Year A - Good Friday (April 22, 2011)

from Jesus Is Alive published by Augsburg Publishing House, 1977

Good Friday is often the very last day of the church year when we expect and plan for children in the sanctuary.  The story for the day is so filled with violence, evil and death which we barely understand ourselves, that we hardly know how to share it with children.  But, the story is there and it is the heart story of the faith.  Indeed, it is impossible to jump over the Passion going directly from the Palm Sunday parade to Easter joy without wondering what the big deal is.  When our children walk through the crucifixion story with us, they make sense of the whole Holy Week saga and they are prepared to face the violence and evil that they will surely encounter in their own world.

Children need to hear the Passion stories with the Easter stories.  For preschoolers the story goes something like, “There were people who were angry with Jesus.  They were so angry they killed him.  Jesus’ friends were very sad.  They cried and cried.  But God had a wonderful surprise.  On Easter Jesus was alive again.  His friends were very, very, surprised and happy!”  They really follow the emotions rather than the facts of the story.  Every year as the church walks through the story, children add more details.  They slowly collect the list of people who contributed to Jesus pain and death.  In their adolescence they begin to identify ways they also betray and deny God’s love.

Especially on Good Friday, children gain more from hearing and pondering the story than on hearing theological explanations of its significance.  Sacrifice, mercy, grace, salvation, atonement, etc. are abstract words that very quickly lose them.  By exploring the details of the story and thinking about the experience of different people in the story, children will come to some of the same ideas that the theological vocabulary attempts to express. 

Remember this when selecting hymns.  “Were You There When They Crucified My Lord” with its simple, concrete story telling is probably the best Good Friday song for children.  Be cautious with hymns that sing of the cross metaphorically, e.g. “In the Cross of Christ I Glory.”  Children simply don't understand what they sing.  Still, every congregation sings some of these songs with a depth of feeling that communicates to children that this is a very important song, e.g. “O Sacred Head Now Wounded” in some congregations.  Children will try to sing these songs just to be part of the congregation and grow into them over the years.

My book Sharing the Easter Faith With Children  includes the following Good Friday resources:

-     Commentary on the Passion stories from children’s point of view and a description of how children understand the Passion-Easter stories from infancy through age 12

-     Directions for sharing the story with congregational responses

-      Directions for a family service focused on a Tenebrae featuring a prop for each story that is covered with a black napkin after the story is read

-      Directions for a stations of the cross type experience called "Journey to Jerusalem"

-     Directions for children's events that combime worship with cross crafts on Good Friday

-     Suggestions about how to encourage families who will not worship at the church on Good Friday to observe the day at home (or on the road)

The biblical story is so long and complex that additional “children’s stories” are hardly needed.  But the following books might prove useful;

The Tale of Three Trees, retold by Angela Elwell Hunt, describes the dreams of three trees.  Each dream comes true, but as the trees expected them, in the life of Jesus.

Peter’s First Easter, by Walter Wangerin, Jr., tells the stories of Holy Week from Peter’s point of view.  It is too long to read entirely, but one or two specific stories could be read.

Finding the Fruits of Peace: Cain and Abel, by Sandy Eisenberg Sasso, explores the sin and evil between the two brothers.  It could be used as a partner story to the crucifixion to explore how we act like the villains in both stories today.  (Yes, it’s a bit of a stretch.  But, it might have possibilities.)

John 18:1- 19:42

This is of course the key story of the day.  But it is verrrrry long.  For children, break it up interspersing pieces of the story with liturgy. 

Go to  http://worshipingwithchildren.blogspot.com/2011/01/year-holy-or-maundy-thursday-april.html for directions for including children in a Tenebrae.

In Sharing the Easter Faith With Children I give detailed directions for a stations of the cross event for elementary children.  This could be a worship service during which worshipers travel together from site to site to hear the Passion stories.  Or, the sites could be set up as worship centers to be visited by families on their own any time on Good Friday.  (Look for the directions in the Palm/Passion Sunday chapter.)

Go to http://www.homiliesbyemail.com/Special/friday/sounds.txt for an order of worship featuring the sounds of Good Friday.  This particular service is a three hour watch service intended mainly for adults.  But I can see it being wonderfully adapted for services including children.  Perhaps a youth class or group could create a recording of the sounds for each reading.  If they worked on one story each week reading the story and creating the tape in would be a deep Lenten experience for them.

Help children follow the order of worship by printing a small clip art picture related to the story next to each reading.

In John’s gospel Jesus is almost in charge of everything that happens.  Children who depend on adults to be in charge of the world around them especially appreciate this view of Jesus.  They like that he just took the violence, that he forgave the thief and the crowd, that he took care of his mother.  This is the same Jesus they know and love in all the other gospel stories. 

Isaiah 52: 13-53:12

If they are told that many people think this description of a suffering servant is a lot like Jesus on Good Friday, children can listen for words and phrases that connect to the Passion stories.

Psalm 22

Introduce this simply as a prayer Jesus might have prayed on the cross.  Encourage listeners to listen for words that tell how Jesus might have felt on the cross and for words that might have given him comfort and hope on the cross.

It begins “my God why have you forsaken me (“left me on my own when I needed you” to children)” and ends with a statement of great faith in God.  Point out that it is a good prayer to remember when we feel abandoned and hopeless and stuck.  Jesus felt that way on the cross, but still trusted God.

Hebrews 4:14-16, 5:7-9

The image of Jesus as high priest is foreign to Protestant children who do not have a "priest" leading their congregation.  Children who know a priest will interpret this image to mean Jesus is sort of  "super priest" and see Jesus as being and doing a lot like the priests they know.  (Some of you who  worship in priest led congregations, may want to weigh in on this in the Comments.) 

To understand the writer's message in his terms, we must understand the Old Testament sacrificial theology.  Even when they are given the facts today's children are confused.  They ask unanswerable questions like, “Why do we have to forgive people for free, but God has to have a sacrifice to forgive us?”  “Why would killing an animal make God happy?”  Jesus may come out looking OK, but God looks rather scary.  Given this I think that this is one image of Jesus that needs to wait until later – much later.

Hebrews 10:16-25

Children see very drippy, red images when reading about "entering the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus."  For them verse 17b "I will remember their sins and lawless deeds no more" is the most useful commentary on the Passion.  Jesus was killed, but he forgave everyone involved in it and he he promises to forgive us.  The stories of Jesus forgiving the thief and the crowd are amazing, but make sense to children.  If Jesus could forgive them, we can trust him to forgive us as well.  That is the very heart of the Good Friday message for children.