Easter Series: Jesus' Resurrection

As I mentioned in my previous post, I wasn't sure if Easter eggs would help or hinder our teaching about Jesus' resurrection. I decided that for Easter Sunday, we would focus on the fact that Jesus was raised from the dead and that this was a reason for Jesus' followers back then to be happy. This fact is the reason why we go to church, why we share the Gospel with our friends and family, why we teach Sunday School, and, ultimately, why we worship God. We are also joyful like Jesus' followers because His resurrection confirms to all of us that Jesus was the Son of God and that Jesus is alive!  

God raised Jesus as He promised. God promises us that He will raise us to new life if we are united to Christ through our faith. God doesn't make promises that He's unable to keep. God had the power to raise Jesus to life and He definitely has the power to raise us to new life.  

For our Easter craft, we made an empty tomb with the angel's quote, "He has risen, as He said" (Matthew 28:6). The empty tomb shows that Jesus is not dead even though He did die. It helps the kids remember the story in which the Marys and disciples saw the tomb empty and believed what Jesus had told them before His death. When Jesus foretold His death and resurrection, His disciples had no idea what He was talking about and when He was crucified, they were utterly confused as to what was happening. When Jesus was resurrected, everyone finally began to understand the divine purpose behind Jesus' life and death.

Materials:

• Scissors
• Glue
• Black construction paper (about 3x5")
• Brown construction paper cut into circles (doesn't need to be perfectly round)
• Brown construction paper circle (4" diameter)
• Paper fastener
• "He has risen, as He said" quote printout

Instructions:

1. Glue the roughly cut circles onto the edge of the black construction paper.  Put some glue on the circles that overlap.

2. Glue the quote printout centered with the black paper.

3. Place the large circle over the black area.  You may have some black showing at the bottom of the tomb but that's okay!

4. Poke the fastener through the bottom corner of the tomb and the large circle.  Fold the loose ends of the fastener flat against the paper.

The amazing thing about the fastener is that you can actually have the stone "roll away" from the tomb. I remember back to my preschool teaching days and using these to make some "wheel" crafts with the kids but I forgot what these gold things were called. When I was trying to buy the fastener for this craft, I used every word possible to describe it on Amazon and Discount School Supplies. I tried, "gold circle", "paper poke", "hold paper", and "action paper". I finally Googled, "what is the name of the gold circle that holds papers together so they can move?". Luckily, someone had previously posted a similar question onto Yahoo answers and I found out these things are called paper fasteners...I thought those were paper clips.

Easter Craft: Jesus' Death

When I was thinking back to what I learned in my childhood days about Easter week, I realized that I learned nothing biblical.  Back then, Easter was all about the bright-colored, plastic eggs filled with candy.  Maybe I'm a bit pessimistic, but I think no matter how well you can explain the significance of a holiday to children, the mere sight of candy throws that all out the window.

When I was teaching preschool, a lot of kids would come in really excited for Easter Sunday.  I would ask them, "What do you do on Easter?"  Almost all of the kids tell me, "I'm going to the park to go look for some Easter eggs, duh!"  Oh silly me, I thought Easter was celebrated at church.  Then my next question, "Why are there Easter eggs in the park?"  "Well, the Easter bunny likes to hide eggs in the park.  AND THERE'S CANDY!"

As I was preparing for the start of Sunday School, our curriculum (Children's Desiring God) mentioned that we need to teach children the whole Bible to children.  We can't just pick and choose all the good, fun, and miraculous stories to teach and neglect the "negative," sad ones.  If we do, God will seem to be on the same level as all the fictional beings like the Easter bunny.  How unfortunate would it be if our kids found out that Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter bunny, etc. were all made up and concluded that God must also be made up!

I grew up not knowing the complete Gospel until I was in college.  I had been going to church since I was around 8 years old but I don't think anyone ever explained the Gospel to me.  I even got baptized without even knowing what the Gospel was.  And that was acceptable to everyone around me at that time.  During high school, I started to understand bits and pieces of the Gospel but I didn't hear much about Jesus' death and resurrection.

Finally, a decade after I had become a regular church-attender, I heard the Gospel in it's entirety.  I've been exposed to Easter eggs my whole life and they never meant anything more than yummy candy that I had to immediately devour before my parents took them away from me.  The Gospel, however, is what has true meaning and has the power to save those who are perishing.  I decided to make the Easter crafts focused on the truth of what happens during Jesus' last days and the eternal ramifications of what He has done.

Matthew 27:45-56: Jesus took the punishment for the sins of all

The cross symbolizes Jesus' death and sacrifice for our sins.  Jesus' sacrifice is made for everyone in the world who believes in Him.  Jesus was perfect and sinless and wholly God and wholly Man at the same time.  Only He could take on the sins of the world.

Materials:

• Blue construction paper
• Ripped pieces of green construction paper
• Scissors
• Glue
• Pipe Cleaner

Instructions:

1. Cut blue construction paper into a circle.

2. Glue ripped pieces of green construction paper on the blue circle.  It doesn't matter where the kids glue the little pieces as long as they're on the paper. This will be the world.

3. Twist the pipe cleaner into the shape of a cross.

a. fold in half

b. pinch both 
sides a quarter 
of the way down

c. twist the 
bottom (where 
you made the 
first fold)

d. twist the two
 top ends together

e. twist the 
horizontal arms 
together
&voila!

4.  Glue cross onto the world.