Journeying With Jesus To Easter: Episode 2 – Good Friday!

An Accessible Journey With Jesus To Easter

Episode 2 – Good Friday!

Outline:
An accessible video and text bible study series journeying with Jesus on the road to Easter. Travelling together we will stop from time to time to explore key moments and understand what they are saying to us. This series will be accessible for everyone, including people of all ages with additional needs.

Watch:
Find a comfortable spot to watch the video. The video for this second episode is here (it’s part seven of a separate Lent series): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dsyHMXljhY

Prayer:
Lord Jesus, as we think about your journey to Easter, help us to understand all that you want to show us as we journey with you. Help us to learn from you through what you said and what you did. Help us to be like you and to share the Good News about you with people that we meet. In your own name we pray, Amen!

Good Friday:
This time we’ve arrived at Easter and will be looking at the story of Good Friday, which is the day that Jesus died on the cross. He did it so that all the bad things that we have done would die with him, and so we would be free from them all and could be forgiven for them if we asked Jesus.

Q. Do you know why Good Friday is called Good Friday? How does your church celebrate Good Friday?

Good Friday is a very holy day, and holy days are usually good days! Although what happened to Jesus on Good Friday was horrible, what he did for all of us by paying the price for all the wrong things we’ve done, was very good indeed.

Jesus and the journey to Easter:
As we go through Jesus’ journey to Easter together in this three-part series, we will journey with Jesus, looking at what he said and did that can help us to understand his journey better. This time, as we journey on with Jesus, we arrive at Easter as Jesus died for us all on Good Friday.

The part of the Bible we’re going to read from is Luke chapter 23 verses 44-49, and the version below is taken from the Accessible Edition New Testament:

‘It was now about noon. Then darkness covered the whole land until three o’clock. The sun had stopped shining. The temple curtain was torn in two. Jesus called out in a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my life.” After he said this, he took his last breath.

The Roman commander saw what had happened. He praised God and said, “Jesus was surely a man who did what was right.” The people had gathered to watch this sight. When they saw what happened, they felt very sad. Then they went away. But all those who knew Jesus stood not very far away, watching these things. They included the women who had followed him from Galilee.’

Luke Ch23 v44-49 (NIrV Accessible Edition).

What does this mean:
Good Friday and Easter Sunday that we will look at next, are two of the most important days in all of history! As Jesus took his last breath and died on that cruel cross, it must have seemed as if the devil had won after all. Jesus was dead! But the only way that Jesus could pay for all the wrong things we have done, so that we can be forgiven, was for him to take our punishment and so he had to die. As Jesus died, all the wrong things we’ve done were paid for. We are free because of what Jesus did!

And he wasn’t finished yet. If the devil thought he had won then he was very wrong. Jesus wasn’t going to stay dead, he was going to come back to life! But more of that in the final session of our series which is all about Easter Sunday!

Q. Have you done wrong things? Are you sorry for doing them? Do you wish that you could be forgiven?

The Good News is that Jesus has taken the punishment for all the bad things that we have done, and if we believe in him and tell him that we are sorry for the wrong things we have done, he is filled with joy and forgives us!

Q. Why not ask Jesus to forgive you for the wrong things you’ve done? Tell him about them and say sorry to Jesus. Ask him to forgive you and to take the wrong things away.

If you really want to do this, you could say this prayer:

“Dear Jesus, thank you that you love me. Thank you that you died for me, paying the price for the wrong things that I have done. I am sorry that I have done wrong things, please forgive me and help me not to do them again. Please take the wrong things I have done away. I love you and believe and trust in you and want you to be with me always. Thank you, Jesus, Amen.”

Jesus longs to hear you pray like this, so that what he did for you on Good Friday can mean that you are forgiven and can be free from the wrong things you have done.

But wonderful though this is, the story hasn’t ended yet. Our journey through Easter with Jesus has one more place to visit and we’ll see what happened just three days later in the next session in this series, which is all about Easter Sunday when Jesus rose from the dead and gave new life to us all!

Activity: Rainbow cross of hope!
Have a go at making the rainbow cross. You can colour it in with all the colours of the rainbow, remembering that the rainbow is a reminder of God’s promises to us all!

Put your rainbow cross up in your window for Good Friday so that you can share the Good News of Jesus with everyone!

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, we thank you so much for all that you did for us on Good Friday. As you died on that cruel cross so did all the wrong things that we’ve done.

We know that the only way for us to be forgiven was for you to take our punishment for us and we love you so very much for what you did for us.

We are truly sorry that we have done wrong things and pray that you would forgive us and help us to live good lives. We believe in you and trust in you, but most of all we love you.

Thank you Jesus, Amen

See you next time, when we’ll be looking at that time when Jesus rose up from the dead on Easter Sunday! Easter Sunday isn’t just about Easter eggs you know! But you’ll have to wait for the next session to find out what happened.

Arranged by Mark Arnold, Additional Needs Ministry Director at Urban Saints. Email: marnold@urbansaints.org

All text © Mark Arnold / The Additional Needs Blogfather. Images © unknown.

See also:
Journeying With Jesus To Easter: Episode 1 – Palms!
https://theadditionalneedsblogfather.com/2023/03/27/journeying-with-jesus-to-easter-palms/

With Jesus In The Wilderness: Episode 1 – Bread!
https://theadditionalneedsblogfather.com/2023/03/21/jesus-in-the-wilderness-bread/

With Jesus In The Wilderness: Episode 2 – Angels!
https://theadditionalneedsblogfather.com/2023/03/22/jesus-in-the-wilderness-angels/

With Jesus In The Wilderness: Episode 3 – Kingdom!
https://theadditionalneedsblogfather.com/2023/03/22/jesus-in-the-wilderness-kingdom/

Accessible Jesus: Modelling Inclusion
https://theadditionalneedsblogfather.com/2017/10/06/accessible-jesus-modelling-inclusion/