Skip to main content

An all age talk on the death of Jesus

Matthew 27:45-54

Show pictures of some separating walls and ask people which countries they come from. Could include: Jerusalem, Great wall of China, Berlin wall, wall in Northern Ireland, Mexican/Texan border, Korea etc.
. 
The greatest and most serious walls/divide ever was in Jerusalem.

It was not between people and people, but between people and God.
It was not a wall, but a curtain.

It was the curtain in the temple, which separated the Holy of Holies (the place of God) from the people.

Bring out three adults to form a barrier. If appropriate ask if there are any children who would like to try and break through the barrier. Have a controlled mini rugby match!  

This barrier completely separated human beings from God

It was put there by human beings: we reject God. We ignore God. We live without reference to God. And if we believe in God, we believe in a God who exists to help us. That is what sin is.

But it was also put there by God. It symbolises the anger of God against our rejection of him – who is ultimate goodness and love.

But the situation is not hopeless. Once a year the high priest was able to go through the curtain into the holy of holies to make sacrifice for the people, and to ask for God’s mercy on them.

Take child through barrier and then bring them back

This barrier represents sin, and the penalty for sin – which is death – and spiritual blindness. Because one of the consequences of us rejecting God is that we become blind to God.

Ask three adults in barrier to hold up 3 pieces of paper on which are written ‘sin’, ‘death’ and ‘spiritual blindness’

And I don’t know if you noticed, but in our reading, when Jesus died, the curtain in the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.

What happened was that, as Jesus died:

  1. he deals with our sin

He took onto himself the judgement on our sin and the punishment for our sin.

There was darkness (Matthew 27:45) – parallel the darkness in the last but one judgement on Egypt ((Exodus 10:21-23)
There was Jesus cry of abandonment (Matthew 27:46)

And now, as King Jesus dies – as the king gives his life as a sacrifice for his people – the curtain is torn in two, from top to bottom.

Tear up word ‘sin’, and ask the first adult to sit down

  1. the power of God is released  

There is an earthquake and the tombs break open and the dead are raised (Matthew 27:51-53). It is a strange incident, but it is telling us that because of Jesus death, death itself has been defeated.

Yes, we all have to die, but death now is not our final destiny.

Tear up word ‘death’, and ask the second adult to sit down

  1. people recognise that Jesus is the Son of God

In Matthew 27:54 the Centurion and his fellow soldiers realise that Jesus is the Son of God.

Up to now there has been a curtain. They have been blind.

They thought – I don’t know what they thought. They thought that Jesus may have been a dangerous radical, a lunatic, a good man but a man who was way out of his depth, or as someone who was being turned into a political scapegoat.

But now as he dies, as the curtain tears, they suddenly realise: this man was the Son of God

Tear up the words ‘spiritual blindness’ and ask the final adult to sit down


And now there is no barrier.

The way to God is open because of Jesus death on the cross.
Or perhaps we can look at this a different way. God himself has come out to meet us.

I could finish this by saying: look at the cross and decide. Decide, with the centurion if the one who hung on the cross is the King who loved me and died so that I can be forgiven, know God and have life. Is he the Son of God?

But I’m not sure that the passage is saying that.
I think that it is saying to us that the reason that we can join with the centurion and look at Jesus on the cross and say, ‘This is the Son of God’- is because he did die for us. The reason we can have life is because he did die for us.

And we therefore respond with praise to Father God who, in his love, gave us his Son; and to the Son of God who loved his Father, and who loved us, and gave his life for us. To Him be glory and honour and the kingdom now and for ever. Amen. 
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most popular posts

Isaiah 49:1-7 What does it mean to be a servant of God?

Isaiah 49:1-7 This passage speaks of two servants. The first servant is Israel, the people of God. The second servant will bring Israel back to God. But then it seems that the second servant is also Israel.  It is complicated! But Christians have understood that this passage is speaking of Jesus. He is both the servant, who called Israel back to God, but he is also Israel itself: he is the embodiment, the fulfilment of Israel In the British constitution the Queen is the head of the State. But she is also, to a degree, the personal embodiment of the state. What the Queen does, at an official level, the UK does. If the Queen greets another head of State, then the UK is greeting that other nation. And if you are a UK citizen then you are, by definition, a subject of Her Majesty. She is the constitutional glue, if this helps, who holds us all together. So she is both the servant of the State, but she is also the embodiment of the State. And Jesus, to a far grea...
Post a Comment
Read more

The separation of good from evil: Matthew 13.24-30,36-43

Matthew 13.24-30,36-43 We look this morning at a parable Jesus told about the Kingdom on God (Matthew talks of Kingdom of heaven but others speak of it as the Kingdom of God) 1. In this world, good and evil grow together. ‘The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; 38the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one, 39and the enemy who sowed them is the devil’ (v37) The Son of Man (Jesus) sows the good seed. In the first story that Jesus tells in Matthew, the seed is the Word of God, and different kinds of people are like the different soils which receive the seed. Here the illustration changes a bit, and we become the seed. There is good seed and there is weed, evil, seed. This story is not explaining why there is evil. It is simply telling us that there is evil and that it was sown by the enemy of God. And it tells us that there is good and there is bad. There are people who have their face turned towards ...
Post a Comment
Read more

On infant baptism

Children are a gift from God. And as always with God’s gifts to us, they are completely and totally undeserved. You have been given the astonishing gift of Benjamin, and the immense privilege and joy of loving him for God, and of bringing him up for God. Our greatest desire for our children is to see them grow, be happy, secure, to flourish and be fulfilled, to bring blessing to others, to be part of the family of God and to love God. And in baptism you are placing Benjamin full square in the family of God. I know that those of us here differ in our views about infant baptism. The belief and the practice of the Church of England is in line with that of the historic church, but also – at the time of the Reformation – of Calvin and the other so-called ‘magisterial reformers’ (which is also the stance taken in the Westminster confession).  They affirmed, on the basis of their covenantal theology, which sees baptism as a new covenant version of circumcision, of Mark 10:13-16 , and ...
Post a Comment
Read more