Children's Challenge: Week 6
9–13 February 2015
This section of Matthew looks at what you might have heard called ‘Passion Week’. It starts with Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey on what we now call Palm Sunday. People were excited to see him and were shouting in excitement, waving palm branches and throwing coats on the ground in front of him to make a special path for him to travel on.
The religious leaders were getting really upset with Jesus and how popular he was becoming and badly wanted to get rid of him. They worked hard and planned to do this. Jesus was arrested and wrongly accused of lots of things. He was put on trial and, in the end, was sentenced to death. They put criminals to death in those times on a cross, so this is how Jesus died. After he had died he was placed in a tomb (sort of like a small cave) with a large rock out the front covering the entry. There were many people who were sad and upset about this.
But… Jesus did not stay dead and that is where we pick up the story with our reading today.
Something amazing happened three days after he had been placed in the tomb. He came back to life; have a look for yourself.
Matthew 28:1–10 ‘Jesus is alive!'
The tomb where Jesus was buried after he died was a place where people were sad and upset, but three days after he had been placed in the tomb something amazing happened: Jesus did not stay dead! ‘He is alive!’
Using some items from your garden or outside your house, create the tomb where Jesus was buried.
You might like to use some sand, rocks, twigs, branches, etc, to create the tomb and you could add some people made from pegs, pipe cleaners or some extra twigs.
Or you might like to act out how people were feeling when they knew Jesus had died and then how they felt when they knew that Jesus had not stayed dead but was alive.
Ask your parents/carer to share a photo or video of this on social media - #BoundlessBible across Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and Facebook.
Photos courtesy of FreeBibleImages.org