The Journey to the Cross - Week 2
This week we continue our journey aboard the Easter Express through the gospel of Mark. Are you ready to dive back into the Bible with us? Don’t forget there are also tasks and craft ideas to complete in your activity book on the theme of this week as well as the devotionals Mon - Fri. If you haven’t got hard copies of these, you can download them here.
Fishers of Men
We learn in Mark 1:16-20 that Jesus starts his ministry by seeking a group of people to journey with him, people that he could teach.
This group of people would become known as his disciples and would later be entrusted to spread Jesus’ teachings far and wide.
Jesus starts with a couple of fishermen called Simon and Andrew. He calls them to follow him and fish for people. It was a big ask - Jesus wants them to leave their jobs and their homes and to trust in Him. He asks them to love Him more than their families.
That is what Jesus wants us to do too: to love Him more than anything we do and more than anyone else.
Jesus also wants us to tell everyone we know about how amazing He is so that we can ‘catch them’ like fish and encourage them to follow Him.
Let’s Worship
In a moment, we are going to learn about an incredible miracle that Jesus performed, where he not only heals a man but also forgives him of all his sins - that’s the stuff he messed up in his life that separated him from God. Jesus shows us who He is here. He has the power to heal and to forgive. He has God’s power because He is God. Let’s praise our incredible Father in Heaven now.
Jesus Heals the Paralysed Man
In this video, Katy will tell us the story of how Jesus heals a paralysed man in more ways than one (Mark 2:1-12 NIV).
So the important thing to recognise in this story is that Jesus does not choose to heal the man’s body first; He chooses to heal his heart.
Having Jesus’ forgiveness and cleansing from sins (all the messes and mistakes he’d made) was a much greater gift to the man than having Jesus heal his body. But when Jesus said this, some of the people listening to him got upset. They believed Jesus was just an ordinary man; they did not believe He had the power to forgive sins, so they saw Him as a liar. In their hearts, they thought, “Who can forgive sins but God alone?”.
The thing is - we know that Jesus is God. That’s why He has authority to forgive sins. In fact, Jesus forgiving the paralysed man’s sins was even more amazing than allowing him to walk.
Craft - Jesus’ Healing Hands
Jesus used his hands to perform the most incredible miracles from healing a paralysed man, the blind or a person suffering with leprosy. He even used them to raise someone from the dead. But we can use our hands to help other people too by doing chores or even just by giving someone a hug who really needs it.
Why not make a poster a bit like this one?
Draw around your hands or use paint to create hand prints.
Decorate your hands with anything you like e.g. glitter, stickers, feathers, pom poms, sequins.
Copy the line: Jesus’ Hands Help Others, So Can Mine! underneath your hands.
Display your masterpiece!
Stretcher Slalom Challenge
In the story of the paralysed man, his devoted friends carry the man on a stretcher. So keen are they for him to be seen by Jesus, they lift him up to the roof of the house in which Jesus was preaching. It can’t have been easy. Then they make a hole in the roof and lower him down. All of this would have required a lot of strength and agility on the friends’ part.
Annabelle and her husband Will test their agility by carrying a teddy on a stretcher made from a beach towel around an obstacle course in their garden. Why don’t you have a go at this and time yourselves?!
More to Watch
Here is some more brilliant video content that brings this part of Mark’s Gospel to life.
Let’s Pray
Jesus continues to offer His forgiveness to all of us who come to Him, believing He is God, and trusting Him to make us clean. When we believe and trust in Jesus, we have faith in Him. Jesus loves you. He wants to know you, and He wants you to know Him. Every time you learn something new about Jesus, you are coming to know Him more and growing in your faith.
Lord Jesus,
Thank you so much for loving me.
Please forgive me for the stuff I’ve done wrong. I am truly sorry.
Please cleanse my heart so that I can start afresh.
In your name I pray,
Amen.
