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After Narrator 1 speaks, he goes to center stage. The remaining
speakers form a line on each
side of Narrator 1 once they have spoken. Those who enter from the
left, stand to the left of Narrator 1
those who enter from the right, stand to the right of Narrator 1.
[1] NARRATOR 1:
When studying the history of God's plan for our salvation, we learn
that God prepared His people, the Hebrews, for the arrival of the
Messiah through many prophets. A prophet is one who interprets the
times and speaks by the direct inspiration of God. The secondary
meaning of the word is one who foretells the future. God sent these
messengers, the prophets, to tell us to turn back to God and to
prepare us for coming of the Messiah.
Many prophecies point to the coming of the Messiah and what He will
do. The blind will see, the deaf will hear, the lame shall walk, the
dead will arise. The birth of Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of
these prophecies.
According to Christians, the Old Testament finds its deepest meaning
and its most perfect fulfillment in the coming of Jesus Christ and in
the life of His Church.
After Adam and Eve disobeyed God, God sent them out of the Garden and
everything was taken away from them. But God still loved Adam and Eve
and promised to send His Son to show His love. Then God set about
preparing the way for Jesus' coming. The first announcement about the
Savior can be found in the first Book of the Bible, called Genesis,
chapter 3, verses 14-1 5:
"The Lord God said to the serpent, 'Because you have done this,
cursed are you above all cattle, and above all wild animals; upon
your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your
life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your
seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise
his heel.'"
We as Orthodox Christians understand this passage to mean that there
would be hostility, or bitter feelings, between the devil and mankind
and that the child of a woman (the seed) would finally conquer the
hold of death that the devil had over humanity.
Jesus Christ did exactly that. He conquered death; that is, he
bruised the devil himself unto death and broke his grip on Adam and
Eve. This is why in the Icon of the Descent into Hades we see Christ
pulling Adam and Eve out of Hades, out of the grip of death.
[2] ISAIAH (742-687 BC - Major Prophet)
I am the prophet ISAIAH, the son of Amos, who lived during the same
hard time as Micah. There are many stories about me because I advised
the kings of Israel. During the reign of one of the bad kings, I
wrote about the promised new King. Unlike the bad kings who loved
fighting and power, the promised King would be wise and peace loving.
This is my prophecy of the Son of a Virgin - Isaiah 7:14-15
"Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign. Behold, a
virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call His name
Emmanuel (which is interpreted God with us."
This is my prophecy of the Child - Isaiah 9:6
"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the
government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name will be called
'Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of
Peace.' Of the increase of His government and of peace there will be
no end, upon the throne of David and over His Kingdom, to establish
it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this
time forth and for evermore."
This is my prophecy of the Savior being from the Root of Jesse -
Isaiah 11: 1 -3
"There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a
branch shall grow out of his roots. And the Spirit of the Lord shall
rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of
counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
And His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord."
[3] JEREMIAH - Major Prophet during the 7th century before Christ
I, JEREMIAH, am a reluctant prophet and suffered greatly at the hands
of the people. I was constantly persecuted for my proclamation of the
Word of the Lord. My messianic prophecies are often read in the
festal services of the Church.
This is my prophecy of the New Covenant - Jeremiah 31:31-34
"Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a
new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not
like the covenant which I made with their fathers when I took them by
the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which
they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. But this is
the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those
days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write
it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my
people. And no longer shall each man teach his neighbor and each his
brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they shall all know me, from
the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive
their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more."
[4] EZEKIEL (Major Prophet)
My name is EZEKIEL. I was a priest as well as a prophet. I am
directly concerned with God's righteous anger over the sins of His
People, making specific reference to the presence and the departure
of the Lord's glory in the Jerusalem temple. My passage about God's
resurrection of the "dry bones" of dead Israel through the
breathing in of His Holy Spirit is read over the tomb of Christ at
the Great Saturday service of the Orthodox Church. It is Chapter 37.
This is my prophecy about Jesus as the Good Shepherd - Ezekiel 34:23-24
"And I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and
he shall feed them; he shall feed them and be their shepherd. And I,
the Lord, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince
among them; I, the Lord, have spoken."
[5] DANIEL
Many, many years before Jesus was born, people, called prophets,
looked forward to the new and loving King that God promised to send.
I am DANIEL and I was one of these prophets. I had many adventures as
a prophet. Why, I was even an advisor to a Persian King. I also had
many strange dreams. In one of his dreams, I saw the promised new
King coming to God's throne and God giving the King the whole world
to rule and love. My prophecy is read in the Church at the vigil of
Pascha. It is concerned with the faithfulness of the Jews to their
God in the time of forced apostasy, that is, abandonment of faith.
This is my prophecy about the New King - Daniel 7:13-14
"I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of
heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient
of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion
and glory and kingdom, that all peoples, nations and languages should
serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not
pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed."
[6] MICAH
I, MICAH, was a prophet who lived in a time when my country was
surrounded by powerful enemies who wanted to destroy it. Israel also
had many bad Kings in my day. But I remembered the loving kindness of
King David and God's promise that a new King, one of David's
descendants, would love the world. I said that Bethlehem, David's
birthplace, would also be the place where the new King would be born.
My prophecy of Bethlehem as His birthplace - Micah 5:2
"But you, O Bethlehem Ephratha, who are little to be among the
clans of Judah, from you shall come forth One Who is to be ruler in
Israel, Whose origin is from of old, from ancient days."
[7] MALACHI (500-450 BC)
My name is Malachi, one of the last prophets. I was worried about
what it would be like when the promised new king would come. I
thought about how much we have hurt God by being selfish instead of
loving. I wrote that it would be very difficult to face God's
promised king just as it would be difficult for us to face someone
that we have hurt.
Malachi 3:1
"Behold, I send my messenger to prepare the way before me, and
the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple: the
messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming,
says the Lord of hosts."
Malachi 4:2,5
"But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall
rise with healing in its wings ... Behold, I will send you Elijah the
Prophet before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. And he
will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts
of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the land with
a curse."
[8] ZECHARIAH (520-518 BC)
I am ZECHARIAH, who told about the appearance of the Savior King,
referring to Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.
Here is my Prophecy about the Prince of Peace entering the Holy
City - Zechariah 9:9-10
"Rejoice greatly O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of
Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you, triumphant and victorious is
He; humble and riding on an ass, on a colt the foal of an ass."
[9] NARRATOR 2 (Narrator makes reference to Elijah)
ELIJAH was a very special prophet who lived long before John the
Baptist. He never talked about the promised King, but because God let
him escape death by bringing him to heaven in a fiery chariot, Elijah
is God's extra-special messenger. Elijah is the prophet who will
announce that the promised King has come. Jesus believed that John
the Baptist played the part of Elijah by announcing that Jesus was
the promised King. (NARRATOR 2 steps back for John the Baptist to
speak then returns to the microphone.)
[10] JOHN THE BAPTIST
I am John the Baptist, cousin of Jesus. For many years my father,
Zechariah, and mother, Elizabeth, had no children. One day while my
father Zechariah was in the Temple, God sent the angel Gabriel to him
to announce that he and my mother would have a special son who would
help God. Because my father did not believe Gabriel, he lost his
voice and could not talk until his son (me) was born. Then Zechariah
sang a song about me, telling what wonderful things I would do for
God. I am often called the last of the prophets.
When I grew up, I left home and went to live in the wilderness where
I wore rough clothes and ate grasshoppers and honey made by wild
bees. I told people that God's promised New King was coming and that
people should prepare for Him by reforming their lives and being
baptized. I did not know who this new King would be until Jesus came
to be baptized, and a voice from heaven declared Jesus to be God's
son, the Promised King.
Prophecy that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand: John 1:23,26-27,29-31,34
I said, "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Make
straight the way of the Lord, as the prophet Isaiah said, '... I
baptize with water; but among you stands one whom you do not know,
even he who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy
to untie...' "
When Jesus approached me to be baptized, I replied, "Behold, the
Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world! This is He of whom
I said, 'After me comes a man who ranks before me, for he was before
me. I myself did not know him; but for this I came baptizing with
water, that he might be revealed to Israel'.... and I have seen and
have borne witness that this is the Son of God."
[11] NARRATOR 2 (If you need more speakers, make this
Narrator 3.)
When the fullness of time had arrived, was it just a coincidence that
there appeared a bright star guiding the three wise men? Was it a
coincidence that it was a clear night and the animals were out in the
field? Was it just a coincidence that there was no room in the inn
that night? Was it all a coincidence? All of creation was present for
the joyous arrival of Jesus Christ: the heavens, the earth, the star,
the angels, the poor shepherds, and the animals.
What does all this mean for us TODAY? Christ gave us examples of how
we should live our lives. God's Son gave His life for us and opened
the door to heaven that had been closed by the angel during Adam and
Eve's expulsion from paradise. Jesus prepared His disciples to build
on the foundation. On Pentecost we witness the beginning of the
Church, the One Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, our Church, and
the growth of Christian communities.
Where does all this lead? To the Kingdom to Come that we refer to in
the Lord's Prayer, to salvation, eternal life, either with God
forever or to eternal darkness. It's up to us to us to strive for the
Kingdom of Heaven. May the Birth of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
be a turning point for us and may it help renew our faith and love
for all. CHRIST IS BORN! GLORIFY HIM! |