The Cross (Matthew 27; Mark 15; Luke 23; John 19)

Story contributed by Kristen

Click here for the theological background of Matthew 27; Mark 15; Luke 23; John 19

Remember, repetition helps children internalize and make connections. It might be a good idea to read the same story every day for a week. You can add different activities every day.

Some women were watching from a distance … In Galilee these women had followed him and cared for his needs.
Mark 15:40-41

Today’s story is very sad. It is a story you already know. It is the story of the day Jesus died.

Do you remember what happened? The people who were afraid of losing their power took Jesus. They accused him of being a liar. And they said he should die. They turned him over to the Roman soldiers who hurt him, and made him carry his cross, and nailed him there to die.

Jesus’ mother was there, and Mary Magdalene, and Salome, and some of Jesus’ other friends. There was nothing they could do. They just watched, and waited. Maybe they cried, maybe they prayed, maybe they hoped something would happen to stop the awful suffering of their beloved Jesus.

It was a long day. But though they did not know what to say, or what to do, and though they felt their hearts were breaking, they did not leave. They stayed with Jesus until the very end.

When his body could take no more, Jesus looked up to the vast, open sky. He closed his eyes and thought of the tree in the garden of Gethsemane. And he took one last, deep breath of beautiful air. And then he died.

They took his body down from the cross. The women wrapped him in soft white clothes. They wiped away the sweat and the dirt and the blood. They stroked his hair and his cheeks. They carried his body to a tomb, and they laid him gently inside. Then they rolled the stone over the door.

Mary, Jesus’ mother, lingered behind. She remembered the day Jesus was born. She thought of his first tiny cry, and how he nuzzled close to her, and nursed, and slept that first starry night. She thought of his life, full of kindness and compassion, and she looked up at the sky. The sun was setting over Jerusalem, sinking into orange and gold beyond the trees. The cross still stood, high on the hill, and Mary knew it would be there tomorrow. She put her hand on the door of the tomb, and she took a breath as deep as a prayer, and she turned around, and walked home.

Ideas for Play

Contributed by Kristen

Act it out (Play may be a way for your child(ren) to really make sense of this story, though it might be uncomfortable for you! We suggest resisting the urge to narrate the story or edit their play, hard as this can be!)

See our Easter resources for a video, great books, music, art, and poetry about this day!

Create art about this scene. Maybe the cross, the tomb, Mary, or something else. Collage style from a religious magazine may be fun and helpful.

Talk about being sad. When have you noticed someone else who was sad? How did you feel? What can we do when someone near us is sad?

Make hot cross buns and discuss the symbol of the cross

Poetry

Compiled by Caroline

C.S. Lewis Giclee Print, by Celery Jones

C.S. Lewis is best known as a Christian apologist and children’s author, but not many have read his poetry, which I will try to rectify this instant by sharing one of my favorite poems of his. Lewis’ ‘Love’s as warm as tears’ draws on the four elements—water, fire, air, and earth—to evoke a deep sense of human and divine love. The poem culminates with ‘earth’ and Malcolm Guite writes on what this poem does so effectively, which is “…to take a cliche, which is ‘dead language that won’t lie down’, wake it up, and breathe new life into. So Lewis takes the cliche ‘hard as nails’ and turns it into a key with which to open up the passion.”

And the vision of the passion that it opens up is one of shared suffering and a personal knowledge of what that means. He sees our cross and His. What deeper love could be given?

Here is a recording of the poem:

Love’s as warm as tears

By C.S. Lewis

Love’s as warm as tears,

Love is tears:

Pressure within the brain,

Tension at the throat,

Deluge, weeks of rain,

Haystacks afloat,

Featureless seas between

Hedges, where once was green.

Love’s as fierce as fire,

Love is fire:

All sorts – infernal heat

Clinkered with greed and pride,

Lyric desire, sharp-sweet,

Laughing, even when denied,

And that empyreal flame

Whence all loves came.

Love’s as fresh as spring,

Love is spring:

Bird-song hung in the air,

Cool smells in a wood,

Whispering, “Dare! Dare!”

To sap, to blood,

Telling “Ease, safety, rest,

Are good; not best.”

Love’s as hard as nails,

Love is nails:

Blunt, thick, hammered through

The medial nerves of One

Who, having made us, knew

The thing He had done,

Seeing (with all that is)

Our cross, and His.

~C.S. Lewis, Poems, (1964)

Art

Compiled by Caroline

Looking at someone in pain can be difficult and uncomfortable, but it can also open our hearts to compassion and love. Rather than asking specific questions this week, I would instead like to invite you into a meditation of sorts to encourage our hearts towards compassion and gratitude. Play one of the pieces of music at the bottom of this page and look at one painting for the entire duration of the song. As you look at the painting for an extended period of time, notice what captures your attention, notice where your mind goes, and notice how you feel. Repeat this practice for each painting.