Jesus Goes to the Cross

Rotation.org Writing Team

A Cross Seder* Meal Cooking Workshop

Summary of Activities

Students will prepare and participate in a "Cross Seder Meal"—adapted from both the traditional practices of The Passover Seder (scripted meal) and The Tenebrae Service (extinguishing of candles). Using a Seder script specially written for this lesson, students will read through the story of the Cross and explore its meaning through a series of guided actions, readings, questions, and the eating of particular foods.

The Seder concludes with the eating of "hot cross buns" that the students have prepared using a quick make & bake recipe. This traditional Holy Week cake, along with a variety of other foods, will take the students through Jesus’ trial, death on the cross, burial, and resurrection.

Leader Alert!  This Cross Seder could easily be an intergenerational event or used in a worship setting.

Scripture for the Lesson

Mark 15:1-47

The Cross Seder script includes the text from the condensed version of Mark 15:1-47 that was created by the Rotation.org Writing Team for this lesson set. Based on the Good News and NRSV translations, we reduced the word count from 920 to 550 and made several minor "readability" adjustments for children. 

Key/Memory Verse:  "God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8, NIV. See the Bible Background for more info.)

Key/Memory Verse:  "God showed his love for us by sending his only Son into the world, so that we might have life through him. 10 This is what love is: it is not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the means by which our sins are forgiven. 11 Dear friends, if this is how God loved us, then we should love one another. (1 John 4:9-11 Good News)

Lesson Objectives

See the Bible Background at rotation.org for this set's complete list of objectives.  

Supplies

• Handwashing supplies
• Seder table with tablecloth
• Six candles, preferably in candlestick holders.
• Candle lighter and snuffer (extinguisher)
• A small reading light or candle to read the script as the main candles are extinguished.
• Paper goods:
  • Paper plates:  Dinner size for the seder foods. The dinner plates should NOT have a waxy coating or the juice-dot-drawing activities won't work.
  • Plastic spoons (1 per student) to mix and spread their spices
  • Plastic knives (1 per student) to draw cross with icing onto buns
  • Small clear plastic cups --2 per student for the meal
  • Small cup (like a Dixie cup) to mix ingredients -- one per student
  • Napkins
• Items for Hot Cross Buns
  • Oven
  • Oven mitts
  • Muffin tins
  • Cooling racks
  • Cooking spray
  • Masking tape (to label each student's dough on the muffin tin)
  • Wax paper
  • Crescent Roll dough -- one triangle of dough per student
  • Butter (melted)
  • Spices:  cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, lemon peel
  • Raisins
  • Confectioner's (powdered) sugar  (An alternative for the icing is to use vanilla frosting from the baking section of the store)
  • Bowl and mixing spoon to make icing
  • Containers and serving/measuring spoons for the various ingredients
• Seder Foods
  • Sugar cubes
  • Salt
  • "Bugles" Corn Chips (snack food)
  • Grape juice (should be purple for the cups of blessing and for stamping/drawing onto large paper plate)
  • Pretzel Rods -- one per participant
  • White grape juice (or some other clear bubbly drink) for the final blessing.

Preparation

• Read the Scripture passage, the Bible Background.
• Print out the Cross Seder Script (attached).
• Practice making the hot cross buns before your first class session.
• Set up the Food Preparation table and the Seder table before class, including all of the needed supplies (see description below). If possible invite early arrivers to help you do this.
• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
• There are 6 questions to be asked and 6 candles to be extinguished. Assign these parts and give the students copies of the script (highlight on script their part).

Table and Room Setup

There are two areas to set up: the Hot Cross Buns prep table, and the Cross Seder Table. Students will begin at the Hot Cross Buns table then move to the Seder table to participate in the Seder.

1. The Hot Cross Buns Table should be set up as follows:  At each place setting, have a piece of wax paper with one triangular piece of crescent roll waiting for them.  There should also be a small cup with a plastic spoon—this will be used for mixing up their other ingredients.  The various ingredients could be placed at the end of the table, with their appropriate measuring spoons (there are no exact measurements here, but you will want small measuring spoons for the spices and slightly larger ones for the brown sugar and butter).

2. The Cross Seder Table is a special table that helps create a special feeling and memory. (Recall that the Last Supper was a Seder meal.)  Cover a table with a tablecloth and place the unlit candles in the center of the table. Place the following at each seat: a large paper plate with the various Seder ingredients arranged on them, a small paper dessert plate (for their Hot Cross Bun), 2 plastic cups, a knife, and a napkin. If you have extra time or early helpers, let your students help set this table to heighten their anticipation.

As the Seder progresses, candles are extinguished and the room gets darker and darker. You will need some light to read by. Use a small reading light or a small "reader's candle" that can be passed. The darker the room, the more dramatic the ambiance!

Lesson Plan

Students will start the class by making the hot cross buns. While these are baking in the oven, they will participate in the Cross Seder. The buns will be used in the last part of the Seder.

Open at the Hot Cross Buns Prep Table

As the students enter, have them wash their hands, then direct them to the Hot Cross Buns Table. Welcome them and explain what they'll be doing and learning in today's lesson.

Ask:

• What are some of the foods that you or people eat at Easter time?  (will probably respond with jelly beans, Peeps, ham, Easter Eggs, etc.)
• What are some foods that you eat on Good Friday—the day where we remember that Jesus died on the cross for our sins?  (might respond with hot cross buns, but likely a lot of silence!)

Say:  Hot cross buns have traditionally been eaten on Good Friday—going back hundreds of years. They have a cross on top—either of icing or dough—to remind us that Jesus died on the cross. The spices inside remind us of the spices brought to the tomb to prepare Jesus’ body for burial. We are going to make these first.  While they are baking, we will have the first part of our Seder. We will be reading our Bible story as we go through the Seder.

Making the Hot Cross Buns

Say: We are going to be putting together the spice filling for our hot cross buns first. What do the spices remind us of? (the spices used to prepare Jesus’ dead body for burial) Then we will put the buns together and put them in a muffin tin for baking.

(While the students are putting their buns together, the teacher or helper should write each student’s name on a small piece of masking tape and put it by one of the openings in the muffin tin. They should also lightly spray the muffin tins with cooking spray.)

Hot Cross Buns Recipe & Instructions

• Take their cup and go to the ingredients area.
• Place the following in their cups:  a small spoonful of melted butter, a spoonful of brown sugar, and tiny spoonfuls of each spice (cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, lemon peel).
• Stir them all together (the consistency should resemble that of applesauce)
• Use their spoon to spread the mixture on an unbaked crescent roll.
• The teacher or helper should give each student a few raisins. These can be scattered on top of their crescent roll or tucked into the folds of the roll.
• Starting at one end of the dough, roll up the crescent roll into a ball shape.
• They will need to roll the dough into a circular shape so that it will fit in the muffin tin. They should put it in the opening by their name.

(The helper, before baking, needs to remove masking tape labels and stick them in correct order onto cooling rack, so buns placed to cool go beside correct name. Then put the rolls in the oven that has been preheated to 375 degrees. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until golden brown.  Cool on labeled rack. The helper will be giving these back to the students later during the Seder.)

Important Note: Use a muffin tin to bake the balled-up crescent buns. If you just place them on a baking sheet (even if you have smushed them into a ball), they will unfold into a crescent roll shape.

The Cross Seder Meal

Introduce the Seder

Say: We are going to take part in a Cross Seder now.  A Seder is a religious meal celebrated with special foods to remember a special story. The most famous Seder meal is Passover—which is the meal Jesus was celebrating with his disciples on the night before he was crucified. In a traditional Seder, the leader prompts the participants to eat and drink at special moments in special ways to remember the special story. Before we begin, we need to assign speaking parts.

Assign Reading Parts

The Cross Seder script has reading roles for a "Leader" (the teacher or assistant), "Readers" (helpers or children), and five Children Readers (the questions plus extinguishing a candle). Prior to starting the Seder. quickly go through the script and assign these parts as you have numbers to do so. Pass around highlighter markers so that readers can mark their assignments. Write assignments on your own teachers copy in case someone forgets their assignment.

~Use the Cross Seder Script~

Reflect

The Seder script has several follow-up questions to ask as you eat your hot cross buns. Here are some additional questions.

Ask:

• How are sins like darkness?
• How is the cross like God's bright light to the world?—what does it show or reveal to us about the heart of God?   ...what does the cross "expose" about us? (our sins, our needs, and our salvation)
• 1 John 4 says that because God has loved us through the cross, we should show God's love to other people. Let's come up with some ways we can clearly show God's love when we come to worship, ...take part in this class, ...speak to our parents, ...spend time with friends, ...see a need. (etc.)

Close with prayer. (The end of the Seder has a closing prayer.)

Adaptations & Notes

For Younger Students: You may want to tell the story using your favorite children's Bible storybook. The Jesus Storybook does a nice job of telling this story. Adapt as needed, based on how well the storybook matches the Mark account.

The hot cross bun activity could be used as is.  Read the storybook that you have chosen. Then go through the Seder.  You will have to help the students "read" the questions. Don't read the Bible passage, but paraphrase the actions that took place in those passages and relate them to the foods.

For those with more class time: The students could help prepare the Seder table. The students could place the Seder foods on their plates (instead of putting already prepared plates at the table).  

*Notes about the Connection between Passover and Good Friday, and the use of the terms "Seder" and "Tenebrae"

It's not as crazy as some might think to celebrate the story of the Cross with a Seder Meal. The Passover "Seder" is a ritual meal celebrating the Exodus story with symbolic foods, scripted storytelling, blessings, and prayers. A "Tenebrae" Service (ten-eh-bray) is an ancient Christian service that retells the story of the Cross through the reading of scripture and extinguishing of candles. Our Cross Seder has adapted and merged words and practices from both traditions.

The Passover "Seder" ("scripted meal") gets its name from the "passing over" (saving of) the firstborn of Israel during the final plague which befell Egypt. According to Moses in Exodus 12, the people were to sacrifice a goat or lamb and place its blood on their doorpost so that when the Lord passed over Egypt -- the people of Israel "would not be bothered by the terrible disasters I will bring on Egypt."

In Jesus' lifetime, he was recognized as the "Lamb of God who will take away the sins of the world," (Jn1:29) Through the sacrifice of his life, God's wrath would "pass over" us.  The Last Supper was a Passover Meal and The Lord's Supper (Communion) was a condensation and reinterpretation of that meal and its meaning for Christians. After the destruction of the Temple in 70 A.D,, the Passover meal was transformed from a mostly public festival to a private one centered in the home, ...and a traditional "Seder" script began to evolve and circulate.

It has been noted that some may not wish to use the Hebrew term "Seder" in this Christian lesson out of deference to Jewish friends and family members who may feel this is an appropriation of their tradition. That decision is certainly up to you. By conducting Seders, or borrowing from Old Testament and Jewish practices and vocabulary, others (including The Writing Team) wish to help our students enjoy the power of such a great teaching idea as a Seder (an ordered ritual meal), and help our kids understand that they are part of a faith family and history of traditions that stretches back into the Old Testament and includes Judaism (not excludes). As Paul says in Romans 11:17, we have been "grafted in to share the rich root of the olive tree." --Added by Neil MacQueen for the WT.

Written by Cathy Walz and the Rotation.org Writing Team

Copyright 2018, Rotation.org Inc.