The voice of RACHAEL

I was there when they crucified Jesus - I saw the events of that day unfold and ever since I have wanted to witness to the great love that Jesus showed for us:

We followed the crowd to the Prætorium to see what would happen. They’d arrested Jesus in the night when he was up at Gethsemane with the men. A young lad who had seen the arrest came running back to the house in a pretty bad way and told us what happened. Now Jesus was up before Pilate, but it was hard to make out what was going on. The crowd were in an aggressive mood and word was going round that Jesus was being accused of blasphemy by the Chief Priests.

Pilate, the Roman Governor, asked Jesus questions, but could find no reason to put Jesus to death as the Temple officials wanted. Then Pilate asked the crowd if we wanted him to free Jesus for the Passover - he did this every year, releasing one prisoner. For a moment it seemed there was a chance that Jesus might be freed, but before I knew it, the crowd were screaming: ‘Barabbas! Barabbas!’

Pilate seemed surprised, but the crowd kept shouting: ‘Barabbas! Barabbas! Barabbas!’ We couldn’t believe it - Barabbas was a violent criminal, but the crowd was choosing him instead of Jesus. And then it all started to happen fast. Jesus, who five days before had ridden in to Jerusalem to hosannas and shouts of joy, was now condemned to the cross. The soldiers beat him and stripped him of his clothes and placed this great heavy cross on his back for him to carry to Golgotha.

All we could do was watch and be witnesses as the dreadful events of the day unfolded…

Jesus was weak from the beating and found it difficult to lift the cross, but the soldiers pushed him on… and so we made a grim procession out to the place of crucifixion…

And that’s where it all ended: they drove great nails into his hands and feet and hauled the cross upright.

And there he hung for three hours before he finally gave up the ghost.
And the world turned black, desolate and lifeless…

 

Prayer - Seeing and Witnessing

Father God,
You loved Your creation so deeply
that You gave Your only son Jesus
to teach us how to be and how to love
and to save us from our sins.

Help us to bear witness to Your love
to live it out in our daily lives
so that people may see Jesus’ reflection in us.

For His sake,
Amen.

Cleopas, a traveller on the road to Emmaus

The voice of a CLEOPAS

We headed out from Jerusalem on the road to Emmaus - it was, I suppose, two days after they crucified Jesus out at Golgotha. To be honest, we weren’t really sure what to do or where to go. Things had happened so fast. Only two weeks before Jesus had arrived in Jerusalem and the crowds had gone wild - there was such a feeling of expectation and excitement in the air. And then, just before the Sabbath, it had all ended; our wonderful friend and teacher had been tortured and crucified

We kept going over the events of the previous days, trying to work out where it had all gone wrong and, as we walked, we were joined by another traveller. Seeing how sad we were, he asked what was wrong and we explained that our leader and teacher, Jesus, had been crucified by the Romans. I couldn’t believe it, but it seemed the traveller hadn’t heard anything about what had happened over the past few days in Jerusalem.

We told him how the women had gone to the tomb that morning and how they’d found the tomb empty and been told by angels that Jesus was alive. I have to say, we were pretty sceptical and found it all rather hard to believe. At that he started to explain all the teachings in the scriptures about the Messiah - and we began to see that we’d misunderstood. The way he explained it all was so exciting and challenging. He seemed to see so clearly God’s plan for us and he shared it with us with such excitement.

When we got to Emmaus, the traveller was going to journey on, but it was dark and we had found an inn where we could stay the night, so we begged him to stay with us and to share our evening meal. So in we went and sat at table together. And then it happened: the traveller took the bread, raised it to God and blessed it. Then he broke the bread and gave it to us and suddenly we recognized him. We saw the traveller in a new light - we realised that he was Jesus.

I’ve never forgotten how my heart burned within me as Jesus talked to us on the Emmaus road…

Prayer - Seeing and Understanding

Loving Jesus,
You appeared to Cleopas and his friend
on the Emmaus Road
and set their hearts on fire
as you explained the scriptures to them.
You sat at table with them
and they recognised you in the breaking of the bread.

Help us to understand Your message of love
and to live it out in our daily lives.

And help us to see You as You journey with us,
walking alongside us and breaking bread with us.

We ask it in Your name,
Amen.
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