What Would You Have Done?

Categories: Easter (Passion Week)

Ages- Teenagers and above

What would you have done? Would you have stood by Jesus at his trial? Many of us would like to think we would have, but would we really? This exercise helps students consider these important questions.

Begin this exercise by having the students study the Easter story. Break up the class into pairs and assign each pair to a topic or event. Have them use several different Bibles, concordances, and books that give them information on the culture. At the end of class, have them share the information with the whole group. By the end of class, the students should have a solid understanding of the events, people, culture, and mind set related to the Easter story.

For the next class bring prepared index cards to hand out to the students. Each child will pick a card that assigns a character to him. You can make these characters real people from the Bible, or fictitious people of the time period. The information on the cards will have:

• Name - Use names you find in the Bible ( ex. Mary Magdalene, Salome, Martha, Lazarus, Simon the Leper, Joseph, Peter, James, Judas, or Malchus)
• Gender
• Occupation
• Race (Jew or Gentile)
• Believer or nonbeliever in Jesus

Include any other information that would make this character come to life.

Using these characters, have the students ask and explore the above topic. Some sample questions might be:

• How would they respond at the trial?
• How did their stand affect them?
• Were you at the crucifixion?
• What did you think when you heard of Jesus resurrection?
• How did this affect your life?

You can now take this to the next level and ask the students:

• Do you stand by Christ now?
• Are you a disciple?
• How are you following Christ in your daily life?

— Sally S. Johnston