Jesus, Mary, and Jake: A different Christmas drama

Written by Bruce Maples
What if the Christmas story was told by someone who grew up next door to Jesus?

Jake remembers Jesus as his childhood friend, Mary as the woman who slowly trusted him with impossible stories, and the birth of Christ as something far stranger, warmer, and more human than a stained-glass memory. This readers’ theatre Christmas piece invites the audience to hear Mary’s story with fresh ears and to wonder, with Jake, what God is going to do next.

It can be produced as either a readers’ theatre or a fully-staged play, and either without music or with music you select. It can also be simply read as story, as the dialog is an expanded and somewhat fictionalized treatment of the Biblical narrative.

I enjoyed writing this, and everyone involved in the first production enjoyed putting it on. We hope you do too!

Run-Time: Approximately 25–35 minutes
Cast: 3 actors, or adaptable as a monologue
Characters: Jake, Mary, Jesus
Biblical Reference: Luke 1–2; Matthew 1–2; with later references to Jesus’ ministry, death, and resurrection
Setting: Simple church stage / readers’ theatre setup
Props: 3 stools, music stands/scripts optional
Category: Christmas, Readers’ Theatre, Biblical Perspective, Mary, Jesus

Sample Script

Download Jesus, Mary & Jake Excerpt

From Jake, Mary, and Jesus by Bruce Maples
© Copyright 2015 by Maples Media LLC. All rights reserved.

Jake enters stage right, addresses audience.

JAKE:
Hello! My name is Jacob, but you can call me Jake. I understand you want to hear about my neighbor, Jesus.

(as if hearing a question from the audience) What’s that? Oh sure – he was my neighbor.

(sits on stool) He and his family lived next door all the time he and I were growing up. We used to play ball in the road, out in front of our houses. I was usually the captain, and I’d pick him for my team, ‘cause even though he was skinny, he was quick. Kinda wiry, you know?

His dad was the village carpenter – had his shop back behind the house. Used to go over there and watch him build things. Joseph was one of those quiet, serious types – but with a twinkle in his eye, too. He ran a good shop, and things were going along pretty well for them, pretty normal. At least, until Joseph up and died.

It was real sudden. Caught everybody off-guard. I think it was his heart, but I’m not sure. Jesus was about twenty, and suddenly he went from working with his dad to running the whole thing. I mean, there were his brothers, and they helped, but Jesus was the oldest, so it all fell on him.

Since my dad and I ran the village bakery, we would be done by mid-afternoon, so sometimes I’d go next door to help Jesus in his shop. And that’s where I got to know his mother, Mary, a lot better.

Mary enters stage left, sits quietly on stool, looks at Jake.

JAKE:
When we were kids, she was just Jesus’s mom, you know? She’d call him to come in, or give him chores, or give him a snack – you know, mom stuff. But after Joseph died, and I’d go over to help out, she started talking with me like an adult, a friend. I guess she trusted me, since I was Jesus’s best friend.

Most of the time it was just small talk, or something about our two businesses. Sometimes she’d poke fun at Jesus with me there, with that little grin on her face, and he’d blush while I laughed. We had fun together.

But sometimes, when Jesus was delivering something to a customer and it was just me and her in the shop, she would tell me serious stuff. Stuff that made you think. Hard-to-believe stuff, sometimes.

For example – how she had Jesus.

So imagine my surprise when one day she just up and says …

Jake turns to interact with Mary.

MARY:
Did I ever tell you about when I was pregnant with Jesus?

JAKE:
(hesitating) Uhm, no, don’t think you have.

MARY:
Pauses while thinking, considering how to tell this.

To start with, Joseph and I were promised to each other early on. That’s how it worked back then: your parents and someone else’s parents arranged the whole thing, worked out the agreement, and that was that.

So, one day, this … THING happens. Remember, I’m still a teenager, living with my folks. Anyway, I’m sweeping out the house, and this stranger comes to the door. I know everyone in town, so I know this guy is not a local.

This is pretty weird, for sure – but catch what he says next! “You are going to get pregnant, and have a son, and this son is the Promised One of God.”

I just start laughing at the guy, and tell him “You’re crazy! I can’t get pregnant if I haven’t slept with anyone, and I haven’t. And besides, I wouldn’t, because Joseph is the one I’m marrying, and that’s that. So, if I’m still a virgin, how am I going to get pregnant?”

And the guy says “Look, this isn’t going to happen the regular way. The Spirit of Yahweh will come to you, and you’ll become pregnant, and the child you have this way will be the Son of the Lord. And besides, your relative Elizabeth is pregnant now in her old age, and this was done by Yahweh as well. Remember, nothing is impossible for the Lord.”

Music #1: Gabriel’s Message

MARY:
You don’t believe me, do you?

JAKE:
Mary, it’s pretty far out there.

MARY:
(nodding) I thought so too. But what he said about Elizabeth struck me.

(pauses, then speaks quietly) Of course, before I could check it out with Elizabeth, I began to realize that I really was pregnant. Me, who had kept myself for Joseph just as I was supposed to! How could I explain this?

(shakes head) Those were tough times. Everyone assumed I’d slept with Joseph and he was the father. Joseph assumed I’d slept with someone else, and he was ready to break off the marriage before it even happened.

JAKE:
Well, obviously he didn’t. What changed his mind?

MARY:
(looks at Jake funny) You won’t believe this – but he had a dream, and in the dream a man came to him and told him that God had made me pregnant, and that he should name the child Jesus, which means Yahweh is Salvation, because he would save the people from their sins.

JAKE:
That’s not too surprising, that he would dream that, after you told him what the man had said to you.

MARY:
(stares at Jake, pauses, then) I hadn’t told him.

JAKE:
(pause, shocked) What? You didn’t tell him why you were suddenly pregnant?

MARY:
No. It was already bad enough that he thought I was sleeping around. Why make him think I was crazy or lying as well?

Want to see how the story unfolds?
Get the complete script and bring this powerful moment to your stage.