Silent Saturday

 You think of Christ being dead for three days, but really he was only dead for one full day. He died at 3:00 pm on Friday, and was resurrected just as the sun rose on Sunday. So the only full day Christ was dead for was Saturday, which was the Sabbath.  The scriptures doesn't say anything about Saturday. It  can be assumed that Christ's disciples observed the sabbath, it can be assumed they wept for the loss, some might assume they hid. However it doesn't say. So Saturday is the day that we talk about Easter in The Book of Mormon. In the past we have read, Three Days without Light: a Nephite Easter Story. I highly recommend it.

This year, we did a Book of Mormon version of the resurrection eggs. My sister gave these to me a few years back. I will have to see if she still has the file to attach.

  I love taking a day and talking about how Christ is the Savior for the whole world, no matter who you are and where you live.  I love talking about how the experiences and testimonies of those in Jerusalem are different from those in the Americas, But Christ came to them all. He loved them all and we are one big happy family.

Did you know that there are also traditions in England that Christ came to visit the remnants of Ephraim on the British Iles after he was resurrected?

William Blake talks of this in his hymn "Jersalem"

And did those feet in ancient time,
Walk upon England's  mountains green:
And was the holy Lamb of God,
On England's pleasant pastures seen!

Truly there are even other sheep he visited. It would be fun to sing this hymn, and discuss how Jesus visited many of his sheep at this time.

The last thing we always do on Saturday night is make  Resurrection rolls for breakfast on Easter, Sometimes we make resurrection cookies instead of rolls, or in addition on a different day. I love the ressurection cookies you can get the recipe for resurrection cookies in one of my favorite resources for Christ-Centered Easters on Amazon.

Resurrection Rolls

Ingredients

1 package of crescent roll dough
Bag of big marshmallows
melted butter
cinnamon sugar

Instructions.

Preheat the oven as directed on the crescent roll package

1. Take a Marshmallow, talk about how it is white just like Jesus is white and clean and pure.  When He died his friends took him down and anointed him with oil.  (dip the Marshmallow in the melted butter.)

2.  Then they prepared his body for burial with spices. Typically this would have been hundreds of pounds of spices.  (then roll the marshmallow in the cinnamon and sugar)

3.  Then they wrapped his body in linens. (wrap the marshmallow up in the crescent roll).

place on cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Have each of the kids repeat the story as they do their own.

4. After his body was prepared he was placed in the tomb and the door was shut. (put in the oven and shut the door . .  Cook for 8-10 minutes).

5.  In the morning when his friends went to visit his tomb they found that he was gone. (when you take them out of the oven allow them to cool for a few minutes until they can be handled, the kids can see that the marshmallow is gone.let them eat the roll while is is warm and tasty)

The Last Super - Passover, Seder Meal

  In my house we have always had our Passover meal on Thursday night because this is the night Jesus had his Passover meal. My sister has Passover meal the First night of Passover as dictated by Scripture. And honestly the more I study about Passover, the more I find that even devote Jews will have a Passover meal any time, sometimes multiple times, during the week of Passover.

In the past My Passover meal has consisted of the breaking of the Afikenomen and hiding it and finding it, and breaking it and sharing it. Then eating Gyros. The Afikenomen to me has always been the most important part of the meal, because it is what became the sacrament. If you were to do just one aspect of the Passover meal,  This would be a good choice, but I am a bit biased.  The Afikenomen is a piece of unleavened bread.  Specifically it is the middle piece of a stack of 3 pieces. You have a stack of three Pieces of Unleavened bread, you pull out the middle piece, you break it in half,  then wrap one of the broken halves in a white cloth, and hide it some place. After the meal is over the kids go find it. Traditionally this is one of the favorite parts for most kids during the Passover meal.  When it is found, the leader of the meal then breaks it in pieces and shares it with everyone in the room.  This is the point when Christ told his disciples "this you do in remembrance of me."

My sister for years has been telling me I need to do the whole Seder, and I decided this was the year. The whole purpose of the Seder meal is to teach the kids. This whole concept is fascinating to me. . My sister worked hard on preparing the Haggadah, and I helped edit it and add to it.  There are many things you can do for the Passover meal and we have big plans for next year too. As soon as I figure out how to upload a copy of the PDF of the Haggadah I will.

There are so many fascinating connections and HOLY COW moments during this particular meal, but they are all explained in the Haggadah, so I need to get it uploaded.

Fig Tuesday

  There is quite a lot of debate on the day the Christ cursed the fig tree.  However, I figure it doesn't really matter a whole lot what day he cursed it. Really it just matters that it happened, and what we learn from it.  

On his way into Jerusalem, sometime during his final week, Christ gets hungry and sees a fig tree along the road with leaves.  Now to understand this story you must understand the life of a fig tree. First of all it is not the season for fig trees this early in spring, so there should not have been figs on the tree.  However, figs grow before the leaves, and when the leaves come on, the figs should be ripe.  So none of the other fig trees had figs, but they also didn't have leaves.  So the tree was not cursed for not having figs as much as it was for pretending to be something it was not.  Or for being showy, puffed up and prideful.  Interesting to compare this to the other parables found in the next few Chapters.  

Tuesday and Wednesday Christ spends at the temple teaching.  But he isn't just teaching he is being scrutinized and judged by the Pharisees.  This too fulfills the Passover traditions.  Like mentioned on Palm Sunday the Jews brought the lamb into their home to watch it and make sure it had no faults, to make sure it really was perfect.  The Pharisees were there watching THE LAMB scrutinizing him and trying to find Faults in him. Christ's Parables he teaches at this time are direct condemnations of the Pharisees, just like his cursing of the fig tree. (I need  to list the parables and references)

Curly, our lamb, brought us a basket of fig newtons for dessert.

Monday - Cleansing the Temple

 Today we learned about how Passover is often considered synonymous with The Feast at of Unleavened Bread. For 8 days the Jews not only avoid leaven but seek out every opportunity to eat Unleavened Bread. The leaven in bread is symbolic of pride because leavening puffs up bread, and pride puffs us up.  So not only do they not eat leaven for eight days, they completely rid their homes of it, Spring Cleaning for the Jews is literally done religiously every spring during Passover.  They cleanse their house and look for the leavening to get rid of.  

At the same times the Jews were cleaning their house of the leaven and sin, Christ was cleaning his Father's house of the sin. This is discussed in all 4 gospels: Matthew 21:12–15; Mark 11:15–17; Luke 19:45–46; John 2:13–16 and there is a video clip depicting this event. After our discussion of the cleansing of the temple,  the basket was full of eggs, each egg had a different task and a small amount of money, (anywhere from fifty cents to a couple of dollars).  Then the kids got to open the egg. They got to keep all the money, but to open another egg they had to complete the task in the egg.  We had a whole bunch of deep cleaning items I had been hoping to get done for a while. The money was just enough to get the kids motivated to do their job quickly but thoroughly. We then discussed how it is easier to feel of the spirit when our house is clean and in order and free of things that are distracting to the spirit.

Palm Sunday

 

Most Christians start Holy Week on Palm Sunday. This link has a good time line of Holy Week and the events that happened when. In our house Sunday morning the lamb stood with an Easter Basket. It was full of palm leaves and eggs. Some of the Eggs were numbered, We opened the numbered eggs to find out what scripture verses to read, which covered (Matthew 21:1-16)  and to read questions that lead the discussion.  We watched the new church clip about the Triumphal Entry.

After learning about Christ coming in on the donkey, and the people waving palm leaves we talked about how, after the Passover lamb was anointed they were then allowed to be chosen for the Passover, and that they were welcomed into the family home.  And how the people yelling Hosanna was them accepting Christ as their Messiah, on the very same day that they were accepting the lamb to come into their home.

We then made a palm leaf wreath, to hang on the front door as a symbol that we accept Christ as our Savior. I got these palm leaves, simply hot glued them and tied a yellow ribbon at the top. And then we talked about other ways to show that we have accepted Christ.  Ultimately we came to the decision we must follow his example and live like he did. So we must serve others.  The 6 eggs left in the basket were all eggs with
someone's name inside. Each person selected an Egg and that person will be their secret service person all week.