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Reply to "ART Workshop Lessons and Ideas for teaching the Last Supper, Communion, Seder"

The Last Supper- "My Father's Workshop"

A Communion "Chalice"-making Art Workshop

stainedglasscup

Summary of Lesson Activities:

The children will explore the events and meaning of The Last Supper while creating "chalices" (cups of blessing, Communion cups) to help them remember the reason we celebrate Communion.

See the end notes about Elijah's Cup and the kind of cup Jesus may have used at the Last Supper.

Scripture:

Mark 14:12-26, the story of the Last Supper

Lesson Objectives:

By the end of the session, the students will:

  • Identify The Last Supper as a Passover meal and that the purpose of celebrating the Passover meal was to remember how God delivered the Hebrew people from slavery in Egypt.
  • Express the meaning of the Last Supper's Cup of the New Covenant -- what it symbolizes to us.

Leader Preparation:

  • Make a chalice of your own to bring in and show the children what they will be making.
  • You will need to cut the tissue paper into small squares before the morning that you are to teach.
  • Consider age level and time adjustments needed.


Materials List:

  • Plastic wine glasses (one per child)
  • Variety of colorful tissue paper cut in approximately ½ inch squares
  • Small craft gems
  • Q-tips (1-2 per child) to apply the Mod Podge glue
  • Small plastic containers for glue (1 for every two children)
  • Newspaper to cover tables
  • Small plastic plates (1 for every 2-4 children)
  • Small paint brushes
  • Sharpie permanent markers
  • Stick on jewels
  • Modge Podge
  • A bit of bread, grape juice and small drink cups for each student (for use during the Bible study)


Advanced Prep:

  • Set out plastic wine glasses around the table(s). Set out small containers for glue (1 for every two children) and tissue paper squares on plastic plates and q-tips.


Lesson Plan


Opening

Greet the children and introduce yourself. Tell them what they will be doing today and what you hope they will learn.

Ask the children if they can think of any meals that they eat when they want remember something special (Thanksgiving, birthday cake, Christmas, etc.) What makes those meals special? (Eat the same thing every year, food reminds us of something like a candy cane or an Easter egg.) Having a special meal to remind us of something is a very old custom.

Say: The Bible story today is a story about a special meal that Jesus had with his disciples on his last night before his crucifixion. Do you know what that meal is called?  It was the Passover Meal celebrating God's rescue of the Hebrews from Egyptian slavery.

Scripture/Bible Story:
Have the children open their Bibles to Mark 14:12-26 and read it together.

After reading the story, place some bread on a plate and a cup next to it, then begin to pour grape juice into the cup. Point out that The Last Supper was a Passover meal. Explain that during the Passover meal, Jesus would have taken a special cup and raised it several times during the meal as a blessing and thanksgiving to God,  Pour a juice in small cups for all your students so that they can join you in offering a blessing (a "toast") to Jesus for his forgiveness and presence with us today.

Then continue to explain...

But during his last supper, he changed the meaning of the cup for his disciples. He said, "This cup represents the New Covenant sealed by my blood, when you drink from it, remember me."  What do you think he meant?   He wanted us to remember that his life (his blood which the red wine in the cup also reminds us of) would be sacrificed on the cross as a sign of God's new promise -- the forgiveness of sins and promise of new and eternal life in God's Kingdom.

Say: In a moment, you're going to create your OWN Passover, Last Supper, Communion Cup. So let's look at some illustrations of what artists over the centuries thought Jesus' Cup of the New Covenant may have looked like.  If possible, have your church's Communion Chalice present.

Various-Communion-Cups

Keep in mind that Jesus and his disciples were in a special "upperroom," the kind that people rented for the Passover Feast, or were invited to by a well-to-do patron. The cups would have been their hosts' "best."  Special pottery, for example, or silver, and decorated with symbols of God's bounty. The very best cup would have been called "Elijah's Cup" in honor of the prophet they prayed would appear at the Passover table to announce the coming of the Messiah. The honored leader of the dinner, Jesus in this case, would have raised that special cup of blessing.

The cup is sometimes called a "Chalice" in the church. Whatever you call them, it is a special cup of celebration. In the Passover Seder, there are four cups of blessing each with a different meaning. Learn more about that here.

Chalice Making

Direct the children to begin creating their "chalices" so that the glue will dry by the time class is over. (Before they begin, use a Sharpie marker to label each chalice with the child's name on the bottom of the cup.) Ask the children to decorate their chalices in a way that reminds them of the Last Supper and Jesus' blessing us with his forgiveness and salvation by asking us to drink from his Cup of the New Covenant.

They will use the q-tip to "paint" a small area on the outside of the wine glass. Then they will place a tissue paper square on the glued area. They will continue this process of "painting" glue and covering with tissue paper until the outside area of the plastic glass is covered.

If using "stick on jewels," apply those before doing the decoupage.
Do not intentionally put glue on the bottom of the base or the base. This will make it easier to handle and transport.

TIP: Don't use a lot of Mod Podge!  Apply just a little and press the paper into it. After you have applied all your tissue paper, THEN paint a layer of Mod Podge over the tissue to completely fix it and create a nice hard coating when it dries.

When the glass is covered the entire outside should be covered with a coat of Modge Podge using a small paint brush. (If time is running short, the assistant teacher can do this.)

As the children are working ask them questions about what they are doing such as:

  • Why did you choose those colors?
  • How does your design remind you of Jesus?
  • You may also want to ask them what they already know about The Last Supper. Who ate this meal with Jesus? What was served at this meal?
  • Talk about Passover.

Reflect as you create cups...

  • I wonder how Jesus felt as he ate the Passover Meal knowing it would be his last meal with the disciples?
  • I wonder what the disciples were thinking when Jesus said, "This is my body..." and "This is my blood...."?
  • I wonder why Jesus used these two food items, bread and wine, and not the others from the Passover meal? (roasted lamb, bitter herbs, etc.)
  • Jesus told his disciples to eat the bread and drink the wine in remembrance of him. When do we do this in our church? (1st Sunday of the month & special Sundays of the church year.)
  • What does Jesus want us to remember when we celebrate The Last Supper? What do we call the celebration of The Last Supper today? (Communion, Eucharist, Lord’s Table)
  • I wonder what Jesus wants us to think about when we take Communion?
  • Where will you put your cup? What will you do/think about when you see it there?

Place the cups in front of a fan for quicker drying. They'll still be a bit sticky going home.

Closing:

Have students share their cups and the symbolism they put on them. Close with a prayer that each of us would be a "cup of blessing" to others as we share the meaning of our cups.

Notes about the Cup:

"Chalice" is a very very old English word that means "cup." Usually, it refers to a "decorated" cup, such as one given to a guest of honor to drink from. Some people think Jesus would have drank from a "simple" chalice, and indeed, there are movies that have promoted that image! However, the Passover Meal that Jesus was celebrating that night was a meal in which "the best" would have been used. The  Jerusalem "upperroom" was a rented or borrowed room that a wealthy person or patron would have owned. So we can safely assume they would have put out their "best china" for such a guest as Jesus.

The Passover Meal includes several prayers and storytelling. A main feature of the meal are several "cups of blessing" that are spoken (toasted, as we would say), and drank. These were cups of thanksgiving and remembrance of God's goodness.  There is also a Passover Meal tradition of setting a place for the Prophet Elijah who was expected to attend when the time of the Messiah had come. Elijah's Cup would have been a special cup, and it very well may have been the cup that Jesus used when he announced the arrival of the "New Covenant sealed in my blood." The Elijah's Cup tradition is still practiced today in the Jewish faith.

Jesus transformed the meaning of the Cup of Blessing and the wine within it into the world's most needed symbol: forgiveness, salvation, i.e. a New Covenant between God and his people inaugurated by the sacrifice of Christ for the sins of the world. The New Testament Church continue celebrating Jesus' arrival, remembering his sacrifice for their sins, and celebrating the Kingdom of God that they were now a part of, and the communion in heaven with Christ that they looked forward to.


This lesson was created from several different versions of the lesson once posted at Rotation.org by our members. Each of those versions used the same basic "tissue paper decoupage" technique. Each varied in how they described the meaning of the Cup and wine. Some emphasized the Passover~Seder connection, others Christ's sacrifice and story of the Last Supper. Some focused on remembering the story, while others used the occasion for some Communion-connection education. 

Attachments

Images (3)
  • Various-Communion-Cups
  • Raising a cup of blessing
  • stainedglasscup
Last edited by Wormy the Helpful Worm
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