How People Miss Seeing Jesus in Their Lives

A Palm Sunday "Parade of Distractions" Children's Sermon or Drama

This children's sermon, lesson drama, or chancel drama/demonstration/skit may require several recruited players. It's perfect for a youth group or a couple of families to rehearse and perform, and can be used as a chancel drama or children's sermon. It can also be scaled for a Sunday School lesson "Drama Workshop."

I orginally organized this with several youth in my church who helped me do it as a children's sermon the week before Palm Sunday.

The gist of it is this: Jesus rides into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, and in our lives --wanting to be our King, but many people are too distracted, self-centered, or busy doing something else to notice him, want to get to know him, and follow him.

The setup:

Jesus is represented by a child riding on the back of a donkey (played by a teenager).

Lining both sides of Jesus' parade route are various students -each initially facing the parade route, but who will become preoccupied with something that causes them to turn their back on Jesus as he approaches.  Space the students far enough apart so that their actions happen one at a time and are easily visible to your watching children. Tell them to start their action only when Jesus is approaching them and next to them, and stop after Jesus has moved on to the next person in the parade.

1. A student on their cellphone
2. A student dribbling a basketball
3. A student rolling their eyes, arms crossed, standing defiantly.
4. A student sleeping-in (their head on a pillow).
5. A student who waives their palm while looking eagerly towards the heavens.
6. A student playing a video game (using a hand-held controller)
7. A student who is so sad they can't look up.
8. A student with a remote TV control
9. A student who is too concerned with how they look. Brushing their hair, etc.
10. A student who is impressed with themselves and their muscles, and gives Jesus the brush off.
11. Feel free to have youth come up with more ideas.
    
    **For Sunday School lesson, ask the kids to come up with distractions!

Just before the Jesus-child and teen-donkey go down the parade route (sanctuary aisle), the teacher says to the gathered children, "I want you to watch this Palm Sunday parade and see if you can guess what lesson our youth is trying to teach all of us about seeing for Jesus."

Parade #1:

• As Jesus starts his ride down the aisle, each distracted youth begins their action AS Jesus approaches them. They stop after he has gone by so their action doesn't distract the children.
• The donkey stops at each distracted youth for Jesus to see them, and long enough for the student to perform their distraction.

After the child/Jesus and donkey reach the end, the teacher walks the children down the aisle and up to each actor who then start their action again as the teacher asks, "What is this person doing that COULD BE distracting them from getting to know and follow Jesus?"  Be sure to point out that there's nothing wrong with cellphones, basketballs, sleep, and the like, but sometimes our things, attitudes, problems, and schedules can sure get in the way of seeing and following Jesus in our lives.

Parade #2:

Now we're going to hold this parade again, and this time I want you to go stand by all our youth and help them focus on Jesus as he approaches each one of them. If you see them being distracted, help them look for Jesus. (**Cue the youth to put away their distractions and wave at Jesus as he rides by this time.)

Conclude:

Jesus wants to be part of our lives, but to really see and know him, we need to know when to put away some of the distractions and stop doing things that aren't helping us, so we can really look for Jesus, discover his love, and become his followers. We've also just learned that we can HELP other people put aside their distractions and point them towards Jesus. Etc.

I hope your adaptation of this skit or children's sermon is inspired!

<>< Neil