What would it have been like to stand on Calvary Hill that afternoon? Use this Passion of Jesus Bible Lesson to discuss the events and people of the crucifixion.
Scripture Focus: Luke 23:26, 32-56; John 19:38-42
Materials: Inductive Bible Study Form; a rough log or firewood; 3 long nails; hammer
Geography: Jerusalem
Background: The ministry of Jesus is at an end. After three years of traveling, preaching, teaching, healing, and casting out demons, the Jewish leaders arrested Jesus through the help of Judas, one of Jesus’ own disciples. After a mock trial and beatings, Jesus carried His own cross as far as He could. He was unrecognizable after the beatings. His blood flowed down his body and into the sand as he struggled up the hill called Calvary. Can you picture it?
Object Lesson for The Passion of Jesus:
{Show the log and ask:}
- What is this? [piece of wood]
{Choose a volunteer and carefully have them hold it. We don’t want splinters! Ask:}
- How would you describe this wood? [Rough, heavy, dirty, Allow for answers]
- If you had to carry this a long distance, what do you think would happen? [Arms would start hurting, skin would get scratched, might get splinters, back would start to hurt, become sweaty, Allow for Answers]
After seeing Pilot, Jesus was taken away to be crucified. He had been whipped and beaten so much that scripture tells us that He was not recognizable. He probably had lost a lot of blood. When people lose blood they become weak and their muscles do not work well.
This must have happened to Jesus because the soldiers had another man, named Simon of Cyrene, carry Jesus’ cross the remaining portion of the way to Calvary. This is an example of Jesus being fully human.
{Ask:}
- At any time could Jesus have said, “Nope. I’m not going to do this anymore. You may not hit me again.” What made Him not do this? [He loved us.]
- Could Jesus have called angels to come let Him go? [Yes]
- Could Jesus have just vanished? [Yes]
{Have the room be quiet. Begin to hammer the 3 nails into the wood. If your group is small enough, allow the kids to come one at a time to strike a nail with the hammer. Be sure to help the little children, and have the older ones not hit too hard. If you have a large group, choose 3-4 children to use the hammer.}
Jesus was God AND man. Jesus chose to place His God-ness to the side and be human. He could have stopped all of this at any time. But He did not.
He chose to have nails driven through His wrists and feet. He chose to allow sinful men to beat Him and spit in His face. Jesus chose to hang on the cross and He could have vanished at any time.
Two men were crucified on either side of Jesus. One of them mocked and blasphemed (to say mean words about God) Jesus. But the other man recognized who Jesus was. We have no idea how this man knew Who Jesus was. Maybe Jesus was so famous that even criminals knew about Him.
The Jewish people keep time slightly different than we do. They begin their 24 hours at 6:00am. In this scripture, the sixth hour would have been twelve noon. And there was darkness until the ninth hour, which would have been 3:00pm.
{Ask:}
- We don’t know how dark, but what would you think if the sky went dark when you were eating your lunch and didn’t become light again until the afternoon? [Allow for answers]
- What if the sun went dark? [Allow for answers]
Around 3:00pm in the afternoon it was still dark, and the veil in the temple was torn into two pieces. Jesus cried out, “Into Your hands I place My Spirit.” Then He died.
A centurion was watching all of this. He began to glorify God and exclaimed, “Surely this was a righteous man!”
The crowd that had been gawking and sneering at Jesus watched what had happened and then turned away beating their chests. When people beat their chests like this, usually it is out of mourning.
{Ask:}
- What did Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus do? [Took Jesus off the cross and placed Him in the tomb.]
- Who were they? [disciples of Jesus, both were of the Jewish counsel and believed in Jesus]
Both men were of the Jewish Leadership. Scripture tells us that Joseph was a disciple of Jesus.
Both men knew the Jewish law. It was the time of Passover. It was the Friday before the Sabbath…yet they touched a dead body. This made them ceremonially unclean.
But it didn’t bother them, because they understood what had happened on the cross. They must have known their sin was no longer on them, but on Jesus.
They were touching the unclean body that made THEM clean. They knew that loving their Lord was more important than the Law. They were not afraid to get their hands dirty and serve the needs of Jesus.
Jesus was the Sacrifice. The Lamb who took away the sins of the world. Jesus died for all, but it’s only when we believe that He did, that we can become friends with God and deal with our sin problem.
Application of The Passion of Jesus:
The second criminal asked Jesus to remember him when Jesus entered His Kingdom. Jesus told the criminal that he would be in Paradise with Him that day. This is an example of salvation through faith. That criminal could do nothing for Jesus. He couldn’t be baptized. He couldn’t do good works. All the man could do is surrender his heart and will to Jesus through faith.
{Show the wood with the nails.}
You are a sinner. I am a sinner. You helped to hammer the nails into the wood of the cross. If we say we do not have sin, then we are lying ourselves. God can have nothing to do with sin because He is holy. BUT! if you believe that Jesus was fully God and fully human, and without sin then you have a saving faith.
Which criminal do you want to be like? They both were sinners, like you. Yet one believed and the other did not.
Once you choose to have a saving faith in Jesus, then your salvation is known BY your works. The book of James tells us that faith without works is dead. Think of Joseph and Nicodemus. They acted on their faith.
Are we willing to get our hands dirty when serving others?
Are we willing to step out from the angry crowd and tell others by our actions that we are disciples of Jesus? Nicodemus carried 100 pounds of spices in order to prepare Jesus’ body for burial. That was expensive and heavy.
Are we willing to give up our money to help others? Are we willing to do hard work to help others?
{Ask:}
- List some ways that you can show your faith by your actions. [Allow for answers; obey parents, use kind words, sit with someone who is alone, do work without complaining, etc.]
What is God saying to us? When Jesus, who was God, died on the cross, He revealed to people that He loves all of us enough to die a horrible death so that we can have a complete relationship with God again.
Be sure to check out Mateo’s Choice, a perfect book to give to children who are learning what it means to follow Jesus.
This lesson is linked to The Jesus Storybook Interactive Activities. Be sure to check out the other lessons! Click the image below.
Thank you to Holly Howard for the images from Jerusalem!
