The Easter Trail

In the beginning, God created, and said “It is Good!” “...all the beauty of the world, the beauty that calls our admiration, our gratitude, our ‘worthship’ at the earthly level, is meant as a set of hints, of conspiratorial whispers, of clues and suggestions and flickers of light, all nudging us into believing that behind the beautiful world is not random chance but the loving God."

(N.T. Wright, For All God’s Worth)

Imagine the infant world in all its perfection. Imagine what it was like when every single

relationship, (People with God - People with People- and People with Earth) was utterly

perfect.

Take a moment to think of the good things God has

created in this world. Write down a few of them on a post-it-note or a scrap of paper.

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“The Fall, the Fall, O God the fall of Man, the fruit is found in every eye and every hand...” (Gungor)

Romans 6:23 - “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God...”

“Everything is broken now...”

How do you see brokenness in the world?

How do you see brokenness in your life situations?

How do you see brokenness in your own heart?

Pick up a stone (or something similar) and carry/hold it with you for the duration of the trail as a representation of your sin.

There is a drop of point later in the trail.

Listen to the audio by clicking the link below or playing the audio opposite/above (you only need to listen for as long as you are at this station)

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You are invited to kneel down on a cushion as you read the following passage.

(If you are unable to kneel feel free to stand as your read.)

Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him. On reaching the place, he said to them, “Pray that you will not fall into temptation.” He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.

 (Luke 22:39-44)

Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour has come, and the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners. Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!”

(Matthew 26:45-46)

Jesus knew all the pain and suffering he was about to experience. 

Can you sense his anguish? 

Do you feel his struggle? 

Yet he still says “not my will, but yours be done”.

Is there an area of your life where you need to make a choice to love and sacrifice - even if it comes with a cost?

Jesus’ sacrifice wasn’t a spur of the moment decision. He deliberately chose to take the journey to the cross - in spite of the great cost.

The one called Judas Iscariot—went to the chief priests and asked, “What are you willing to give me if I deliver him over to you?” So they counted out for him thirty pieces of silver. From then on Judas watched for an opportunity to hand him over. 

(Matthew 26:14-16)

While he was still speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, arrived. With him was a large crowd armed with swords and clubs, sent from the chief priests and the elders of the people. Now the betrayer had arranged a signal with them: “The one I kiss is the man; arrest him.” Going at once to Jesus, Judas said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” and kissed him. Jesus replied, “Do what you came for, friend.” Then the men stepped forward, seized Jesus and arrested him.

(Matthew 26:47-50)

Pick up some coins and drop them on the table in front of you. 

Next, pick up the coins one by one, counting them as you put them back.

How much is your integrity worth?

Would you betray a friend for twenty thousand dollars?

Why do we seem so quick to compromise our values for money?

Listen to the audio by clicking the link below or playing the audio opposite/below 

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What was it like listening to the crowd?

Were you annoyed?

Can you sympathise with Pilate wanting to just give in?

In what ways do we give in and take the easy and lazy road even if it means being part of injustice committed against others?

Go and wash your hands in a basin/sink. 

Think of the areas in your life where you act like Pilate and participate in injustice because it’s easier than choosing what is right.

Meanwhile Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?”  “You have said so,” Jesus replied.  When he was accused by the chief priests and the elders, he gave no answer. 

Then Pilate asked him, “Don’t you hear the testimony they are bringing against you?” But Jesus made no reply, not even to a single charge—to the great amazement of the governor.  Now it was the governor’s custom at the festival to release a prisoner chosen by the crowd. 

At that time they had a well-known prisoner whose name was Jesus Barabbas. 

So when the crowd had gathered, Pilate asked them, “Which one do you want me to release to you: Jesus Barabbas, or Jesus who is called the Messiah?” For he knew it was out of self-interest that they had handed Jesus over to him.                  

While Pilate was sitting on the judge’s seat, his wife sent him this message: “Don’t have anything to do with that innocent man,  for I have suffered a great deal today in a dream because of him.”                                

But the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus executed.  “Which of the two do you want me to release to you?”  asked the governor. “Barabbas,” they answered.  “What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called the Messiah?” Pilate asked.They all answered, “Crucify him!”“Why? What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate.But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!”                                                                  

When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. “I am innocent of this man’s blood," he said. “It is your responsibility!”All the people answered “His blood is on us and on our children! ”Then he released Barabbas to them.  But he had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.  

(Matthew 27:11-26)

Now Peter was sitting out in the courtyard, and a servant girl came to him. “You also were with Jesus of Galilee,” she said. But he denied it before them all. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said. Then he went out to the gateway, where another servant girl saw him and said to the people there, “This fellow was with Jesus of Nazareth.” He denied it again, with an oath: “I don’t know the man!” After a little while, those standing there went up to Peter and said, “Surely you are one of them; your accent gives you away.” Then he began to call down curses, and he swore to them, “I don’t know the man!” Immediately a rooster crowed. Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken: “Before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.” And he went outside and wept bitterly.

(Matthew 26:69-75)

Sometimes our betrayal is not motivated by financial gain but rather social acceptance…

The greatest single cause of atheism in the world is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, and walk out the door and deny him with their lifestyles… that is what an unbelieving world finds unbelievable. 

(Brennan Manning)

Think of times you have denied Jesus with your words, actions, or non-action.

Write down the phrase “I Do Not Know Him” on a piece of paper or on a note on your phone as a symbol of the times you,  like Peter, have denied Christ.

But he (Pilate) had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.

(Matthew 27:26)

Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him. They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand. Then they knelt in front of him and mocked him. “Hail, king of the Jews!” they said. They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. 

(Matthew 27:27-31a)

Some deaths are quick.

Some deaths are noble.

This death was neither.

It’s one thing to kill a man

It’s another to shame and humiliate him.

Think for a second…

That the King of heaven has spit on his face.

O the divine disgrace of our Saviour.

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Draw the outline of a t-shirt on a piece of paper and take a red felt marker or pen/pencil/crayon and strike through the t-shirt to make a red mark.

(Optional)

If you are able, grab a hammer and drive in one nail. 

(Children must have adult supervision)

“When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” 

(Luke 23:33-34)

Jesus’ talked a lot about loving enemies and forgiving others. But here at the cross he goes beyond words and ideals and teaches us with an example.

With the nail digging into his flesh and the hammer hovering…

He offers forgiveness

So in your life, who are the soldiers with nails and hammers that you could extend forgiveness to?

It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last. 

(Luke 23:44-49)

Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

(John 19:28-30)

Spend some time imagining you are standing in front of the cross with the disciples…

Can you feel the presence of death?

Can you feel the heaviness of despair?

Can you feel the sorrow, emptiness, and confusion?

Can you feel the darkness…

If possible, light a candle, then extinguish it as a symbol of Jesus dying.

Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jewish leaders. With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away. He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night.

Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds worth. Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid.

(John 19:38-41)

Try to imagine the emotion of the disciples as Jesus’ body was laid in a tomb.

What’s it like to go to the funeral of the one you thought would save – the one you thought would be the Messiah?

The death of Jesus shattered every belief his followers had about who God should be.

Think of the beliefs you have about God that the cross forces you to confront…

“But I tell you that I am going to do what is best for you. That is why I am going away. The Holy Spirit cannot come to help you until I leave. But after I am gone I will send the Spirit to you.”

(John 16:7)

You think this is what’s best for us?

They humiliated you on a cross.

And we’re humiliated too, because we put our trust in you.

No wonder Peter denied you.

Maybe it wasn’t out of fear, but out of sheer, bloody rage

that this is how the dream ended.

How can you think this is what’s best for us?

We put everything we had into you.

Our trust.

Our belief that you were the one who could save us.

You offered us a taste of welcome,

a hint of grace,

a touch of freedom.

For a moment we glimpsed a new world,

and you promised an eternity of that.

And we trusted you.

We’re left wondering which is worse

– that it ended like this

or that you knew it would end like this

and you took us with you anyway.

——————– Poem by Cheryl Laurie —————-

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Let the rock in your hand symbolise every sinful attitude and action

Let the rock in your hand symbolise all that you wish you weren’t

Let the rock in your hand symbolise the shadow within

Let the rock in your hand symbolise the brokenness you have experienced

Let the rock in your hand symbolise the brokenness you have caused

Fill a bowl/bucket/sink with water and drop the rock (or whatever you picked up at station #2) in the water and let your sin die with Christ.

If we’ve left the country where sin is sovereign, how can we still live in our old house there? Or didn’t you realise we packed up and left there for good?

That is what happened in baptism. When we went under the water, we left the old country of sin behind; when we came up out of the water, we entered into the new country of grace—a new life in a new land!

6-11 Could it be any clearer? Our old way of life was nailed to the cross with Christ, a decisive end to that sin-miserable life—no longer at sin’s every beck and call! What we believe is this: If we get included in Christ’s sin-conquering death, we also get included in his life-saving resurrection. We know that when Jesus was raised from the dead it was a signal of the end of death-as-the-end. Never again will death have the last word. When Jesus died, he took sin down with him, but alive he brings God down to us. From now on, think of it this way: Sin speaks a dead language that means nothing to you; God speaks your mother tongue, and you hang on every word. You are dead to sin and alive to God. 

That’s what Jesus did.

12-14 That means you must not give sin a vote in the way you conduct your lives. Don’t give it the time of day. Don’t even run little errands that are connected with that old way of life. Throw yourselves wholeheartedly and full-time—remember, you’ve been raised from the dead!—into God’s way of doing things. Sin can’t tell you how to live.

After all, you’re not living under that old tyranny any longer. You’re living in the freedom of God.

(Romans v6-14 (MSG))

Stand here at the table of the Last Supper…

Here is where it all started with bread and cup and a promise.

This bread and this cup is about that body and that blood.

This bread and this cup…

is about a new covenant between God and you

is about righteousness given not earned

is about God fixing the sin problem once and for all

This bread and this cup…

is about how He ‘So Loved The World’

is about his faithful forgiveness

is about his reckless grace

This bread and this cup…

is about no more condemnation

is about remembering – your sins are forgiven

This bread and this cup…

is about how everything is now moving towards how it’s supposed to be

And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, 

“This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.” 

In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, 

“This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you."

Take the bread and eat, take the cup and drink.

Then write this phrase on a piece of paper 

“My name is ________________ and my sins are forgiven.”

Take a deep breath and finish this experience with the phrase,

 “It is finished….”

Now you have finished the trail, enter you name opposite/below and click 'I Finished The Trail'