Jesus in the Wilderness

Cooking Workshop

Summary of Lesson Activities:

Retelling the story of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness using three edible symbols.

Scripture References:

Luke 4:1-13 and Matthew 4:1-11

Materials:

• 2 batches of pre-made pretzel dough (I used a recipe from The Ultimate Book of Kid Concoctions by John E. Thomas and Danita Pagel)
• Beaten egg
• Extra salt
• Baker's Joy or PAM cooking spray
• Cookie sheets
• Oven
• The Children’s Illustrated Bible by Selina Hastings
• Symbols printed out on 8 1/2 x 11 cardstock
• Whiteboard and dry erase markers

Leader Preparation:

• Read the story, Jesus Enters the Wilderness, in Luke 4:1-13 and Matthew 4:1-11. Notice that the accounts are similar except for the order that the temptations come in and the fact that Matthew mentions angels ministering to Jesus at the end of the account.
• Gather the materials.
• Prepare the dough.

Presentation

Opening-Welcome and Lesson Introduction: 

Shepherd Time: Before the class begins, the group will meet for five minutes with their shepherd to do some “get to know you” questions such as “What was your high and your low point this week?” or “What is the hardest thing that you have ever done? This week, we are going to hear a story about one of the hardest things that Jesus had to do.” You may also want to practice the bible verse of the month to the shepherd before class begins.

1. Wear your nametag and introduce yourself. Show the children several symbols, printed out on 8 1/2 x 11 card stock, and ask what the symbols mean. For instance, what does a circle with a line drawn through it mean?(no ….) What does a cross with equal sides stand for? (adding, first aid).

Often times, a symbol is like a simplified picture. It is easy to draw. Explain that we will listen to a story and think of three symbols to stand for three of the events in the story. We will need to think of symbols that will help us to retell the story to someone else.

Dig-Main Content and Reflection:

2. Either you, the shepherd, or an older child can read the story of Jesus’ temptation on pp. 204-5 of The Children’s Illustrated Bible by Selina Hastings.

3. Model designing symbols by thinking up one symbol to represent a story event. Draw this symbol on the whiteboard and explain how your symbol represents the event. For example, you could draw a circle on the board and explain that the circle represents a stone or an open mouth. Satan told Jesus to command the bread to become stones so that he could eat.
4. Ask the class to think up symbols for the remaining two temptations in the story. (Satan took Jesus up to a mountain, Satan took Jesus up to the top of the temple) Have volunteers draw the symbols on the white board.

5. Group the class into triads (groups of three). Give each child a lump of pretzel dough and instruct the children to roll their dough into a long rope. Have each child in each group form a different symbol from their rope of pretzel dough so that each group has all three symbols of the story. Help the child to place their creations on a cookie sheet that has been sprayed with Oven Joy.

6. Have the shepherd or an adult helper brush the finished “symbol” pretzels lightly with a beaten egg, sprinkle salt on them, and put them in a 425° oven for 12-15 minutes.

7. Journal-time: While the dough cooks, have the children write in their journals. Younger children can draw an element from the story. Older children can think about which temptation was the hardest for Jesus and write one to two sentences about why they think it was the hardest.

8. When journal time is over, let the children color pictures of the story or complete puzzles about the story while the pretzels are in the oven. If more activities are needed, play charades with different words from the story.

Closing:

9. Wrap-Up: When the pretzels come out of the oven ask one group to retell the story to the class with their pretzels.

10. Enjoy the pretzels!

References:

• The Children's Illustrated Bible by Selina Hastings
• The Ultimate Book of Kid Concoctions by John E. Thomas and Danita Pagel

A lesson written by Dee Cobia, Director of Children's Ministries, BayMarin Community Church,

San Rafael, CA

A representative of Rotation.org reformatted this post to improve readability.