Nicodemus

CAST OF CHARACTERS:

JESUS AND NICODEMUS

Lines of Christ are actual scripture taken from the NASB.

The scene opens in the marketplace, but it is clearly at night and there are torches lit so the stage is dimly lit and Jesus is seated waiting as Nicodemus approaches. Jesus rises to greet him.

NICODEMUS
Rabbi…thank you for meeting me here tonight. I’m sorry it must be like this, but you understand that the others must not know I am talking with you. I am a Pharisee. (As he pauses, Jesus smiles) Rabbi…we know that you have come from God as a teacher; because no one can do these signs and miracles that you do unless God is with him.
JESUS
Truly, I say to you, Nicodemus, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
NICODEMUS
(Reacting with much surprise)
But…how can a man be born when he is old? I cannot enter a second time into my mother’s womb and be born again!
JESUS
Truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
NICODEMUS
But this just isn’t possible!
JESUS
Do not be surprised that I said to you, ‘you must be born again’. The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.
NICODEMUS
I just don’t understand. What you are saying to me… how can these things be?
JESUS
Are you a teacher of Israel, and do not know these things? Truly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?
NICODEMUS
I want to believe. That is why I am here. I want to understand the truth.
JESUS
No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven.
NICODEMUS
The Son of Man…He is the One whom we have waited for? The Messiah? The One whom Moses and the prophets spoke of?
JESUS
Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
NICODEMUS
Must be lifted up…?
JESUS
For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
NICODEMUS
Life everlasting. You are speaking of the resurrection of the dead. But what you said about condemnation….we must live a righteous and holy life…
JESUS
He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
NICODEMUS
Even the righteous…if they do not believe in Your Name… they are condemned? The rulers of the Jews….like myself?
JESUS
This is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.
NICODEMUS
I am condemned. My life is full of darkness. I thought that I was pleasing God, but now I see the truth. That is why I have come. I want to come to the light…to believe the truth.

Jesus puts his arm around Nicodemus and begins to lead him away as the lights fade and they are talking silently.