Lesson Ideas for Lent and Holy Week

Famous Rocks of Holy Week

I’ve moved this long post to its own webpage. Enjoy!

1. Palm Sunday stones will sing
2. Jesus teaches in the Temple built on the rock
3. Gethsemane’s rocky garden
4. The rock of Calvary
5. The rocky Tomb
6. The stone that got out of the way
7. The gravel on the Road to Emmaus
8. Ascension from the rocky Mount of Olives.

Jesus the April Fool

A sermon and children’s sermon outline. See it in full at my SundayResources.net blog.

“Easter is on April Fool’s Day in 2018, …an irony that should not be lost on any preacher or Sunday School teacher.”

Three great Lenten memory verses for kids

Mark 8:31

Mark 8:31 is a wonderful MEMORY VERSE that’s a PUZZLER question too. “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?”. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.

The Lesson Idea: After reading and discussing these verses, have the kids INPUT THEM into Cal & Marty’s Scripture Memory Game’s VERSE EDITOR. DO NOT do it for them! Typing verses into the editor is part of their memorization process, and they like to do it!

After they create the memory verse in the Cal & Marty game, they have the option to create a three question QUIZ that goes with the verse. GIVE THEM the questions they are to use, but have THEM create the possible answers. After everyone has created their memory verse and quiz, switch computers so the kids can play the verse & quiz made others.

Sample Cal & Marty quiz questions:

 2 Cor 5:20

“We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.”

We used Cal & Marty Scripture Memory Game CD, had the kids add a quiz about the verse and then switch computers and play each other’s Cal scramble and quiz game. Spent a lot of time unpacking the word “ambassador” too and coming up with “What Would Ambassador Do” answers to scenarios kids face in their lives. 

Psalm 51:10

In 2013 the lectionary has Psalm 51:10  “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me”, which is another great memory verse.   Did you know they (used to) put ASH IN SOAP?   Sounds like a soap-making project to me!

“Last Two Days of Jesus in Jerusalem” lesson detail to get you started:

1. Go to the Professor’s Bookshelf in the Life of Christ CD and click the “Practice” book. Click on the “Tour…Passion Week in Jerusalem.” This is a narrated map of Jerusalem that traces Jesus’ last days with eight audio clips to hear.

2. Click and hear the events in the order you believe they happened. Fill in the location names on your map as you move through the events of Jesus’ last days. Then trace his route through the city on your map just as the program traces it. It get’s a little complicated between Pilate and Herod. See if you can figure it out!

3. When finished with the tour, answer the questions below.

a. What one word might describe Jesus’ emotions at each location? Think about what was happening to him at each spot and list that one word next to each location.

b. How would you describe the Disciple’s behavior in the last days of Jesus’ life?

c. Why did they act like that?

d. Why did the leaders and priests want to get rid of Jesus?  What were they afraid of losing or happening?

e. What could you have said to the leaders to convince them to release Jesus?

Holy Week Sequence Lesson Ideas for Non-Readers

Developmentally speaking, the little dudes don’t conceptually understand maps the way older kids and adults do. But they CAN trace a map and REMEMBER what happened where, –which is all we’re really looking for, even if they don’t understand that the map is a 2d representation of a real place.

They can also understand the FEELINGS at each location (what was Jesus feeling at Caiaphas’ house?). So after using Play & Learn Children’s Bible CD -which has several Holy Week short stories in it, I have them DRAW MEMORY FLASH CARDS of the various events, then play a sequencing game with their pictures (really kind of like a picture puzzle). Those Flash Cards can include drawings of bread, cup, dinner, lamb, garden, prayer, –to help them sequence the PROPS of the events. And as you play the game… You can discuss each one, reinforce each one.

Holy Week Vocab List

Stories are stickier and more quickly learned when they’re less confusing to read and hear. Yet, the Holy Week stories are full of new names, strange place names, and challenging vocabulary words. To improve familiarity, recall, and comprehension of these important stories, each year many of us in Sunday School create quizzes, wordsearches and crossword puzzles. In the computer lab, that means using programs like Fall of Jericho or Bible Grand Slam CDs, which many of our customers already own. Or Bible Crosswords/Wordsearch CDs (now out of print). The thing I like about this list, is that in learning it, –it opens up all sorts of opportunities to dive into the story.

I’ve gone through all four Gospels in the NIV version to create the following list and you’re welcome to copy it with your mouse and use it to create your own puzzles, quizzes and questions.  <>< Neil

List of Key Words Found in the Events of Holy Week:

Luke 22, 23, 24

• Unleavened Bread 

• Passover

• Chief Priests

• Judas Iscariot

• Mount of Olives  (elsewhere called Gethsemane)

• temptation

• betray

• Temple guards  (those who came to arrest Jesus)

• Servant of the High Priest

• High Priest  (elsewhere named as Caiaphas)

• Prophesy! (what the guards shouted at Jesus)

• Pilate  (Roman Governor)

• Herod  (Jewish King)

• Barabbas  (rebel for whom the crowds chanted and won his release)

• Simon of Cyrene (man compelled to carry cross)

• Golgotha (place of the skull)

• criminals

• Joseph of Arimathea

• Sabbath

• Spices and Perfume

• Mary Magdalene

• Joanna

• Emmaus

• Cleopas (named disciple who met resurrected Jesus on road)

• Bethany (where Jesus and Cleopas shared bread)

John 18, 19, 20

• Kidron Valley  (valley disciples crossed to get to Gethsemane)

• Annas   (Father in law of Caiaphas)

• Caiaphas  (elsewhere named the “high priest”)

• Courtyard  (of the High Priest…where Peter denied Jesus)

• What is truth  (what Pilate asked Jesus during trial)

• King of the Jews

• hyssop  (reed used to give Jesus wine on cross)

• Nicodemus  (named as one who helped Joseph of Arimathea wrap and bury Jesus)

• Rabboni!  (what Mary Magdalene called the risen Lord)

Mark 14-16

• Upper room

• Temple courts (where Jesus said to Judas he had been teaching)

• Day of Preparation (the day/Friday afternoon before Sabbath when they crucified Jesus. They had to bury him on that day because Sabbath was coming.)

• Centurion  (Roman officer at the cross who proclaimed Jesus the Son of God)

This list created by Neil MacQueen for Sunday Software, www.sundaysoftware.com

Matthew 26, 27, 28

• Hosanna

• Bethany (where Jesus found a donkey to ride into Jerusalem)

• Gethsemane

• Sanhedrin  (otherwise called the “Chief Priests” or “council” in other Gospels)

• Field of Blood  (where Judas hung himself)

• Blood money  (what the priest called the coins thrown by Judas)

• Potter’s field  (where Judas was buried)

• Praetorium   (Matt 27: 27, where Jesus was beaten by soldiers)

• Casting lots (to divide robe)

• “Eloi, Eloi lama sabachthani”  (“my God, my God, why have you forsaken me” Ps 22)

• Elijah  (what the crowd said when they heard Jesus quoting Ps 22)

Note: Several of these words appear in more than one Gospel, and thus, are only listed once here.

Link to Fall of Jericho quiz making game

Create multiple choice question sets and race to Jericho!

Ilumina Bible DVD has numerous dramatically narrated animations of the events of Holy Week:
(now out of print, but many of our customers still have it)

• Jesus Shares the Last Supper
• Jesus is Placed on the Cross
• Jesus Dies on the Cross (Mark)
• Jesus Dies on the Cross (Luke)
• Jesus Rises from the Dead (angels roll away the stone)
• Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene

These match up to Life of Christ CD’s lessons 31, 33, 34,35. The animations could be viewed after that interactive lesson in Life of Christ CD. You could create a worksheet with questions to answer following the viewing of one of the animations. Ilumina is now out of print, but many of our customers still own it.

Note: Ilumina’s depiction of Jesus on the cross shows him with quite a bit of blood. Might be a bit graphically intense for younger children. Each animation lasts about two minutes.

The 7 Last Words teach children the extreme grace and obedience of Jesus at the most profound moment in all of history, and most difficult moments of his life.  They are especially personal words which further reveal the love and humanity of Christ.

This is a good lesson for that “special Sunday” or an upcoming Wednesday Night program. It also makes for a good special lesson for teens coming into the lab.

Older Children and teens should TYPE IN these verses to the Crosswords/Wordsearch game or Cal & Marty verse editor. They enjoy “programming” the game and the typing begins the memorization process.

Early Readers can easily learn the Last 7 Words in a Word Search or Scripture Memory Game. While they may not be able to “read” these short verses, then can identify key words by the SIGHT AND SHAPE of the words.

You can also put the 7 Last Words into “new words” or “with explanation” using Let’s Talk CD …the program which “speaks aloud” whatever the kids type through their onscreen animated character.

Let’s Talk Lesson Example:  After Bible study, the teacher invites the kids to turn on the Lesson Builder Module in Let’s Talk and create a brief “introduction” to one of the “last words” –typing the last words, and explaining what they mean to the student, what they say about Jesus, what they tell us about the cross.  Then the Lesson Builder Module invites them to add 3 quiz questions and 3 discussion questions. When they’re done, have the kids SWITCH to another computer workstation to view each other’s presentations.

Example quiz questions:  In which Gospel do you find this “last word”?  Luke, John or Matthew? Who does Jesus seem to be saying these last words to?

Example of a discussion question: What do you think Jesus is feeling at the moment he says the words, “It is finished”.  Happy? Sad? or what?

Depending on your number of computers/stations or amount of time, you may have already created some “Last Word” presentations in advance. For example, if you only have 3 computers and are short on time, you could pick 4 of the Last Words and do them yourself ahead of time, and just have the kids at the 3 computers make presentations for the other 3 Last Words.

Or, you could have your teens come in one week and MAKE the 7 Last Word Presentation/quizzes in Let’s Talk for the younger grades.

List of Holy Week Presentations in the LIFE OF CHRIST CD

Most of our customers have the Life of Christ CD which has MANY Holy Week story presentations in it. We have also created a new program to follow-up these presentations in Life of Christ. I first thought up Let’s Talk CD after using Life of Christ for many years wishing I had a “dig deeper/reflection” program that would come after we viewed a presentation in Life of Christ CD. See some great lesson examples of that below.

27. Mary Prepares Jesus Body for Burial –with perfume (Matthew 26:6-13)

Mary believed Jesus when he said he would be crucified and wanted to show she loved him. What can you do to show your love for Jesus?

28. The Plot to Catch and Kill Jesus (Matthew 26:1-16)

Why the Jews and Caiaphas plotted to get rid of Jesus. Has jealousy ever made you say something that hurt others?

29. A Grand Entry Into Jerusalem –Palm Sunday (Luke 19:28-46)

The prophetic prediction behind the act. Jesus sobs over Jerusalem (and why). Do you honor Jesus as your king? If so, how?

After viewing this lesson in Life of Christ CD, turn on your Let’s Talk CD.  Imagine what various people were saying that day as Jesus rode into town. Assign different roles/points of view to students and have them CREATE THESE

VOICES/opinions in Let’s Talk –which animated characters will speak aloud. Children there that day, old people, priests, romans, soldiers, sinners. What did they shout? What were they thinking to themselves? What questions would they have wanted to ask?  What was Jesus thinking? What would the STONES have shouted, had everyone been silenced?

30. Disruption at the Temple (Matthew 21:12-17)

Why people needed their money changed. People misusing the Temple. Children sang praises. When and how do you praise the Lord?

Use Let’s Talk CD after this Life of Christ lesson to give voice to the people in the crowd. What was their reaction to Jesus?  Where would Jesus go today to “disrupt the temple”? Create this new place in Let’s Talk’s “Conversation Now” instant messaging module –having students create dialog between Jesus and a person in that “place today.”

31. New Meaning to the Passover Meal (Luke 22:14-23)

An good presentation on the history and practice of the Passover meal and how Jesus redefined it. Have you ever taken Communion to remember Jesus’ death?

Raphael in Pathways Through Jerusalem discusses the events of that evening. Play and Learn Children’s Bible CD has a “Last Supper” story for non-readers/early readers. You could use Fall of Jericho Quiz game CD to follow up any of these programs on the Last Supper. Create a question set about YOUR church’s particular Communion Liturgy, the words/phrases you use, what happens when, what we do and what we don’t do.

NOTE: “Jesus in Space“ covers the Lord’s Supper & Foot Washing as a full interactive animated lesson.

32. Jesus is Arrested, Tried, and Tortured (Luke 22:47-23:45)

Jesus, the crowds, the priests, the soldiers, and Pilate. Have you ever been accused of something you didn’t do?

For those of you who own the now-out-of-print Footsteps of Jesus CD and Pathways CDs… Gethsemane is featured in Footsteps of Jesus CD and both Helena’s and Raphael’s Pathways Through Jerusalem CD tours. King Herod tours the reconstruction of Caiaphas’ house (the Palatial Mansion section) in Pathways Through Jerusalem. King Herod’s Tour in Pathways Through Jerusalem shows the Lithos Stratos pavement where Jesus was scourged. Use Let’s Talk CD as a follow-up to this lesson. Have students create a ‘speech’ by the different characters as to what they saw and why they wanted Jesus out of the way. Use Let’s Talk to create a defense.  The “Conversation Now” module in Let’s Talk is like an “instant messaging program” in which two antagonists can argue about the events and reasons.

 Related: See Neil’s “Last 7 Words of Christ” lesson idea here on this page.

Using Let’s Talk CD to make the Holy Week characters speak for themselves…

How did Thomas explain his doubt to others?
What did Peter say to apologize to the rest of the Disciples?
These kinds of question spark discussion and help students REFLECT on “the rest of the story” not recorded but imaginable!

Let’s Talk CD allows your students to create an onscreen character and make him talk out loud, –responding to any question you put before your students.

Imagine for example, the Roman Soldiers at the Cross trying to make sense out of what they were seeing and hearing. Using the “Conversation Now” module, you could have two soldiers arguing about what they should do. One is a “secret” Christian. Or for a more directed approach…. YOU the TEACHER be the “Nasty Soldier” who just wants to get this business over with, and voice several statements/questions to the kids seated at their Let’s Talk screens, and have them “answer you” using the Talk Now module.  Example:  “Tell me why I shouldn’t crucify this man?”

See My Lesson Outline for Doubting Thomas over in the Let’s Talk Lesson Ideas webpage

What SHOULD Peter have said to the people in the courtyard… instead of wimping out”??
Here’s how I did that lesson in my computer lab…
To start off, I the teacher took the role of the PROTAGONIST.  I stood in the middle of the room and accused Peter of being a disciple -to which the kids had to respond through their Let’s Talk onscreen character –as if Peter had defended himself instead of denying Jesus. “Why shouldn’t I turn you in too!”  Third graders can easily use it, but even non-readers love using it IF they have someone helping them type their responses. They love hearing the computer speak to them. Let’s Talk can be use for any subject, and has several different WAYS it can be used, including building lessons that speak aloud, only simulating “instant messaging” on your computer.

Let’s Talk can be used in SO many ways. I hope you enjoy these lesson starters.

<>< Neil

1. Jesus in the Snow

• How do we “see” Jesus today?
• How can we help others “see” and believe in Jesus?Old-timers will recognize the famous photo of “Jesus in the snow” used in this resource. I came across it decades ago in a youth resources. When we made our Jesus in Space CD, we got permission to include the photo in an INTERACTIVE lesson about “how we ‘see’ Jesus” and “how others need our help seeing Jesus.”  So many discussion possibilities!  Whether you’re using our Jesus in Space CD, or simply using our PRINTABLE VERSION of the photo and lesson, it makes a wonderful children sermon or children’s lesson.  I have even used it in a sermon with adults to great effect.  Use it with Luke 24, the story of the disciples “seeing” (or not seeing) Jesus on the Road to Emmaus.

See a discussion of the photo/lesson here and print the photo of Jesus in the Snow.

2. The Colors of the Cross

This is one of my favorite children’s sermons for the weeks leading up to Holy Week.

Early in the service, you’ll give the kids a very special cross kit, and then (as we do in MY church at least), send them back to their seats and invite them to “finish” the cross with the yarn we gave them DURING THE ADULT SERMON. After the sermon, you’ll ask the kids to raise their crosses for all to see.  If  your kids leave and don’t come back, invite them to bring their crosses to the coffee hour. Cue the adults to pay attention! Update: The next time I did this cross children’s sermon in another church, we simply gave each kid a wooden cross and baggie of colored yarn with instructions which included what the colors of yarn represent. After worship, several adults asked us if we had any extras!.

The finished product will look like a god’s-eye cross, but a little more substantial.

PREPARING THE CROSS:

I had a retired fellow make these crosses which the kids wrapped with yarn.  They loved that, and it was an extra bonus connection for the gentleman we asked to provide them.

Alternately, you could just tied together two pieces of wood/dowel like a traditional “gods-eye” craft, but we were looking at giving crosses that would go home and be cherished. We also wanted the NAILS to be part of our project.  Update: Wooden crosses can also be purchased online. Try Oriental Trading Co for starters.

1.  Cut and sand two pieces of wood to form a cross approximately 8″ high and 4″ wide.   (Our retired fellow even stained them.)  Use 3/4″  x  1 1/2″ stock wood.

2. Use a small screw and dab of glue to fix the two pieces to each other in the shape of a cross.

3. NAIL a small nail to each end of the cross:  head and toe, left and right so that it’s sticking out from the ends.

4. Pre-cut quite a lot of 4 foot lengths of colored yarn and have them spaced out on a table where the kids can grab 15 to 20 strands to weave their cross.  We also had some gold and black ribbon.

5. Hand out the crosses and then DEMONSTRATE weaving the cross, and AS YOU DO, you will TALK ABOUT WHICH COLORS REMIND YOU of something about Jesus’ cross.

Purple = We hailed him as our King!
Blue for tears. We didn’t understand, and we abandoned him.
Brown “like dirt” because people thought he was going to stay dead.
Yellow for joy
ETC… notice how I’m focused on the feelings the cross evokes. Kids get that.

“Weaving” simply means tieing an end to one nail and then going to the next nail in any order or sequence.  Some of the kids also WRAPPED their yarn around the wood. Some did a real gods-eye type of yarn wrapping, not just from nail to nail. Some wrapped the crux of the cross in yarn to cover the bolt. One used the ribbon as a streamer coming off the top nail! Quite a few took extra yarn after the service was over to complete their crosses at home (especially once they saw what others had done).

6.  Supervise the distribution of the yarn/ribbons, give them instructions about WHEN and WHERE you’ll be looking for their completed crosss, then send them on their way.

If your kids stay in the service to weave, reference its meaning in your sermon and stop in the middle of your sermon to ask how they are doing!

If you brainstorm an improvement on this, let me know.

Neil MacQueen, neil@sundaysoftware.com