These are some of the tangibles we used during holy week. This picture includes: three really large nails, a home-made whip, a crown of thorns, and a bag of money.
Each day we read Scripture and provided the kids with something to hold, like you see in the picture. Here's what we tried to do each day.
PALM SUNDAY--The triumphal entry (Matt.21:1-11; Lk.19:39-40)...artificial branches, rocks
MONDAY--The plot unfolds (Lk.22:1-6)...bread/cup, since Jesus observed the final Passover meal
TUESDAY--The garden (Mk.14:32-42)...a bag of coins to picture how Jesus was sold by Judas
WEDNESDAY--The first five trials:
before Annas (Jn.18:12-13,19-24), before Caiaphas (Matt.26:57-68), before the Sanhedrin (Lk.22:66; Matt.26:57-68), before Pilate (Lk.23:1-7), before Herod (Lk.23:8-11)...We used a stuffed lamb here, to talk about how Jesus was silent before His accusers
THURSDAY--The final trial before Pilate and the scourging (Lk.23:13-23; Matt.27:24-26)...a home-made whip and a crown of thorns were used
FRIDAY--The cross (Jn.19:16-24; Mk.15:29-38)...We used the baked hill and tomb (see the earlier post). We also used the three large nails. After walking through the events of the crucifixion, we took the figure representing Jesus from the cross and wrapped Him in a piece of napkin. Then we laid Him in the tomb, letting Noah roll the stone to cover the entrance.
SATURDAY--nothing...we just sat in a room, turned out the lights and closed the door to make it dark. This was to talk about how Jesus was dead in the dark tomb. We explained the Gospel and talked about why Jesus died.
SUNDAY--The resurrection (Matt.28:1-10)...When the kids came downstairs, the tomb was empty.
Of course, since our kids are all small, hardly anything went exactly as planned. For example, each night at least one of the kids would erupt into laughter or crawl under the table; someone would bump their heads and cry; or someone would...well, you get the idea. Each night the kids would hear the words, "Stop it or else!" But by God's abundant grace we're just trying to improve our traditions each year.
2 comments:
This is fantastic!!! Thanks so much for sharing this! I will certainly be incorporating this into our practices next year. Also, the "Treasuring God in Our Traditions" came today! I'm so excited to look through it. Thanks again for passing along this info.
much love,
em
Hi Emily,
I wanted to add that we sang a few songs each night from a hymnal that were about Christ's death. On Easter morning we sang songs about his resurrection. These were not always in tune, but I think it would be a lot of fun at your house to sing these songs.
Love you too,
Kim
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