The Readings
Matthew 26
Matthew 27
Matthew 28
Psalm 18
Memory Verse
Matthew 28:5-6: But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for He has risen, as He said. Come, see the place where He lay."
Teachers of young children
In my encouragement to parents, I pushed them to help their children feel the tension of these readings. You, as a teacher, are in a slightly different position: you will have to clean up whatever mess you make. If you lean into the tension, you might drive young ones to a distress you’ll have trouble recovering from in a mixed group. If you play it light (“It’s OK, because Jesus comes back!”) you do children the disservice of thinking there’s always a happy ending, if the cause is right.
My encouragement is for teachers to play it less safe than you think you need to: allow students to understand there is something very painful going on, something very difficult, and that the resurrection was a glorious surprise. You know your kids, but you also know adults well enough to understand that there are some who never get over the fact that “bad stuff happens to good people.” Jesus’ disciples couldn’t believe it either!
With limited time, you’ll surely focus more on chapters 27 and 28: the facts of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Chapter 26, and the first half of 27, provide the path to these events, and you can use them as necessary to set the stage. If you have one shot at this – particularly with kids who don’t come to church except on Easter – you’ll know the most important information to relay to them.
Teachers of older children
In the movie Hoosiers, there’s a pivotal scene when the basketball team from little old Hickory arrives for the state championship game. The coach gives a tape measure to a player who measures the height of the basket: 10 feet, same as it is back home. This might be the biggest stage, with the most people watching, but the game is the same.
I’m especially sensitive to the fact that, if you’re teaching this during Easter Week, you might have a different crowd than usual. Even in our desensitized world, people intuitively know there’s something different about Easter: for some, that “something different” might just be attending church at all!
Now might be the perfect time to not just stick to an expected Easter Script, nor to try for a “Go for Broke” salvation message. Instead, stick with what your students already know to do. Get older kids to engage the story as laid out, just as you do every other week. You want Scripture to do the convincing. And you want your regular students to be comfortable, maybe even proud, to use their practiced skills at reading and understanding with such important and cherished stories.
Teachers of adults
One of the great errors we can make is to be so uncomfortable with the darkness that we don’t allow the light to surprise us. Jesus passed on Friday; He returned on Sunday. What about Saturday – Day Two? When the cacophony of voices and tumult of events of the past week resolved into a realization: Jesus was dead? What was it like to wake up that morning, or the next morning, and know that it was over?
Be. Surprised. Allow the resurrection to relieve you. Just when the old tension had begun to subside, a new one emerges. You thought the story was over, but it is actually just beginning.
How do you accomplish this with adult learners? I have a few suggestions. First, read these stories together; don’t explain them. Refrain from “Actually, this is what was happening at the time…” as much as possible. Let the scenes stand on their own. Second, keep questions on the surface, even, possibly, unaddressed: whatever questions your students have pale in comparison to those Jesus’ followers had, even after his resurrection. And third, allow emotion to come to the surface. Jesus’ death should impact people. The crucifixion and resurrection aren’t just doctrines to be memorized; they are events to be memorialized. Who is God? He is the Ruler over life and death, who sacrifices at will for the sake of those He loves.