FAITH QUEST
Holy Week
Scripture:
|
Palm Sunday Plot to kill Jesus Judas aggress to betray Last Supper Praying in Betrayal and arrest |
Matthew 21:1-11 Matthew 26:1-5 Matthew 26:14-16 Matthew 26:17-30 Matthew 26:36-46 Matthew 26:47-56 |
Memory Verse:
"We may make a lot of plans but the Lord will do what
he has decided.” Proverbs
Concepts:
Objectives:
The children will hear confirmation of God’s control and power over our world (a tough message during these sad events of Jesus’ last week on earth as a human being) and God’s plan to save us through Jesus Christ. Children will also think about love and apply these thoughts to God’s perfect love, which is why Jesus died for us.
Procedure:
Welcome and Introductions:
Bible Story:
1. Read the scripture passages using the attached version. Please practice reading this aloud several times before you teach. Practice will help you decide where to put the emphasis, especially when reading dialog. You might want to mark words to emphasize. It’s a very interesting story! Before reading it to the children, you can tell them that this passage is about Jesus’ last week before his human body is put to death (to cleanse our sins).
2. There are comments inserted in italics that you can use to explain some of the passage. It’s important to use these comments as this is where the children will learn about God’s control and power and his plan to provide Jesus to save us.
3. Try to keep the Bible Story to 10-12 minutes. The children will be eager to get to the puppets. You need to cover the story completely for the first two weeks of the lesson; after that, most children will be familiar with this passage.
4. After going through the Bible story, introduce the skits by saying that the skits will help us understand the love that God has for us—a love beyond imagining.
Application:
Note: There are 4 skits. Two have 3 characters; two have 4. You’ll have to use a combination of skits to give everyone a chance to perform, either by repeating or leaving out—you never know how many children will be there! Let each child have a chance to operate a puppet or they will be disappointed. Use an adult to fill in extra parts—it’s very hard to give only one or two children two turns.
Wrap-up:
Review the three concepts for this lesson (see above) and give a chance for additional questions. Have the children put their puppets back neatly.
Reflection Time:
Closing:
Prayer: Close with a simple prayer acknowledging that God is in control and all-powerful, thanking God for the gift of Jesus to save us and for his amazing love. Thank Jesus for making this sacrifice for us out of love. Ask God to help us be more loving toward God and each other. Ask all of this in Jesus’ name.
Tidy and Dismissal: Ask children to help clean up as they wait for their parents to arrive.
Teacher
preparation in advance:
1. Pray: Ask God to give you clarity of this scripture and words to teach His children this lesson.
2. Read the scripture passages and attend the Faith Quest Leaders Bible Study.
3. Make at least 12 copies of each script page. Cut the scripts into pieces so that each player can have a copy. You can also post two copies of the script at each end of the stage so puppeteers can refer to it.
4. Prepare a closing prayer.
5. Check out the room before your first Sunday workshop so that you know where everything is located.
6. You can bring a CD or taped music for background music while you are gathering, along with meditative music for reflection time.
7. Optional: pre-record the scripts on tape. Family members and their friends can have a lot of fun playing the different parts.
Materials:
Copies of the script.
References:
Notes supplied by Lori Houck for curriculum writers' Bible study in January 2003.
LOVE
SKIT 1 (3 characters)
Scott: “I did something bad at school today. I don’t feel very good about it.”
Mom: “What did you do?”
Scott: “I could see that
Mom: “You and Brandon are good friends. That really wasn’t very nice, but I think you
know that now. Why don’t you call him
and say you’re sorry? I’ll bet he’ll
forgive you.”
Scott: “OK. (phoning)
Brandon, it’s Scott.
I wanted to say I’m sorry for what I did at school today. It was really mean. I won’t do that ever again.”
Scott: “All I know is that I feel really bad and keep wanting to take back what I said.”
Scott: “Sure.
Thanks for forgiving me. I feel a
lot better now.”
SKIT 2 (3 characters)
Beth: “Hey Mom.
We got the coolest thing at school today. A dentist handed out little colored pills to
show us where our toothbrush isn’t going.
It’s supposed to turn your teeth red where you miss. I’m going to use mine right now.”
Matthew: “I got those too. It’s going to be really cool to see all the
red spots!”
Mom: “Great. Go ahead and try it out. But I hope there are no red spots.”
Beth: “Oh no, I don’t believe it. My box doesn’t have any in it. What happened to them?”
Mom: “I’m sorry.
Someone must have made a mistake at the factory. “
Matthew: “You can have mine.”
Mom: “Don’t you want to do it?”
Matthew: “Sure, but Beth seems more excited about it,
so I’ll let her have my pills. The
dentist will probably visit again sometime, maybe next year.”
Beth: “Wow, that’s really nice of you. You’re sure?”
Matthew: “Sure.”
SKIT 3 (4 characters)
Mrs.
Kramer: “How are you feeling?”
Child: “My throat still hurts, and my head hurts.”
Mrs.
Kramer: “Grandma and Grandpa are coming over to see
you.”
Child: “Really?
Because I’m sick?”
Mrs.
Kramer: “Yes, as soon as they heard how bad you felt,
they said they’d be right over.”
(grandparents arrive)
Grandpa: “How’s my little buddy?”
Grandma: “Hi, Sweetheart. I brought you some of our raspberry sherbet.”
Grandpa: “And I brought you a toy your Mom used to
like. It’s an old box. See if you can figure out how to open
it. It has a secret latch.”
Grandma: “When your mom told us how badly you felt, we
didn’t have time to go shopping, so we just looked around the house for
something to bring.”
Child: “A secret latch? That’s great.
Let me see…”
Mrs.
Kramer: “You guys are great. This is the happiest I’ve seen my child all
day.”
Grandma: “You know us—we’d do anything for our
grandchild.”
Grandpa: “When you get that figured out, I brought
some cards for Crazy Eights.”
SKIT 4
(4 characters plus an adult for the Moms’ voices)
Thelma: “Who wants to go over to the tree house in my
yard?”
All
other kids: “I do.”
Daphne’s
Mom’s voice: “DAPHNE…DAPHNE”
Daphne: “That’s my mom. I have to go.”
Bob: “You don’t have to go. Just pretend you didn’t hear.”
Graham: “Yeah, just ignore your mom.”
Daphne: (running off) “My mom says if I love her,
I’ll obey her, so I try to obey.”
Thelma: “I love my mom, but I don’t always obey.”
Bob: “Me neither.
And I love my mom, too.”
Graham: “My mom would sure be a lot happier if I
obeyed all the time.”
Bunch
of Moms: “THELMA, BOB, GRAHAM—COME HOME PLEASE.”
Thelma,
Bob, Graham: “Let’s show our moms we love them—let’s obey
right away.”
The Holy Week Sequence
From Matthew, CEV
(Suggested comments are in
italics.)
21:1-11 When Jesus and his
disciples came near
So God’s promise came true, just as the prophet had
said,
“Announce to the people of
‘Your king is coming to you!
He is humble and rides on a donkey.
He comes on the colt of a donkey,’ ”
(The prophet
who said these words was Zachariah who lived over 500 hundred years before this
Holy Week happened. These words are
written in the Old Testament in the book of Zechariah.)
The disciples left and did what Jesus had told them
to do. They brought the donkey and its
colt and laid some clothes on their backs.
Then Jesus got on.
Many people spread clothes in the road, while others
put down branches which they had cut from trees. Some people walked ahead of Jesus and others
followed behind. They were all shouting,
“Hooray for the Son of David!
God bless the one who comes in the name of the Lord.
Hooray for God in heaven above!”
(Remember
during the Birth story we learned that Jesus was a descendant of King
David—that’s why they are calling him the Son of David.)
When Jesus came to
The crowd answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from
(Jesus’ entry
into
(While he was
in
26:1-5 When Jesus had finished
teaching, he told his disciples, “You know that two
days from now will be Passover. (Passover was a Jewish holiday celebrating
the time when the angel of the Lord, who was killing all the firstborn sons of
the Egyptians, “passed over” the homes of Israelites and did not kill their
sons. This was one of the plagues of
(Jesus is telling his
disciples that he is going to be killed very
soon. God has planned all this a long
time ago, and Jesus knows what is coming.)
At that time the chief priests
and the nation’s leaders were meeting at the home of Caiaphas the high
priest. They planned how they could
sneak around and have Jesus arrested and put to death. But he said, “We must not do it during
Passover, because the people will riot.” (This
means that both the religious leaders and government leaders were against
Jesus. The reason they called it risky
was because lots of Jewish people came to
26:14-16 Judas Iscariot was one of the
twelve disciples. He went to the chief
priests and asked, “How much will you give me if I help you arrest Jesus?” They paid Judas thirty silver coins, and from
then on he started looking for a good chance to betray Jesus.
26:17-30 On the first day of the
Festival of Thin Bread, Jesus’ disciples came to him and asked, “Where do you
want us to prepare the Passover meal?” (The
Festival of Thin Bread or unleavened bread starts with the Passover meal.)
Jesus told them to go to a certain man in the city
and tell him, “Our teacher says, ‘My time has come! I want to eat the Passover meal with my
disciples in your home.’ ”
They did as Jesus told them and prepared the meal.
When Jesus was eating with
his twelve disciples that evening, he said, “One of you will surely hand me
over to my enemies.”
The disciples were very sad, and each one said to Jesus,
“Lord, you can’t mean me!”
He answered, “One of you men who has eaten with me
from this dish will betray me. The Son
of Man will die, as the Scriptures say.
But it’s going to be terrible for the one who betrays me! That man would be better off if he had never
been born.”
Judas said, “Teacher, you surely don’t mean me!”
“That’s what you say!” Jesus replied. But later, Judas did betray him.
(Again, Jesus
is telling about his death. He knows
everything that will happen because God planned it long ago and has told Jesus
what to expect.)
During the meal Jesus took some bread in his
hands. He blessed the bread and broke
it. Then he gave it to his disciples and
said, “Take this and eat it. This is my
body.”
Jesus picked up a cup of wine and gave thanks to
God. He then gave it to his disciples
and said, “Take this and drink it. This
is my blood, and with it God makes his agreement with you. It will be poured
out, so that many people will have their sins forgiven. From now on I am not going to drink any wine,
until I drink new wine with you in my Father’s kingdom.” Then they sang a hymn and went out to the
26:36-46 Jesus went
with his disciples to a place called
Jesus took along Peter and the two brothers, James
and John. He was very sad and troubled,
and he said to them, “I am so sad that I feel as if I am dying. Stay here and keep awake with me.”
Jesus walked on a little way. Then he knelt with his face to the ground and
prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, don’t make me suffer by having me drink
from this cup. But do what you want, and
not what I want.”
(When Jesus
talks about drinking from this cup, the cup is a symbol for this plan—which was
a very hard thing for Jesus or any man to do.
Jesus is asking for another way.
Jesus prays to God because Jesus knows that God is in control and
all-powerful. Jesus is also obedient to
God’s will. He says he is willing to die
for us if that is God’s plan.)
He came back and found his disciples sleeping. So he said to Peter, “Can’t any of you stay
awake with me for just one hour? Stay
awake and pray that you won’t be tested. You want to do what is right, but you
are weak.”
(Jesus is
telling his disciples that they are weak, as we all are, so they must always
pray to God to help them be strong and good.)
Again Jesus went to pray and said, “My Father, if
there is no other way, and I must suffer, I will still do what you want.”
Jesus came back and found them sleeping again. They simply could not keep their eyes
open. He left them and prayed the same
prayer once more.
Finally, Jesus returned to his disciples and said,
“Are you still sleeping and resting? The
time has come for the Son of Man to be handed over to sinners. Get up! Let’s go. The one who will betray me
is already here.”
(This is a
wonderful example of how to pray to God:
ask for what you want, ask many times, but be willing to accept what God
has planned for you. And why? Because God is in control
and all-powerful.)
26:47-56 Jesus was still speaking,
when Judas the betrayer came up. He was
one of the twelve disciples, and a large mob armed with swords and clubs was
with him. They had been sent by the
chief priests and the nation’s leaders.
Judas had told them ahead of time, “Arrest the man I greet with a kiss.”
Judas walked right up to Jesus and said, “Hello,
teacher.” Then Judas kissed him.
Jesus replied, “My friend, why are you here?”
The men grabbed Jesus and arrested him. One of Jesus’ followers pulled out a
sword. He struck the servant of the high
priest and cut off his ear.
But Jesus told him, “Put your sword away. Anyone who lives by fighting will die by
fighting. Don’t you know that I could
ask my Father, and right away he would send me more than twelve armies of
angels? But then, how could the words of
the Scriptures come true, which say that this must happen?”
Jesus said to the mob, “Why do you come with swords
and clubs to arrest me like a criminal?
Day after day I sat and taught in the temple, and you didn’t arrest
me. But all this happened, so that what
the prophets wrote would come true.”
All of Jesus’ disciples left him and ran away.
(Did you hear
Jesus tell everyone that God, his Father, would send angels to save him if
Jesus asked? Jesus knows how in control
and how powerful God is. He also knows
that God has a wonderful plan for us—better than anything we or even Jesus
could plan—and it is better to use God’s plan than our own. Even though things look sad for Jesus right
now, Jesus knows that through his death, his blood will clean all our sins away. It is the only way we can be cleaned enough
to be acceptable to live in heaven with God and Jesus. So he is willing to die so that we can be
with him. He loves us that much. And he loves us no matter what we do. Did you see how the disciples ran away? And often we run away from doing the right
thing. Still he loves us. Can you imagine a love so great?)
Additional
Comments to the Workshop Leader:
The whole
concept of Jesus dying for our sins is hard for children (and adults) to
grasp. In case questions come up about
this, it would be helpful if you personally have thought about this before you
lead this workshop. Why did Jesus have
to die? We do not know all the thoughts
and motivations of our God (For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are
your ways my ways, declares the LORD.
Isaiah 55:8), but in the Bible, God has made it very clear that
sacrifice and the shedding of blood would make it possible for sins to be
forgiven. (In fact, the law requires
that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and
without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. Hebrews