Sunday School Lesson for Children

Trial and death of Jesus

When your students come in the room greet them and introduce any new students to the class. You can ask them how their week has been and if anyone has any prayer requests. Then let the students pray over the requests and the lesson. Next you will do an icebreaker to warm up the children for the lesson.

Ice breaker

For the ice breaker you will play ‘would you rather’. Would you rather, is a game that gives you two options to pick from. Whichever option you would rather do is the option you will pick. Feel free to ask more questions such as: Which requires more faith? Why did you choose this one?

Would you rather questions:

1 Would you rather get thrown into a lion’s den or a furnace?

2 Would you rather fight Goliath or wonder in the desert for 40 years?

3 Would you rather stand up to Pharaoh or Nebuchadnezzar?

4 Would you rather be a fisherman or tax collector?

5 Would you rather see Jesus feed 5,000 or heal the blind?

6 Would you rather see Jesus as a baby or His resurrection?

7 Would you rather see Jesus walk on water or raise Lazarus from the dead?

Lesson

Start off the lesson by asking the students if they have ever been blamed for something that they did not do? Ask them how it felt to be blamed? Today we will be learning about someone who was blamed for something He did not do. Does anyone know who I am talking about? Jesus! Does anyone know what Good Friday is? It is the day Jesus died on the cross. Today we will be talking about Jesus, His trial, and His death on the cross.

After the Last supper, Jesus went to the garden of Gethsemane to pray with his disciples. As He was praying, soldiers came to arrest Him. They tied Him up and took Him to the religious leaders. First, to Annas the former high priest. Annas tried to get Jesus to admit to false teachings. When Jesus would not do this, they struck Him and sent Him to Caiaphas. He asked Jesus if he was Christ. Jesus answered him, ” I am”. For this they charged Him with blasphemy, which is punishable by death. He then was blindfolded and beaten. The religious leaders sent him to Rome and demanded that He be crucified. Pilate, the Roman Govenor, did not want to kill Jesus. He felt that Jesus did not deserve to be crucified. He sent Jesus to another governor named Herod Antipas. This governor made fun of Jesus by putting a crown of thorns on His head. They also put a robe on Him to make fun of Him for being called the King of the Jews. Then they sent Him back to Pilate. Pilate’s wife had a dream about Jesus. The dream showed Jesus to be innocent. Pilate decided to give the people a choice. He let the crowd choose someone to be let free from prison. The choices were Jesus or Barabbas, who was a murderer. The crowd chose Barabbas to be freed and Jesus to be crucified. Pilate had enough at this point and washed his hands signifying Jesus’s blood was not on him. Then Pilate gave Jesus over to be crucified. The soldiers beat Jesus with a whip, then made Him carry his own cross. (Historians believe the distance He had to carry the cross was 2,000 ft and that it could have weighed around 300 pounds!) Jesus was so weak that He could not carry the cross the whole way by Himself, so Simon of Cyrene helped him. Then the soldiers hung him on the cross to die.

Now read Mattew 27:45-54

45 Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land.

46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”

47 Some of those who stood there, when they heard that, said, “This Man is calling for Elijah!”

48 Immediately one of them ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed, and offered it to Him to drink.

49 The rest said, “Let Him alone; let us see if Elijah will come to save Him.”

50 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up His spirit.

51 Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split,

52 and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised;

53 and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many.

54 So when the centurion and those with him, who were guarding Jesus, saw the earthquake and the things that had happened, they feared greatly, saying, “Truly this was the Son of God!”

This scripture mentions the veil being torn. This veil was a thick curtain in the temple that separated the Holy of Holies from the rest of the temple. Only the High priest could go behind the curtain into the Holy of Holies once a year on the Day of Atonement. The veil was torn from top to bottom the moment Jesus died. This opened it to where all of Gods people could go into the Holy of Holies. Now, we can once again have a relationship with God directly, after the fall of Adam.

Questions

• Why did they kill Jesus?
• Why did Pilate wash his hands?
• What happened after Jesus died?
• What is so good about good Friday?
• Why was the veil in the temple torn in two?