Skip to main content

Shadow of the Cross: When Jesus died…he was not alone.



The church often “side-steps” Good Friday with children.  I understand the impulse, but children are so acutely aware of the danger and violence of this world viscerally before verbally. School violence, images on screens, video games, flowers dying in winter… It is often unspoken but ultimately unavoidable.  The Erickson Institute states that “it is, in fact, highly damaging for a child to experience trauma before they have the language skills to create a narrative of their experience.”[i] Therefore, I feel it is important to give children language to talk about the things they see, hear, and notice around them… Especially faith moments like Holy Week and Good Friday.

How would you do that with the story of Jesus’ crucifixion?  Taking my cue from Mr. Rogers, we can “look to the helpers.”[ii]  Jesus died, but he was not alone. His friends were there.  His mother was there.  God was there.  Jesus must have been so scared. His friends must have been so sad. Even then, Jesus was trying to help his friends feel better.  He talked to the other people on the crosses.  He asked a friend to take care of his mother.  Jesus knew that when it would be hard to see him, they could find his love in each other. We can find Jesus' love in each other even today.  We can be a helper in Jesus' name. 

Ask your child to think, how can we help? I wonder how people can see that Jesus loves them by what we do? Look in a mirror and say, “I see a helper. How can we help? What is one way that others can see Jesus’ love in you?” How can we help others know that they are not alone? Giving children language to talk about the feelings and events around them is one way we tell they that they are not alone.


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

And on the seventh day...

Figure 1 http://www.montreat.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Mountains-2-400x250-300x187.jpg We think of “Sabbath” as a time to NOT DO something.  We stop.  We wait.  We rest.  We sit.  However, that is a lot of work!  I think of Sabbath as “making a space.”  It is an active choosing, remembering, and prioritizing a holy space for God.  It is less about “letting go” and more about “leaning in” to the Breath of the Holy Spirit.  In this context Sabbath is a return to our making.  You see, in the beginning “the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being” (Genesis 2:7). It is the breath of the Lord God that stirs dust into human.  It is the breath of the Lord God that makes us living and gives us a life.  Therefore, “Sabbath” – a time for rest and renewal, is an opportunity to reach for that breath of God which gives u...
Post a Comment
Read more

What shall I give Him, poor as I am...

We made it! Christmas is over!  Well, not quite yet, it isn’t.  There are those pesky twelve days of Christmas.  The celebrating could go on and on, if we let it! Goodness, the tree is looking dry and empty without a load of boxes and bags underneath it. The ornaments that were hung with surprise, joy, and fondest memories now look somehow out of place.  Can we for one moment stop, and think about this?  Think about that first rush of joy when a new child is born, when you first really felt the presence of the living God in your life?  What about the first time a young Sunday School class looked at you in awe of the wonderful stories you were telling them?  That moment sparkled with hope that was bursting with possibility!  Here and now in the “ bleak mid-winter ” of post-New Years, to borrow from  Christina Rossetti and hymn 144 in the Presbyterian Hymnal Glory to God , we find ourselves in the sleep deprived, post-adrenaline rush, vi...
Post a Comment
Read more

"Easter is Easy"

Sunday School Lessons can really stick! They inform; they empower! In the hands of a three year old they can create a  precocious theologian who announces on Holy Week that she doesn't understand what all of the fuss is about!  You see I, um...she, understood Easter; Easter is easy for a three year old.  “Jesus got dead.  They put him in a hole, and he got away.”  Out of the mouths of babes…  Perhaps this is an example of why Jesus said we should have the faith of a child (Matthew 18:2-4).  Yes, there are subtleties about HOW Jesus “got dead.” Was he not really dead? There have been crusades over who “they” might be and how did they put him into “a hole.” Where was the hole?  Then there is the argument/discussion about how “he got away.”     What did Jesus look like after “he got away?”  There is childlike humility in hearing the "what" of a story and living into it.   Don't get me wrong! Those ar...
Post a Comment
Read more