April 22nd, 2011 by Kristi Stephens

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April 21st, 2011 by Kristi Stephens

I don’t think I’m alone in wanting to fast forward through Good Friday to get to Sunday morning.

I think I often want to soften the truth of the cross for my children, shield them from the truth of what all it entailed. Russell Moore hit the nail on the head here:

Our children need to hear the Gospel. They need to see Jesus. That means they need to see both sides of skull place. That’s graphic, sure. It’s confusing, of course. And not just for kids. But it is the only message that saves. It’s the only message that prepares one for salvation. It is, as Paul says, that which is “of first importance,” the message he received from Jesus Himself (1 Cor 15:3-4).

…I’m not saying it won’t be scary. The Gospel will disturb the children. And, if you understand it, it will disturb you too.

I need to intentionally lead my children not just to the empty tomb – but also to the foot of the cross.

I’ve been contemplating for weeks how to make Good Friday meaningful for my 3 and 5 year old. Yes, we’ll make Easter Story Cookies… but I want more than that. Because sometimes even in our retelling of the story we try to make it pretty and fun. It wasn’t pretty, it’s not fun – but it needs to stick.

So, I’ve been working on our plan for tomorrow loosely following the timeline of events on the day of Christ’s crucifixion, and I thought perhaps you would like to read it too. For my young children, they often think of the cross as a quick event – “then Jesus died.” I think even stretching our conversations out throughout the day will make an impression on them. Take what you can use, leave what doesn’t fit your family or your personality – but prayerfully consider how to lead your children to the cross tomorrow.

Wake-up

• Jesus condemned to death (read Matthew 27:26; Mark 15:15; Luke 23:23-24; John 19:16)

Put on Bible costumes, read passages aloud together

After breakfast – coloring page of Jesus on trial

• Jesus is beaten (John 19:1-3)

Beat pecans for Easter story cookies

8 a.m.

• Following Jesus to Calvary (read Matthew 27:32-34; Mark 15:21-24; Luke 23:26-31; John 19:16-17)

Post select Stations of the cross pictures on mantle and discuss

• Coloring page of Jesus carrying His cross

9 a.m. – “The Third Hour”

• Jesus is Crucified on the Cross (read Mark 15:25, Luke 23:34)

Allow them to pound nails into wood scraps; talk about Jesus’ suffering for us

10 a.m.

• Jesus is Insulted and Mocked (read Matthew 27:39-40, Mark 15:31, Luke 23:36-37, 39)

Watch the Tommy Nelson Read and Share DVD Bible: Easter movie

11 a.m.

• Jesus and the Criminal (read Luke 23:40-43)

Talk about Jesus’ forgiveness and what His conversation with the criminal teaches us about salvation

Noon – “The Sixth Hour”

• Darkness Covers the Land (Mark 15:33)

Close curtains, turn off lights

Talk about Jesus’ spiritual suffering and how His friends and enemies must have felt

1 p.m.

• Jesus Cries Out to the Father (Matthew 27:46)
• Jesus is Thirsty (John 19:28-29)
  Finish Easter story cookies, beginning with vinegar

2 p.m.

• It is Finished (John 19:30a, Luke 23:46)

This is normally our nap/quiet time anyway, so we will be having a quiet hour to reflect on what we’ve been learning

3 p.m. – “The Ninth Hour”

• The Earthquake (Matthew 27:51-52)
• Jesus is Laid in the Tomb (Matthew 27:57-61; Mark 15:42-47; Luke 23:50-56; John 19:38-42)
  Seal the oven w/ Easter story cookies inside

In the evening I am hoping we can burn our papers from our repentance box.

How will you be observing Good Friday with your family?

April 21st, 2011 by Kristi Stephens

Image via Wikipedia

Tuesday we began our Easter-week journey with Mary Magdalene asking, “what’s your story?” Yesterday we asked, “what will you give him?”

Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying,  “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, “This man is calling Elijah.”  And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink. But the others said, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.” And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.

And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many.  When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!”

There were also many women there, looking on from a distance, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him, among whom were Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joseph and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.

Matthew 27:45-56 (ESV)

It always strikes me that after everyone else scattered, these women stayed close to the cross.

They had watched their Savior and Lord – their friend – wrongly accused, beaten until He barely resembled Himself, forced to carry the heavy cross on which He would be killed. They had walked behind Him through jeering, screaming, hateful crowds. They had followed at a distance and found themselves watching a nightmare in real life – Jesus, their Jesus, nailed to a cross and left to die while Roman soldiers and even their fellow Jews mocked Him with hearts seething with hatred.

They stayed there as the sky grew ominously black, while Jesus suffered and cried out in spiritual and physical agony. They saw His head drop in death. They felt the earth shake and saw the rocks splitting. And as the soldiers cried out in fear that Jesus truly was the Son of God, they must have wept uncontrollable tears – for they had already known that to be true. And now… He was gone.

Mary’s whole life was Jesus. He had rescued her from the hellishness of her past, she had dedicated everything in her present to serving Him. As she watched Him die, what was she thinking about? As awful as it must have been, we know that she stayed – Matthew 27:59-61 tells us that Mary Magdalene and “the other Mary” were present when Joseph of Arimathea laid Jesus’ broken body in the tomb and sealed the entrance with the stone. I wonder what it was like to walk back home? To think that the One you believed would change the world, the One who you thought was the Promised Messiah who would make everything right again, was lying dead in a tomb never to live again? I imagine there were no sounds but the soft thuds of their footsteps on the dirt path as they walked back to where they were staying. Surely the question in their minds was “What now?”

It makes me wonder… would I have stayed?

I can’t even watch The Passion of the Christ all the way through. How often do I skip through the suffering of Jesus and get to the good part of the resurrection? The suffering is hard. The suffering is ugly. The suffering exposes the ugliness of my sin – it exposes what I deserve. The suffering… was because of my sin.

As Paul Miller states in this post, we have a distaste for the cross. This week, may God capture our hearts not just with the hope of the resurrection, but also with the power of the cross. Don’t skip through it – stay at the cross with Mary.

April 20th, 2011 by Kristi Stephens

Yesterday we began our Easter-week journey with Mary Magdalene asking, “what’s your story?” Today, the question is, “what will you give him?”

Soon afterward he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with him, and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s household manager, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their means.

Luke 8:1-3 (ESV)

It’s not terribly surprising to me that Mary would be among this group who traveled with Jesus, giving of their own finances and time to allow Jesus and His disciples to minister. When we know how very much we have been forgiven of, we can’t help but be overwhelmed with love for our Savior. Mary’s life, her eternity, had been radically transformed, and now she just wanted to be near Him.

She knew Jesus in a way few people ever would. She knew Him well as the Son of God, healing the sickness of her soul. She heard Him teach with power and authority even as He compassionately touched the crippled and set aside “important” things to hold little children and laugh as they babbled to Him about the silly nonsense in their heads. She knew His favorite foods, the intonations of His voice, His mannerisms and facial expressions.

No one knew her like Jesus. He had seen her at her very worst. I’m sure she wrestled with knowing the evil that was in her past, and yet when He looked at her, she saw no condemnation, no mockery, no insinuations of her guilt. She saw forgiveness. She saw love that she had never experienced before.

The love and forgiveness and transforming power of the Savior had turned her life upside down. She owed him everything – she knew that everything she had, everything she was, was due to Jesus Christ.

Giving him her time, her finances – her entire life – was a reasonable response. It was the only choice that would make sense.

Yesterday we reflected on our own stories. How God had radically entered our lives and miraculously brought us from death to life, from darkness to light. If we really understand what He has done for us, if we really understand where we would be without Him, if we really grasp that we owe him everything…

What will we give Him?

I love the phrasing of Romans 12:1 in the NKJV:

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

Offering yourself, your whole self, as a living sacrifice wholly devoted to God is not simply for ‘super Christians.’ It simply is reasonable service. It is the only response that makes sense.

This Easter as we consider what was done on our behalf, the undeserved mercy lavished on us that transformed every breath we take and the eternity we face – what will we give Him? Would we dare to hold part of ourselves, our possessions, our loved ones, our dreams back from Him as though we had already given Him “enough?”

Everything is the only reasonable response.