Open the Word

For children

New life

The set passage is very long and it may be best to retell the story in your own words. It would be even better if you have a copy of one of the Greek or Russian icons — see the website links in Further resources . Reproduce this to about A4 size and hold it in front of you like an icon as you tell the story. Look down at the picture as you tell the story.

Try to focus on the image, this will help the children focus. Don’t over-dramatise towards the end: let the narrative do its own work. You could also retell the story using the different coloured cloths.

You could freeze-frame the different parts. Different members of the group could become the different people, using the coloured lengths of cloth, each telling the group who they are and their relationship to Jesus.

You could use these words.

Here is a story showing us who Jesus is. It tells us about Jesus and life. When Jesus came close to people, they changed. They could see things they’d never seen before and do things they’d never done before.

Jesus came so close to people that they became his friends, and one of the closest was his friend Lazarus. Lazarus had two sisters called Martha and Mary and they were also close friends of Jesus. They sent news to say that Lazarus had died.

Jesus and the other disciples were not close to the place, they were far away. Jesus waited for several days and then decided to visit his friends. He told the disciples that Lazarus had fallen asleep. They were confused and didn’t understand him. Jesus then had to tell them clearly, ‘Lazarus is dead.’

When they arrived near the cave where Lazarus had been buried, Martha came to meet him. She was full of grief and anger. She felt that if Jesus had come sooner her brother would not have died. She wanted Jesus to do something. Jesus came close to her and said, ‘Your brother will rise again’. Martha believed that this would happen on the last day. Jesus came very close to her and said something strange: ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will never die.’ It was as if Martha saw Jesus in a new way.

She then went back home to fetch her sister Mary. There were many people there and they all came back to the cave. Mary saw Jesus and fell on the ground and started to cry. She had also wanted him to come earlier and help. When Jesus came close to Mary and saw her distress he also began to weep.

Jesus then came close to the cave and asked people to take the stone away. Martha said that the smell from the cave would be terrible as Lazarus had been dead for four days. Jesus came close to the opening and prayed to God.

He came really close to the opening and shouted with a loud voice ‘Lazarus come out’. Lazarus came out wrapped in strips of cloth. ‘Unbind him’, said Jesus, ‘and let him go’.

This is a story showing who Jesus is, a great sign which tells us about Jesus and life.

For young people

What do you think?

Read verses 1-6. Talk about Jesus’ friendship with Lazarus and his sisters. How did Jesus feel? How did Mary and Martha feel? Read verses 17-35. Why did Jesus begin to weep? Does that teach us anything about Jesus? Read verses 38-44. How would you have reacted if you had seen this? How might Mary and Martha have felt? Why do you think Jesus brought Lazarus back to life?

Good news, bad news

Divide the young people into two groups. Ask one group to stop you when they hear some good news and the other to stop you when they hear some bad news.

Read John 11.1-45.

What do you think?

Read the Bible passage to the group.

Lazarus was raised from the dead. Invite the group to imagine they are an investigation team from a TV research programme looking into scams or cons. They should create a TV programme that looks into the alleged events of this day and interviews witnesses. Some characters should try to suggest it was all a scam to give Jesus some publicity. Their final interview should be with Lazarus himself and the story should be presented in a ‘we can’t quite believe it, but it is true’ finale.

The interviewer may ask the following questions, or similar, of each witness:

What did you see? What did you think was happening? How did people react?