St Mark

 Mark, Rhoda, Barnabas, disciples (2), Peter, Jesus, Soldiers (3), Holy Spirit

(Enter Mark, Rhoda)

Mark was a young man who lived with his mom in a large house in Jerusalem. One day his servant, Rhoda, came in and said "John-Mark, your cousin is here!"

Mark smiled and said "Thank you Rhoda, let him in.  And please just call me Mark!"

(Enter Barnabas)

Barnabas walked into the room and greeted Mark with a big bear hug.  After catching his breath, Mark said "What brings you to Jerusalem?"

Barnabas said  "Passover, of course!  And the master is coming!"

Mark was excited. "You mean Jesus?  I hope I get to meet him!"

(Exit Barnabas, enter Peter and the disciples and Jesus)

Sometime later Peter and the disciples came to Mark and said "Where is there a room where the master can celebrate Passover?"

Mark said "The master?" Then he looked past the disciples at Jesus who gave him a wave.  Mark turned excitedly to Rhoda. "Oh my gosh it's Jesus!"

And Rhoda and Mark each did excited little fan girl dances.

Mark said to Peter and the disciples "We have a place!  My servant will get it ready"

So Mark showed Jesus and Peter and the disciples into a big room, all set up for Passover.  While Jesus was at the table with his disciples, Mark and Rhoda watched from a corner, and whispered excitedly.

Jesus lifted up the bread, and said "This is my body. Take it and eat it!"

Rhoda made a face and said "That's weird."

Jesus lifted up the cup and said "This is the cup of my blood. Take it and drink it."

Rhoda looked confused. "Wasn't it wine just now?  I'm pretty sure when I set the table it was not a cup of human blood."

Jesus stood up and said "Let's go to the garden of olives!"

So Peter and the disciples stood up, and they all left, singing as they went.

Mark was surprised. "They're leaving?"

Rhoda said "Follow them!"

(Exit Rhoda)

When Mark got to the garden, he found Jesus praying and Peter and the disciples sleeping. 

Suddenly soldiers walked in and announced "Jesus of Nazareth, you're under arrest!"

Peter and the disciples ran away,  (exit Peter and Disciples) while Mark tried to figure out what to do. One of the soldiers saw Mark and said "Grab that guy!"

Another soldier got hold of Mark's tunic, but Mark squirmed out of his tunic, and ran away naked. 

(Clear the stage, enter Mark, Peter, Disciples)

Later, Mark, Peter and the Disciples were all in Mark's house.  

Peter shook his head. "They crucified him! He's dead!"

(Enter Jesus)

But Jesus walked in and said "I'm alive!"

Mark, Peter, and the Disciples all sang "Alleluia".

Then Jesus flew up to Heaven

(Exit Jesus, enter Holy Spirit)

Then the Holy Spirit came and rested on each of the disciples like a flame.

(Exit Holy Spirit)

Peter started speaking a weird language.  Then he yawned, stretched and said "Well, I'm gonna go preach in the temple."

But Mark said "I thought the priests forbade you from doing that?"

Peter shrugged and said "They did, but who should I obey, God or humans?"

So Peter and the Disciples left to preach in the temple.

(Exit Peter and disciples, enter Rhoda. Disciples return)

But when the disciples returned they said "Peter was arrested! They're going to put him to death in the morning!"

Rhoda wailed.

Mark said "Let's pray."

While they were praying, they heard a knock at the door. 

Rhoda stood up and said "Now who could that be at this time of night?"  She left to find out. Suddenly she screamed and came running back in. "It's a ghost! They must have killed Peter already, his ghost is here!"

(Enter Peter)

But Peter walked in and said "I'm not a ghost! An angel came to me in prison and broke me out of jail!"

Rhoda was still shuddering, but she said "Oh that's fine then!" and she gave Peter a big hug.

Peter looked at Mark and said "Mark, I think you should be a traveling missionary.  Maybe you'd like to go with Paul and Barnabas?"

But Mark shook his head. "I'd rather stay with you."

Peter nodded, and said "In that case, why don't you be my scribe, and I'll tell the whole story of Jesus from my perspective and you can write it down!"

So that's what Mark did, and his book became known all over the world as the Gospel of Mark.

St Mark-  Pray for us!