I developed this lesson to explain Mardi Gras, Ash Wednesday, and Lent (and Lenten practices) for a program for a variety of ages of children (K-6th) on the Saturday before Ash Wednesday. It is adapted from a game lesson on the Temptation of Jesus by Neil MacQueen.
A SUPERMAN AND SUPER-JESUS GAME LESSON:
Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness + our Lenten journey
SUPPLIES:
- King cake
- Bibles – 2 per student
- Superman costume: a white plastic bag with a large Superman emblem on the chest, and holes cut for arms and head. The cape is a red towel. Red slippers for the “boots.” (Like many relay games of this type, the humor is in seeing the kids try to get the costume on and off.)
- Doll
- Block tower (or shelf) – with “flames” and “Help!” speech bubble sign
- Laundry basket to catch baby – labeled “MOM”
- Masking tape to mark game spots on the floor
- Crackers
- Stepladder
- Bible costume (robe, headdress, belt)
- Key verses on cards
- “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Matthew 4:4
- “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” Matthew 4:7
- “For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’” Matthew 4:10
- Papers with true and false riches verses on them (about 50 half pages, crumpled)
- Table labeled “True Treasure”
- Copies of prayer calendar (choose one or more from here or search for the current year calendar) and instructions for each child to take home (instructions are attached as a doc file as well as a pdf in case you want to personalize them for your community)
NOTE: you can do the games as relay races if you have enough students. You will need two of each costume, two baby dolls, etc.
SCRIPTURE: Matthew 4:1-11
Introduction: (while enjoying King Cake and conversation about parades)
- Talk about “what is Mardi Gras?” and “what is Lent?”
- Explain idea of Fat Tuesday – eating all the sweets in the house before the start of Lent.
- Lent is a period of 40 days before Easter (not counting Sundays, which are Feast Days, not Fast Days). A time for reflection.
- Some of our friends might give something up for Lent.
- Sometimes people take on something (a spiritual practice) for Lent.
- This evening we will explore one of the Bible stories that helps explain the 40 days and also helps us think about spiritual practices.
- But first, we are going to talk about superheroes and play a funny game.
(NOTE: I didn’t think we would have enough kids to play any of these games as relay races, so they were fun one at a time races with everyone cheering each other. We did time everyone to see who was the fastest. But it might be more fun to enjoy silliness and not worry about competition.)
The Superman Race
Overview: This is a "warmup" relay game to kick off the lesson. One at a time, each participant puts on a superman costume in the "phone booth" (a masking tape box on the floor), “flies” to rescue a baby doll from a flaming building, and flies the doll to a spot where they toss the doll into a basket (mother’s arms) from about 8 feet. If it stayed in the basket, Superman could fly and give his/her costume to the next person in line (while someone puts the baby back in the burning building).
Say: Ok, superheroes: how quickly do you think you can put on your Superman/woman costume and rescue the baby from a burning building? (Time them to see how long it takes.)
(If there is interest and time, run the race a again to see if they can beat their first time. Encourage them to help one another.)
Bible study:
- What sorts of superpowers does Superman have?
- What makes someone a superhero?
- Is Jesus a superhero? Does Jesus have superpowers?
- Read Matthew 4:1-11.
- What sorts of things did the devil ask Jesus to do?
- What do you think – could Jesus have done all the things that the devil suggested if he wanted to? [Nothing is impossible for God.]
- Could Jesus have done all the things that Superman did if he wanted to?
- What “superpowers” did Jesus use in the passage we just read? [Talk about how Jesus quoted Scripture; he had it stored in his heart.]
- Be sure to highlight the key verses (the ones Jesus quoted). They will be important in the next game. Look up the sources for those verses: (If possible, keep one Bible per student open to Matthew and open another to Deuteronomy so they can compare.)
- “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Matthew 4:4 > Deuteronomy 8:3
- “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” Matthew 4:7 > Deuteronomy 6:16
- “For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’” Matthew 4:10 > Deuteronomy 6:13
The Super-Jesus Race
Say: We played a Superman game. Now it is time for a Super-Jesus game.
Overview: One at a time, each student puts on the “Jesus” robe, goes to each of the three stations, and has to quote a key verse from the story from memory (or by reading a sign). We went over the verses in the story as we read and discussed it.
- Run to the table and eat a cracker; after finishing it, recite “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by….” Of course they can only move on when they say it right, which the crackers make challenging.
- Run to and climb the Pinnacle of the Temple (a stepladder, with an adult spotter) and recite “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.”
- Run to the Riches and Glory vs True Treasure area. – When the individual players get to this area, they find about 50 pieces of crumpled paper on the ground (the riches). They had to pick and toss 5 onto a table (the high mountain, which is about 5 feet away, so it isn’t easy to get the paper to stay on it) and then go open the riches (crumpled paper) to see if they had found “true riches.” If they didn’t, they had to go back and throw 5 more up on the table. The “true riches” paper had the words “You shall worship the Lord your God…” written on it. There are some “false riches” papers, too. (This is important to the gameplay because if only “true riches” had printing on their paper, then the kids would LOOK FOR the crumpled pieces that had printing rather than reading the verse.)
- Return to the Start and give the costume to the next student.
Reflect:
- So I think we can agree that Jesus has superpowers.
- What about you? Do you have superpowers?
- Jesus chose things like the Word of God, Obedience, Love, Worship, and Service as his superpowers, and we can pray that the Holy Spirit will give these same powers to us.
- Do you remember how long I said Lent is? How many days did Jesus spend in the wilderness? What did he do there?
- Today we talked about how Jesus spent time praying in the wilderness. He also quoted Bible passages that he had stored in his heart.
- Let’s review the verses that Jesus used to respond to the devil. How did they help Jesus?
- I talked earlier about how Lent is a time to practice spiritual disciplines. What sorts of things do you think that would be? Maybe our superpowers?
- Lent is a 40-day period starting on Ash Wednesday and ending on Easter Saturday, during which Christians prepare their hearts for Easter, and draw near to God through spiritual practices such as prayer, reading the Bible, fasting, and giving.
- I am going to encourage you during the 40 days of Lent to spend time in prayer or Bible study. Here is a tool to help you. (Give them the Lent Calendars and explain how to use them.)
Conclude with prayer: Thank you Jesus for walking with us every day, especially during the upcoming Lent season as we prepare our hearts for Easter. Amen
Sources and Resources: