Peter the Rock?

A monologue from Peter recounting how he first met Jesus, and then going on to the point where he let him down. It ends with the reinstating of Peter by Jesus.

Peter �" The Monologue

This monologue can either be performed as a standalone person or you can use the added dimension of a PowerPoint show in the background, which adds focus to certain words in the piece.  This can either be operated remotely by the actor, having the clicker in his hand, or if well-rehearsed by another person following the script.

The piece will need to be given the time it deserves, don’t rush it.

 

Scene: Peter enters the room and sits down in the chair, looking confused. Then he stands up to speak.

At the end the voice of Jesus comes over the PA system, take your time with this part as where we see Peter being restored.

 

 

PETER:   I was going to do so much, Peter the rock the one he could depend on, but I let him down.

I remember the first time I saw him.  We were on the water’s edge tending to our nets when Jesus arrived with a large crowd of people all trying to hear what he had to say, he climbed aboard our boat and we pushed out just a short way from the shore, and Jesus stood and spoke to the people. 

He was so easy to understand, so clever with his words.  After he had finished talking to them he said to us, put out your boat into the water and put down your nets.  We had fished all night and caught nothing, not even a sardine, we were exhausted.  I won’t tell you what Simon my brother said, but there was something in the way he spoke so we did it, pushed out into the water and threw down our nets. Immediately they were so full we could hardly mange them.   We had to call the Zebedee brothers James & John to help us get them ashore. That was when he called us to be fishers of men. We left everything, our nets, boats families our lives and followed him.

We saw some incredible things, there was this time we were out on the lake and the wind blew up a tempest the like I had never seen before. Well

I have been around boats all my life, but I don’t mind admitting I was scared. We had thrown everything over board then someone noticed that Jesus was asleep in the aft of the boat. We pleaded with ‘Master, master we are going to drown!’  He stood up and said ‘Oh yeah of little faith’, then he turned to the storm and said ‘Peace �" be still’ and immediately the lake was like a sheet of glass.

Then there was another time we were miles from anywhere and Jesus was talking to a large crowd, we reckoned on about 5000 men not to mention all the women and children.

Well time was moving on and well people were getting hungry, so we said to the master, ’let the people go to the villages so that they can get food’.  He turned to us and said ‘You feed them’.  Well Judas the keeper of the purse nearly fainted, there was no way we had enough money to pay to feed them, and nowhere to buy it anyway.

We started to scout around to see if there was any food and found nothing, then a young boy tugged at my coat. He handed me a small package, which contained five small loves and two small fish, the packed lunch his mum had given him that morning.  Well I laughed, but I gave it to Jesus.  He smiled at the boy then he held it high and thanked his father in heaven for the food.  Then he broke it and gave it out to us pass out, then he broke it and he broke it the same with the fish, he broke it and passed it out, he broke it, it just kept coming.  When we had all had our fill all 5000 men and the women and children were all full he had twelve baskets of leftovers.

With Jesus the blind saw

The deaf heard

The lame walked

Even the dead came back to life.

He was, IS Amazing!

He told me I would let him down you know, he knew.

We were at the meal table in the upper room and Jesus after the meal took a loaf of bread and he broke it, saying take eat this is my body which is broken for you.

Then he took a cup of wine and said this wine is my blood which is shed for you whenever you eat this bread or drink this wine, remember me.

We didn’t understand, we didn’t have a clue.

Then he stood and said, ‘I tell you the truth all of you will let me down’.

Well I stood to my feet and I said, NO LORD, not me, these others maybe but I will never let you down, not even to the point of death.

Jesus looked at me and said ‘I tell you the truth before the c**k crows you will deny me three times.

He knew!

We left there and went to the Garden of Gethsemane and Jesus gave us two instructions, to watch and to pray. 

Well we had just had a meal and well it had been a busy day, so we fell asleep.  Three times he came back to us and told us to watch and pray, and three times we fell asleep.

The third time he said ‘Are you still sleeping, enough! The hour has come the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners’.

Just then a large mob arrived with swords and clubs and Judas Iscariot was at their lead.  He stepped forward and kissed Jesus.  That was the sign you see.

I tried to defend him, I drew my sword and sliced the ear of the high priests servant clean off, but Jesus stopped me.

They took him and we scattered like scared rats.

I followed at a safe distance and watched as they dragged him through a farce of a trial full of hate and lies, they were out to get him at any cost.

They beat him and spat on him, and I stood there and watched, well what could I have done?

Just then one of the servant girls said to me ‘You also were with Jesus of Nazareth’ I just turned to her and said ‘No I don’t know what you are saying’.

It was a cold night so I moved closer to the fire to warm myself, but again she said, ‘I know you are one of his followers, I have seen you with him’.

‘I tell you I am not’ I said, turning away from her, then another man said, ‘Yes I have seen you in the temple with him’, I stood up and said.

‘Listen I don’t know that man’ I turned and pointed at Jesus and Jesus looked at me.  Just then the c**k crowed and I realised what I had done.

He knew!

They bruised and beat him with fists and clubs, the whip was next and they knew how to use it. Lash after lash tore through the flesh on his back.

They forced him to carry the cross that would be his own weapon of murder through the streets but he couldn’t manage it, hardly surprising after what they had done to him.

He stumbled and fell and I rushed to help, but a Roman soldier held me back and instead another man from the crowd was forced to carry the cross instead.  It should have been me.

They nailed through his wrists and his ankles, with each nail I felt the shame of letting him down.  They wrapped him in a purple robe and shoved a crown made out of thorns on his head. I watched as the cross was pulled upwards and jolted down into place, jerking his whole body.

Above his head was a sign that read THE KING OF THE JEWS, they laughed at him and mocked him.

He somehow found the strength to forgive them! Forgive? How did he find the strength to say that?

Then he found the strength to release a final cry, a cry of triumph!

IT IS FINISHED!

He hung there and he did die, I saw it, they took his body and they lay him in a stone tomb, and rolled a large stone across the front. It was over! He was dead. It was finished.

For three days he was dead!

Then three days later the stone was rolled away and Jesus was, IS alive!

Now he’s here again and what am I going to say to him?

JESUS:   Simon son of John do you truly love me more than these?

PETER:  Yes, Lord you know I love you.

JESUS:   Feed my lambs

PAUSE  

JESUS:   Simon son of John do you truly love me more than these?

PETER:  Yes Lord, you know that I love you.

JESUS:   Tend my sheep

JESUS:   Simon son of John do you truly love me more than these?

PETER:  Lord,

You know everything,

You know that I love you.

FREEZE �" Fade to Black