Greetings Beloved Families:
This story is found in your Bible Chronicles on page 247 and is based on Luke 22:7-39 and John 1:3-8 in your Bibles. This powerful story helps us prepare our minds and hearts for Holy Week before we celebrate His Resurrection on Easter Sunday.
VIDEOS:
The Eucharist Song by Frank Anderson (Play before you start)
Jesus Enters Jerusalem on a Donkey (Palm Sunday)
Jesus has the LAST SUPPER with his disciples
The Last Supper for YOUNG children!
IMPORTANT: FOLLOW THESE STEPS FOR EVERY FAMILY GROUP SESSION!
(Before every FAMILY GROUP STUDY….welcome everyone to this special time with God. Ask how God is blessing each one and if there are any pray needs or practical ways the group can offer support. Be sure to pray for the requests immediately and figure out the practical support right after this time in God’s Presence.). Take turns leading each step below.
1. OPENING PRAYER
In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, One GOD, AMEN.
Almighty God, open our minds and hearts to your wisdom and understanding and help us passionately learn and grow closer to you and the amazing new life you offer us as we read and share your stories revealed in the Bible with others. AMEN
2. STUDY THE PICTURE (ILLUSTRATION)
Jesus is sharing his last supper with his disciples before he was crucified.
He says to his disciples: This is my BODY given for you.
This looks like what the priest does when he says the same words that Jesus said
during the Eucharistic Prayer during the Mass: "Take this all of you and eat of it, for this
is my Body, which will be given to you."
3. READ and take notes and draw pictures so you can TELL THE STORY TO
SOMEONE IN YOUR OWN WORDS
JESUS AND HIS FRIENDS had traveled around the land, north to south and east to west. In villages, on hillsides, and on the shores of lakes and rivers, Jesus shared the Good News: the kingdom of God was at hand!
Many children and families heard Jesus and believed in him.
They were healed!
Their sins were forgiven.
Their lives were changed forever as they began to follow Jesus as the Messiah
who was coming to save them.
God had created and formed his people over the centuries. Now he was inviting them to come even closer to him. He was calling them to know his mercy and love, and to hear it in a human voice and to be touched by it with human hand: his hands. The hands of Jesus, the Son of God, the "Word made flesh" dwelling among them the Kingdom of God was among them.
Some RELIGIOUS LEADERS WERE THREATENED and angered by Jesus. Their hearts were hardened and they were unable to see that Jesus was truly sent by God our Father to save us and bring us back to His Plan for all of us.
Over one short week, (which we now call Holy Week), God's Plan for Jesus came to life. It all happened in Jerusalem as planned.
The week began with great joy. It was the week before Passover, the feast celebrating the Jewish people's escape from slavery in Egypt--and as with all the great feasts, many people were traveling to Jerusalem to celebrate, including Jesus and his friends. Many people who had heard about all that he was doing wanted to see him and hear him.
On what we celebrate as Palm Sunday, Jesus entered Jerusalem riding on a donkey. The people greeted him with joy, waving palms, spreading them out before him, and singing the ancient psalm of David: Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
Several days passed and Jesus and his friends gathered in an upper room of a house to share the Passover Meal, the same meal that God's people had been sharing since the time of Moses. They had this meal every year to remember how God saved them from slavery in Egypt. They ate bitter herbs to remember the hard lives they had in Egypt. They ate flatbread and lamb. They remembered that God's people in the time of Moses put the blood of the lamb they ate on their doorposts to protect their family from the death angel.
This meal would be VERY different for Jesus' disciples.
Before the meal began, Jesus did something special for his disciples that they would always remember. He knelt down and washed the feet of each of his friends. This is something a servant would do for his master in Jesus' time. Instead the master and teacher was serving his disciples.
During the meal, Jesus took the unleavened or flatbread in his hands.
"This is my body," he said,"which is given for you. Take and eat this in remembrance of me."
Then he took up the chalice, the cup of wine.
"This is my blood which is poured out for you. Take and drink this in remembrance of me."
The apostles didn't know what was going to happen the next day. But Jesus did--he had told them about the suffering that was about to come. In the Passover meal, God's people celebrated their freedom. Now Jesus, through the food that was his Body and His Blood, was leading them in an even deeper way of freedom.
JESUS WAS THE LAMB OF GOD, and his life would be given so we could be free from the most hurtful chains of all: SIN and DEATH.
This Passover meal joined Jesus' friends in a New Covenant (agreement) with God. It is the covenant (promise) in which Jesus as God's Son, pours out his life for us and into us. It is a covenant that gives life, not just on earth but forever in heaven.
Jesus promised that whenever they gathered to share this bread and wine of the New Covenant--his Body and Blood--he would be with them.
But just as before, from the Garden of Eden until now, no matter how much love and mercy God pours out, human beings are tempted to step away, take another path, and listen to another voice. We find out soon that one of his disciples betrayed him.
Jesus went from his Last Supper with his disciples into night to the Mount of Olives, to pray. And his disciples followed him.
4. What are you learning about who GOD is?
Jesus shared the Kingdom of God to everyone by teaching and showing God's mercy and love to ALL.
Jesus healed
Jesus forgave sins
Jesus helped people change the way they lived their lives.
Jesus showed by example that God wanted his leaders to humbly serve others.
Jesus explained very clearly in his LAST SUPPER with his disciples, how we would always be with us, especially when we received Holy Communion
5. How are people acting toward God?
Many believed that he was the Messiah or the one promised in Scripture, who would come to save God's people.
They showed respect and honored him with palm branches on Palm Sunday when he entered Jerusalem on a donkey and said: "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!."
Others like some of the RELIGIOUS LEADERS were threatened and angered by Jesus. Their hearts were hardened and they were unable to see that Jesus was truly sent by God our Father to save us and bring us back to His Plan for all of us.
6. How is this story helping you listen and obey God’s VOICE?
I will take Holy Communion very solemnly and respectfully, knowing that God is present and I am receiving his divine nourishment for my soul.
7. Who will you share this story with?
I will share this story with............................
8. Always thank God in prayer for each story.
Loving Father! We thank you for your stories in the Bible. They teach who you are and help us to understand that you are always loving us and giving us a way to return to your first plan for us: to enjoy your good and beautiful Kingdom with you now and forever. AMEN
9. What was your most important learning from Story #55? Share your thoughts in the
COMMENT section.
