This is a simple way to tell the Good Friday story with pictures.

You will need:

• 10 volunteers
• 10 pictures or more if you want! There is a PDF of the ten pictures we used here. We have also used actual things - wooden cross, nails, dice etc. and these could be used as well as pictures.  Things are better if you have peolpe with limited vision.

Telling the story.

Firstly, set the scene.  Talk about the Garden of Gethsamane, and how Jesus' friends all ran away, and how Jesus was arrested.  Then get to the point where he was brought before the court.

We did not differentiate between the Jewish and the Roman court.

You are now going to tell the story using the 10 pictures.  We got our volunteers to sit at the front, with their pictures, and asked them to hold the pictures up when asked to do so at the relevant stage in the story.

Another idea would be to have the volunteers still in their original seats, and get them to come to the front at the relevant time, and so build up the line of pictures that way.

List of pictures:

• (The question mark) Jesus was asked a lot of questions by the important people.  People told lies about Jesus, but He did not reply.
• (The clipart of someone spitting) Some soldiers hit Jesus, some laughed at Jesus, and some spat at Jesus.  The soldiers treated Jesus very badly, and Jesus was in a lot of pain.
• (The crown of thorns) The soldiers put a crown onto Jesus' head.  This was made of very sharp thorns, and was very painful.
• (Picture of Jesus carrying His cross)  Jesus was made to carry the very heavy wooden cross through the streets of Jerusalem, and up a hill called Golgatha.
• (Picture of nails) Jesus was nailed to this cross by the soldiers, and the cross was put upright.
• (Forgive) Jesus forgave the soldiers for the cruel things they were doing to Him.  Jesus said, "Father forgive them."
• (Picture of dice) The soldiers gambled and played dice to decide who would have Jesus' clothes
• (Forgive) There was a thief hanging on a cross next to Jesus. Jesus forgave the thief for all the wrong things the thief had done.
• (Black sheet)  After a long time on the cross, Jesus died.
• (Picture of tomb)  Some people took Jesus' body down from the cross, and put Jesus' body in a tomb or a cave.

We added:  Jesus never did anything that was wrong.  Jesus never hurt anyone.  Jesus never stole anything.  Jesus never even told a lie.

But Jesus was killed.  Jesus was killed as if He was guilty.  But Jesus was NOT guilty.

Jesus died so we can be forgiven.

When we did this we also made reference to Easter as the crucifixion on its own can be a bit bleak!

Further resources are here:
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