Purple Robe: Resurrection {Day 3}

Today’s activity is with SIGHT. We read Matthew 26:47-68, 27:11-31  which is very very long, so I jumped around a bit. The basic story I wanted them to hear was Jesus being arrested and taken to the High Priests and then to Pilate and finally handed over to the Roman Soldiers.

When we got to the details of Jesus being handed over to the Roman soldiers (27:17-31), the kids were very serious. We talked about each section: whipping Jesus, taking off his clothes, putting on a purple robe, crown of thorns,  hitting him with a stick and making fun of him.

I didn’t go into detail about what that would do to Jesus’ body and how horrific it was. I didn’t show them The Passion of the Christ. But I didn’t skirt it either. I know some people don’t think kids should hear those details until they are older. But I think it’s important for kids to know the whole story. Kids only understand things on their level–when I hear the word “whip”, I think of something completely different than a 6 year old does.

What we really focused on was the purple robe. We talked about how purple is the color of royalty (Lydia really knows about this as its’ from her namesake!) and how the Roman Soldiers were mocking Jesus with that robe. We wondered if Jesus was embarrassed when they took his clothes and put on the robe? Did it hurt when they hit him? Was he sad when they were making fun of him?

Then I asked, “Is Jesus really a king?” They answered with a resounding YES! So we made a purple decoration to remind us of our King of Kings. The King that was gentle and humble enough to be made fun of–but strong enough to endure it all and be alive today!

I was hoping all of our activities for this series could be a big EXPERIENCE even more than a craft. I love the idea of hanging something up on the walls or in our house to stay until Easter Sunday. In my head I was thinking about this fun door my friend Valerie from Inner Child Fun made with her kids. Then I saw this post about cellophane stained glass windows at The Crafty Crow and knew this would be perfect!

So, we headed to Michael’s to buy a roll of purple cellophane. (It was about $1.50 with my 40% off coupon!) When we got home I grabbed the scissors and started cutting small squares and a few hearts from the cellophane.

While I did this the kids spread a 2-part soap, 1-part water solution on the window. It was pretty fun.

Once the soap was applied and their hands were dry, we stuck the cellophane pieces to the window in the shape of a cross! It looks really pretty and is a beautiful reminder of Jesus’ royalty and His sacrifice!

I wish I had bought some other colors of cellophane so we could have covered the rest of the door and made a giant stained glass window!

I pray every time we pass that window and SEE the purple cross, we will remember our royal King Jesus and His love for us!

ps–like how I cut Jesus’ name out of cellophane (see top pic)? Here’s a tutorial for cutting letters out of paper–freehand!

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