3-26-18 PALM SUNDAY

They took the palm leaves in their soft little hands, excited by the newness of the experience; these little Mormon children, gathered on a Sunday morning in our cozy little church. And even though it was a snowy Palm Sunday here in Farmington, Utah, they imagined they were on a dusty road in old Jerusalem. They listened intently as Rebecca testified of the event that took place millennia ago, when Jesus made his Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem on the back of that beast of burden. I joined them as they sang: Hosanna! Hosanna! All hail triumphant King!, my hand leading them with a palm frond waving to the beat.

I have the dearest calling in the church, Primary Chorister, and since it has been well over three years I have been doing it this time around, I fear this may be my last Palm Sunday with them. This makes my heart heavy. And so, with my Primary president sister beside me (Libby), and my Primary teacher husband (Dave) and other sister who also teaches Primary (Sherry...we are getting close to having a monopoly on the Primary in our family!) we spent our Sharing Time teaching our kids about the Holy Week preceding the holiest of holidays in the Christian calendar, Easter. 

I grew up Mormon in a Pennsylvania town where we were the anomaly. My best friends were Jewish, Methodist, Presbyterian, and agnostic. I was the only Mormon in my class. I married a man who converted to Mormonism from an ancient Catholic family. Hung on the wall in our family room are the gold cross that belonged to his father and the rosary beads that belonged to his mother. We cherish our faithful Christian heritage. The days between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday, back in our Eastern town, were not just those days that transitioned from winter to spring, they represented the time when Christians realigned their souls with God. I compare it to taking my car in yearly to have it's wheels aligned. Driving along in life tends to get our alignment out of whack, going over all the bumps and potholes our human experience throws at us. A regular alignment is healthy. And so I require hard things of myself during this Lenten season (like this blog writing I do every day of Lent). The whole exercise culminates in this HOLY WEEK that we have just entered.

I am surprised at how few Mormons celebrate the events of the Holy Week. Our kids, many of them, do not know what Palm Sunday is, or Maundy Thursday or even Good Friday. And it takes a real devoted family to help a kid understand that Easter is something so much more than a basket and a magic bunny. I can do something about that in my little world.

So, with our blessed stewardship to teach the children in our congregation about Jesus, we took the opportunity to explain not only Palm Sunday, but other events of the week that lead up to Easter. We do something similar every year. Repetition. Repetition. 
This is what we did:

We invited some of our favorite grown-up humans to act the parts of people who had witnessed Jesus doing what Jesus did. An "attorney" presented these witnesses before a judge. It was handy for us, because my husband is actually a state court judge, and besides already being in Primary with us, he has the robes. But any old suit would do, or a black graduation gown. The witnesses attired themselves and brought props. We supplied empty plastic eggs and tiny tokens for them to hand out to the kids. We ordered palm leaves ahead of time. And the final preparation was to ask each person to pray for the Holy Ghost to join our cast.

Every one of our actors did a beautiful job.

And so did the Holy Ghost.

(I've included the script below, following the pictures from our Sharing Time. All the classes came together for this activity)

_________________

Our Palm Sunday table.

His Honor, the Judge
aka Bro. Connors

Rebecca - aka Sis. Gardiner

Believers waving palm leaves

Swearing-in the witnesses before they testify

Peter, aka Bro. Richins, tells of washing feet

Malchus, aka Bro. Gardiner.
His ear looks perfectly normal!

Mary, the mother of Jesus, aka. Sis. Marsh

Mary Magdalene, aka. Sis. Halliday

The witnesses and the judge sing with all the believers:
I'm Trying to Be like Jesus

If I had been there, I would have
 had a palm in my palm!

_____________________________________________________________

WE WERE THERE - WITNESSES from the HOLY WEEK

A PALM SUNDAY READERS THEATRE for children 

(script may be ad-libbed via study and inspiration, of course) 

Cori Connors

 Approx. 40 minutes long, with songs

Actors come dressed for their parts.

JUDGE

ATTORNEY       

REBECCA (PALM SUNDAY Triumphal Entry)

PETER (THURSDAY Last Supper)

MALCHUS a guard or servant (THURSDAY NIGHT Gethsemane)

MARY, the MOTHER OF JESUS (GOOD FRIDAY at the cross)

MARY MAGDALENE (EASTER SUNDAY at the Tomb)

CHORISTER: leads songs and ties it together at the end

Hand out a plastic egg to each child. Each witness gives them something to put in their egg

1.    piece of palm (representing Palm Sunday, Triumphal Entry)

2.    piece of fabric (representing the Last Supper)

3.    coin (representing Judas' betrayal, and the miracles of Gethsemane)

4.    nail or cross (representing the Crucifixion) (I got small wooden crosses from Hobby Lobby)

5.    rock (representing the Resurrection)

Bailiff: ORDER IN THE COURT! Judge ____________ presiding. All Rise!

Judge enters.

Judge: Good afternoon. You may be seated. We are here today to address the accusation that Jesus Christ was not real. We are looking for witnesses that can prove this to be right or wrong.

Attorney: 

Your Honor, I am here to bring to your courtroom witnesses from long ago. People who will testify that they actually saw Jesus.

I’d like to call my first witness, a woman who was there when Jesus returned to Jerusalem. She saw him on Sunday.

Chorister will lead kids in song after each witness.

WITNESSES 1: Rebecca

Props: palms, cut pieces of palms to hand out

I was there in Jerusalem the day the Messiah rode in on a small donkey. It was a beautiful Sunday. There were many of us who believed he was the Spiritual King called the Messiah. We all gathered along the side of the street to watch him ride into the city.  We waved palm leaves, like servant’s wave before kings, and then we laid the leaves and our coats down on the street so his donkey could walk over them, like a royal carpet. This was called the Triumphal Entry. 

I was there, and I saw Jesus! Here are some leaves of the Palm Tree to remind you we still remember.  Today is known as Palm Sunday.

Hand out palms. One strand for each child and teacher, and one small piece for each egg.

Palms can be ordered on the Internet, $10 - $15 or at Catholic supply stores. Order these ahead of time to be safe.

Song: Hosanna #66

Attorney: Your Honor. Our second witness is a man named Peter, who was an apostle and good friend of Jesus. He saw him on Thursday.

WITNESS 2: Peter, the apostle of Jesus Christ:

Props: Bread, water, pitcher of water and basin for washing feet , pieces of fabric to hand out
I was there, on Thursday night. We were tired, and hungry. Our meeting with Jesus was an important one. We met upstairs in an Inn, and we sat around a large table. Jesus taught us, and we sang hymns, and we prayed. Then Jesus took a loaf of bread and broke it, telling us to repeat this often so we would remember that he let his body die for us. Then he poured drink in a cup and told us to drink it often to remember his blood was spilled for us. We did not know then that he would die the very next day. Now we take the sacrament to remember him. 
After dinner Jesus took a pitcher of clean water and asked us to let him wash our dirty feet. I did not want him to do this, because I should have been the one to wash HIS feet, because he was our Master and King. But he told me that I must let him do this for me. Jesus washed the feet of all his disciples there on Thursday night.  On that night he also gave us a new commandment, to love one another the same way he loved us. I was there, and I am a witness. Let this piece of cloth remind you that he cleaned the feet of the disciples, and I was one of them. 
Hand out pieces of cloth 
Song: Love One Another #136

Attorney: Your honor. Our next witness was a guard who was there to arrest Jesus at the Garden of Gethsemane, very late Thursday night.
WITNESS 3: Malchus (a servant of the High Priest)  
Props: coins to hand out
I was there, on Thursday night, after that supper was over. We had given thirty pieces of silver to one of Jesus’ followers named Judas, so he would take us to Jesus. Judas was a false friend to Jesus, and he told us where to find him so we could arrest him for saying he was God. It was against the law to say you are God. 
We found Jesus in the Garden called Gethsemane, late at night. He had been praying, and was weak and seemed to have been bleeding. He was very sad. When we took him, one of his friends named Peter tried to stop us. He took his sword and cut off my ear. We were about to arrest him, too, when Jesus took the ear, placed it back on my head, and miraculously healed it. See, does it not look completely healed?  I do not know who this man was, or what great power he had to heal me, but I was there on Thursday night, and I witness that it happened. 
Hand out coins. 
SONG: Gethsemane (sheet music at Hoffmanhouse.com)

Attorney: Your honor. Our final two witnesses are both named Mary. They both knew Jesus very well.

WITNESS 4: Mary, the Mother of Jesus
Props: nail, cross, crown of thorns , crosses or nails to hand out
I am Mary, the mother of Jesus. I was there on the day he was born, and I was there on Good Friday, the day he died. I loved him, and he loved me. I was a witness to his suffering, and a witness to his death. Soldiers has laid a large wooden cross on the ground, and then they nailed the hands and feet of my beloved son to the wood. They raised the cross and placed it in the ground. The weight of the body of my son caused him to not be able to breathe unless he pushed on his feet. Soon he was so weak he could no longer hold himself up by the nail in his feet. They had placed a thorny crown on his head, and they pierced his side with a spear, so that his blood fell like water to the earth. My son could have used his divine power to destroy those who hurt him. Instead, he asked Heavenly Father to forgive them, because they did not understand what they were doing. I am Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ. I am a witness that he lived. I testify that He is the son of God. I loved him, and though it broke my heart, I watched him die on that cross. I was there! 
Hand out nails or cross. 
Song: He Sent His Son #34

Witness 5: Mary Magdalene 
Props: folded white sheet, small rocks to hand out
I, too, was there! But at first I did not see Him! I am Mary Magdalene. I knew Jesus well. He was my friend, and I believed what he taught me about God. I was there when Jesus was working as a teacher and leader, telling people to do good and love one another. I wept when Jesus died, and I helped prepare his body for burial.
Then, on Easter Sunday, I visited the tomb where Jesus was buried. There was a large stone that kept the tomb closed, but when I went to visit it on Sunday, the stone was rolled away. I looked in the tomb and saw that his body was gone. There was nothing there but these folded robes that we had put around him after He died. I thought someone had stolen him, and so I fell to the ground and wept. As I was crying I heard a voice from behind me. “Why are you crying?” it said. I answered: Because they have taken my Lord and I don’t know where. 
Then the voice gently said my name…Mary. I recognized it as the voice of my friend, Jesus. I turned to touch him, and he told me not to, that he still needed to go see his Heavenly Father. I was so surprised to see him. He was ALIVE. He was resurrected, with a new body that looked just like him. He promised that one day I too would be resurrected, … that we all would. 
I am Mary Magdalene, a friend of Jesus, and I was there on Easter Sunday. I saw the stone rolled away, and I saw the Resurrected Christ with my own eyes.      
Hand out stones. 

Attorney: Your Honor, these witnesses have all seen Jesus, and they testify that He was the Savior.
Judge: It appears that there are many witnesses who saw Jesus enter Jerusalem on a donkey, kneel in the Garden of Gethsemane, die on the cross, and return resurrected. I believe he really is OUR SAVIOR.

Chorister: Briefly review what each item in the eggs represents. Ask kids what each item means, and tell them if they don’t recall correctly.

SONG: I’m Trying to Be Like Jesus #78