What is taught must be in accordance with the locally agreed syllabus; (If your school is outside of Cambridgeshire: the S.C.A.A Model 2 syllabus has been included to help in matching this lesson plan with your local Agreed Syllabus).
Cambs Agreed Syllabus:
FF (Festivals & Fasts)
Enable pupils to:
become familiar with the biblical stories retold during Holy Week & Easter, and through them become aware of Christian beliefs about God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
Pupils should consider this:
What are the special times of year for you & your family?
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S.C.A.A. Model syllabuses:
KEY TEACHINGS / FOCUS:
JESUS
The celebration of key events in Jesus' life throughout the year:
Easter (the story of Jesus' death & resurrection, & how Christians understand these events).
AT1 Design a poster to show the meaning of Easter for Christians.
AT2 Talk about how Easter has become commercialised, & how they feel about this.
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This is part 2 of the Holy Week & Easter Lesson Plan:
RESOURCES:
There is a separate sheet to print out for the Football Sketch. You will need 2 'small' children, a neighbour & a parent.
STARTER:
Q. Have you ever been blamed for something that you didn't do?
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Q. Did you then have to face the consequences?
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We are going to look at the events behind 'Good Friday' & Easter.
Jesus had just had an unfair trial by the religious leaders. They were filled with hatred & they punched & spat at Him through the night, while He was still bound with ropes.
Jesus was entirely innocent, He was blameless, & He went around doing good things, but the religious leaders were jealous of His popularity, so they wanted Him to be executed by the Roman Authorities.
MAIN TEACHING:
Early on Friday morning they took Jesus to the Roman governor who was called Pilate. After hearing the charges against Jesus he quickly tried to turn them away, because there wasn't enough evidence & the crime wasn't worthy of death. But they insisted that he look at the case. So Pilate went to the courtroom & summoned the soldiers to bring Jesus to him.
Pilate then looked at the battered & bruised face of Jesus & said;
"Are you the king of the Jews?"
Perhaps Pilate wanted to know whether Jesus was trying to be a king to oppose Caesar, the leader-king of the Romans, or whether Jesus was saying that He was Christ the King, the One spoken about in the Scriptures.
Jesus stood firm & said;
"Is that your own idea, or did others talk to you about me?"
Pilate snorted;
"Am I a Jew? It was your people and your chief priests who handed you over to me. What is it you have done?"
Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world.
If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews.
But now my kingdom is from another place." John 18:33-35 (NIV)
Q. What did Jesus mean by saying that His Kingdom was not of this world?
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Christians believe that Jesus is the King of an invisible Kingdom known as heaven.
Q. What did Jesus mean by saying that if His Kingdom was of this world, His servants would fight to prevent His arrest?
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Jesus knew that He was going to die, so if His Kingdom was only in this world, then it was all about to end, unless His servants came by force & rescued Him. But His Kingdom is of another world, so Jesus being executed wouldn't end it. In fact Jesus said that this execution was all part of God's plan!
Pilate continued: "You are a king, then!"
Jesus answered,
"You are right in saying I am a king.
I was born for that purpose.
And I came to bring truth to the world.
All who love the truth are my followers." (John 18:37 NIV & The Living Bible)
Pilate exclaimed; "What is truth?"
That is a good question!
Q. What do you think is the truth that Jesus is talking about?
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Jesus calls His teaching the Truth & He calls the rest of the Scriptures the Truth. (Teachers note: John 17:17 where Jesus says "Your Word is Truth" The term 'Word' means the Scriptures). Christians are the followers of Jesus Christ & they should love this Truth.
Jesus did not answer him, & Pilate quickly turned & walked out of the courtroom to the religious leaders & said that Jesus not guilty of any crime. Pilate knew that they had handed Jesus over because of their envy. But the crowd were shouting that Jesus had stirred up trouble with His teaching.
Pilate didn't know what to do, so he sent Him to Herod who had authority over the area where Jesus lived. Herod asked Jesus many questions but He didn't answer any of them & the religious leaders were all shouting abuse at Jesus. Then Herod dressed Jesus in a robe like a king & they ridiculed & mocked Him. They pretended to bow down to Him & finally Jesus got sent back.
Pilate then stood in front of the crowd & said:
"I find no basis for a charge against him.
But it is your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of the Passover.
Do you want me to release 'the king of the Jews'?" John 18:38-39 (NIV)
The crowd went wild & were shouting "No, away with this man!" "No, not him! Give us Barabbas!" "Crucify Him! Crucify Him!"
Barabbas was a murderer & had taken part in a rebellion against the Romans.
The crowd were becoming more wild, so Pilate handed Jesus to the soldiers to be flogged. The lashes the soldiers inflicted were just short of killing a man. Jesus was now in a weak state & in a lot of pain. The soldiers then mocked Jesus by twisting together a crown of thorns & which they then pushed onto His head. They put a purple robe on Him & pretended to worship Him saying; "O king of the Jews!"
Pilate then went to the crowd & said:
"Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him.
Here is the man!" John 19:4-5 (NIV)
As soon as they saw Jesus, the crowd went wild again, shouting: "Crucify! Crucify!"
Pilate again said that Jesus was not guilty, & the crowd answered that He must die because He had said that He was the Son of God.
When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid, & he went back to Jesus & said:
"Where do you come from?"
But Jesus didn't answer him, so Pilate said:
"Do you refuse to speak to me? Don't you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?"
Jesus looked straight at Pilate & said:
"You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above.
Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin." John 19:9-11 (NIV)
Q. What do you think Jesus meant by saying that?
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Pilate thought he had more power & authority over Jesus, so he thought he could do anything he wanted. But Jesus was telling Pilate that he couldn't, because this situation was in God's hands. Even though this was God's plan, the religious leaders would still be held responsible for their jealousy & their hatred of Jesus. Therefore they were "guilty of the greater sin" because they found false witnesses, they held an unfair trial, & now they were manipulating Pilate to give the death sentence to Jesus.
Q. How could the fact that Jesus was going to die on a Roman cross be a part of God's plan? Did that mean that God didn't like Jesus?
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Christians believe that God the Father loves Jesus because He is His Son. A loving parent would rather die, or be hurt themselves, than for their child to suffer any harm. This is exactly the same for God. It cost God the Father a lot to put Jesus, His Son, into this situation.
So we need to know why God the Father did that:
[Teachers note: You will need to print out the Football Sketch]
Q. The Football Sketch.
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[Teachers note: Perhaps split the class into small groups to discuss the 3 questions on the Football Sketch sheet & then get each group to report back their conclusions to the class]
The boy in the sketch had been naughty, & there was no way that he could pay for the window to be repaired, so the parent stepped in & paid the full amount.
In God's eyes, we all do naughty things from time to time, we do selfish things, we disobey God, & so we are guilty before Him. But there is a way out from this guilt because God has paid the price, not in hard earned money, but in something much more precious than that - the cost of His Son's life! God wanted to save people from their guilt, and this is for anybody who believes in Jesus Christ and what He did.
From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the crowd kept shouting, "If you release Jesus, you are a traitor to the Romans. He claims to be a king & you're no friend of the Roman king - Caesar, if you allow Him to live!"
Pilate brought Jesus out again to the people & said: "Here is your king!"
The crowd was turning into a riot & they shouted, "Take him away! Crucify him!" "Take him away! Crucify him!"
Pilate answered the crowd; "Shall I crucify your king?"
But the crowd shouted; "He is not our king! Only Caesar is our king!"
Finally Pilate saw that he had little choice but to hand Jesus over to the soldiers to be crucified. They made Jesus carry His own cross, so He staggered to the site of execution.
There, at about 9 in the morning, they nailed Him to the cross & they did the same with two criminals, one on each side of Him. Pilate had commanded that the soldiers put a sign on the cross stating His crime.
Q. What was the crime that Pilate told them to write?
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"Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews".
Q. Do you think that was the right thing to put as His crime?
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Jesus wasn't actually guilty of a crime, so it was a good thing to put that.
The religious leaders protested to Pilate saying; "No, that is not the charge! Write that this man claims to be the king of the Jews!"
But Pilate said that what he had written would remain.
Some friends of Jesus watched the crucifixion with pain & sorry in their hearts, but the religious leaders continued to mock Him & they stayed to make sure that He died.
After Jesus had been on the cross for three hours, the day suddenly became dark. It was the middle of the day, & this shouldn't happen! The darkness continued for three hours, then Jesus lifted His head & in a loud voice He shouted; "It is completed! Father, into Your hands I give My spirit!"
Then He died, & there was an earthquake. The main curtain in the Temple was split in two & then daylight returned. The Roman Centurion soldier was staggered by the events, & he was impressed with what he saw of Jesus, & he declared; "Surely this man was right in what He did & said! Surely this man was the Son of God!"
Joseph, a rich man who was different from the other religious leaders, had been eager to listen & obey Jesus' teaching, went to ask Pilate for the body of Jesus. Pilate was surprised that Jesus had died so quickly, so he got the soldiers to check that He had died.
Crucifixion could take days for someone to eventually die, so this was remarkable that Jesus was able to have command over the time of His death. The soldiers confirmed that Jesus was dead by pushing a spear into His side.
Joseph wanted to give Jesus a decent burial & he knew of a new tomb just cut out of the rock face. So two of them treated Jesus' body with burial spices, wrapped the body in strips of cloth & laid it in the tomb. The religious leaders were concerned that Jesus had said that He was going to rise back from the dead.
Q. Bearing this in mind, what would you have done if you had been the religious leaders?
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They had decided to put a group of soldiers at the tomb constantly, day & night. This would prevent anyone from stealing the body & saying that Jesus had risen back to life.
It was now the evening on that eventful Friday. All this had happened on one day.
Then a small group of women, who were disciples of Jesus, went to the tomb very early on the Sunday morning to finish the task of putting burial spices on Jesus' body. But as they approached the tomb they saw that the heavy stone door had been rolled aside! Suddenly there was a very bright light & a voice said to them, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is no longer here, because He has risen from the dead, just as he said He would. Go quickly and tell the other disciples." (Matthew 28:5-7)
They discovered that there had been a violent earthquake in which the angel of the Lord had come down from heaven & had rolled open the heavy stone door & then had sat upon it. The soldiers had been terrified & had pretended to be dead!
So the women ran off to tell the other disciples, but suddenly Jesus met them & said "Greetings!"
They fell at His feet & worshipped Him, & then He said, "Don't be afraid of Me, go & tell the disciples that I will meet them in Galilee."
So again the women ran off & told this to the other disciples. But none of them were able to believe what the women were saying, because it just seemed to way out!
Simon Peter jumped up & ran to the tomb. He saw that the stone had been rolled away, but there was no-one around. So he looked inside the tomb & he saw the strips of burial cloth lying in a heap together. He left slowly, wondering what had happened.
Later that day, the disciples were all together in a large room, when suddenly Jesus appeared. Everyone was startled & frightened because they thought that He was a ghost, but He said to them:
"Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds?
Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself!
Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have."
Luke 24:39 (NIV)
So He showed them His nail wounds from the cross, & the spear hole in His side! The disciples were overjoyed that Jesus had actually risen back from the dead!
Then Jesus said,
"Yes, it was written long ago that the Christ must suffer and die
and rise again from the dead on the third day;
and that this message of salvation should be taken from Jerusalem to all the nations:
There is forgiveness of sins for all who turn to me."
Luke 24:47 (The Living Bible)
For the next forty days He appeared to more than 500 of His followers (1 Corinthians 15:6), then on the last occasion He took them outside & He was taken up into heaven. The disciples were filled with joy & they worshipped Him.
PLENARY:
What we have just heard is what Easter is all about. The Friday is known as 'Good Friday' & the Sunday when Jesus rose from the dead is known as 'Easter Sunday'.
Q. Have your views changed on what Easter is all about?
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Q. Do you think that Easter has become commercialised?
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Q. Do you have any views on this?
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Either take a short time to discuss these questions, or leave it with them.
Design a poster to show the meaning of Easter for Christians.
(Teachers note: There is a worksheet to accompany this lesson plan).