Family Holy Week Activity
The following activity is designed to help your family reflect on the significance of Jesus’ death and resurrection through sharing, stories, art, and prayer. The craft directions are given first to present a general overview of the activity, followed by a script to help guide you in leading your family through the activity. We suggest you read through the script ahead of time and adjust the activity according to the age and temperament of your particular kids. We hope your family enjoys connecting to God and one another through this experience!
Craft Directions
Supplies Provided: Cross, Jewels, and Sand
Supplies Needed: Dark Markers (one per person)
Step 1: Take out the cross and set it face up with the white side showing. Use dark marker to draw pictures or write illustrations of sin.
Step 2: Peel away the white front with the ugly darker drawings and words to reveal a sticky surface.
Step 3: Place jewels on the sticky surface to decorate the cross.
Step 4: Fill in the rest of the sticky surface with the sand.
Script for Family Devotional Activity
Introduction
To get ready for Easter, let’s do a special activity! Have each child take out their cross and get a dark colored marker to write on it. Today crosses are often displayed beautifully in church or as pieces of jewelry or maybe even stickers for crafts in HRKids. But did you know that a cross was actually a very ugly thing in Jesus’ day? Crosses were where people died. Usually the people who died on crosses had done something really bad.
Read: Mark 15:1-24
For younger kids, read the story of Jesus’ crucifixion from a Children’s Bible or for older kids with a shorter attention span summarize the first 15 verses in your own words and then pick it up at verse 16
Discuss, Draw, and Write
Dying on a cross was a really awful thing that was mostly done to very bad criminals who had done very bad things, so it makes sense to start by making our crosses really ugly. Let’s do that by writing words or making pictures on them that are ugly.
1. What are some bad things that people do? Have your kids write or draw pictures of a few of these things on their crosses.
2. The Bible says that it isn’t just criminals who do bad things though, we are all sinners who hurt each other and disobey God. What are some sins that we struggle with? Have kids write or draw these on their crosses too and it is a great model for your kids if you as parents share some sins you struggle with as well. (For little kids you can write for them and/or just have them make ugly marks each time someone mentions a sin.)
Prayer
God is so sad about the way sin hurts us and our relationship with Him. Let’s say sorry to Him for how ugly our sins are. Invite kids to pray simple prayers: “Dear God, I’m sorry for . . .” Then one or both parents can start and/or finish with their own prayer of confession: “Lord we ask that you forgive us for all the ways we don’t love you and don’t love others well. We are sorry for our sins and the ways they hurt our relationships with you and one another.”
Discuss
But for some reason, even though the cross was a really ugly thing back in Jesus’ day, we still see a lot of beautiful crosses. Any idea why the cross became such a special symbol? Take responses.
The cross is special because it reminds us that God does forgive us and that He loves us so much that He sent Jesus to die for us. The best part about Jesus’ cross is that he beat it! It only kept him in the grave for three days, but then he came back to life - he resurrected. The cross reminds us of God’s love for us and Jesus’ victory over sin and death. Jesus paid for our sins and forgave us even though we didn’t deserve it!
Read: Mark 16:1-7
For younger kids read the story of Jesus’ resurrection from a Children’s Bible. Jesus died for our sins, but then he rose again.
Activity
So let’s peel off the ugly stuff we put on the cross and let’s turn the cross into a beautiful reminder of God’s incredible love and Jesus’ amazing sacrifice and power to overcome and defeat death. Peel off the white paper. Start with the jewels and have the kids put those on. Then pour the sand in the gaps that are left.
Worship
On Sunday we’ll be celebrating with the whole church, but let’s start celebrating Jesus’ resurrection now. Let’s sing a worship song together. Go to www.highrock.org and click on the Holy Week for Kids button. Justin, our Children’s Director, has created a video with one of the songs we’ll be singing together on Easter Sunday. You can also find out more information about Holy Week and Easter opportunities for your family.