The Temptation of Jesus
Games Workshop - A Lesson Sketch
We used our Games Workshop to 'wrap up' the Rotation on the Wilderness Temptation to burn into their memories the KIND OF "Super Hero" Jesus truly was, compared to Superman.
Point: Jesus chose love, obedience, worship and service to others as his "super powers".
(Editor's Note: See Neil's Art lesson in this forum for notes on their rotation's "Super Hero" theme.)
Game #1: The Superman Relay
This was a "warmup" relay game to kick off the lesson.
Each team had to have a team members one at a time put on a superman costume, fly to rescue a babydoll, fly the doll to a saving spot, at which they had to toss the doll into a chair from about 8 feet. If it stayed in the chair, Superman could fly and give his/her costume to their next teammate. The superman costume was a white plastic bag with a large superman emblem on the chest, and holes cut for arms/head. The costume was supposed to include red-slippers but we ended up using furry animal slippers instead which the kids thought was very funny. The cape was a towel. Like many relay games of this type, the humor is in seeing the kids try to get the costume on and off.
The In-Between Bible Study
While the second relay was being set up, the group read the Bible story, answered some questions, then prepared some of the relay game pieces for the JESUS RELAY.
Game #2: The Super Jesus Relay
Teams sent individual players to one of three stations where they had to quote the verse from the story, from memory (close enough). You'll go over the verses in the story as you read and discuss it prior to playing this game.
- Run to the table where they put peanut butter on small piece of bread, after finishing it, they recited "People do not live by bread alone, but by...."Of course they could only move on when they said it right, which the peanut butter and crackers didn't help.
- Run to and climb the Pinnacle of the Temple (a chair on top of a table, with an adult spotter) and recite "Do not Tempt..."
- Run to the Riches and Glory vs True Treasure area. --This is what the kids prepared ahead of time during the Bible study...writing the key verse on some paper and crumpling it with a lot of blank sheets as well. When the individual players get to this area, they found 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 was about 5 feet away, so it wasn'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 "worship the Lord and serve him only" written on it.
The kids made some "false riches" papers too. This was 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 on it.
Pretty simple games, and they had a blast with them. Wide age group and everyone could play the games at their level.
Concluding Remarks
--about how Jesus chose The Word of God, Obedience, Love, Worship and Service as his powers, and that we can have these same powers too.
Game #3: Matching Quiz Game
Below you will see two paired facts: one about Jesus, one about Superman.
Luanne Payne has created and attached:
- A printable PDF Matching Quiz Sheet already mixed up for you, sample shown below.
- A printable PDF Teacher's Answer Sheet for the Matching Quiz.
Hand out copies of the Matching Quiz sheet to each student and to find the corresponding match.
Here they are Jesus vs Superman pairs correctly matched:
Son of Yahweh
Son of Jor-El
Son of Joseph and Mary of Nazareth
Son of Jonathan and Martha Kent of Smallville
The Gospel According to St. Mark
Action Comics
As a child, amazed his parents by disputing Torah with scholars
As a child, amazed his parents by lifting a car
Comes like a thief in the night
Faster than a speeding bullet
The Transfiguration on a high mountain top
A quick change in the Daily Planet broom closet
Mary Magdalene
Lois Lane
"He descended into Hell."
"He was in The Phantom Zone"
Walks upon the water
Leaps tall buildings
Lamb of God
Man of Steel
Martin Luther
Lex Luthor
The Heavenly Host
The Justice League
Wanders around Palestine, curing the ill and eating with sinners
Flies around Metropolis, aiding the weak and incarcerating criminals
Can turn Water into Wine
Can turn Coal into Diamond
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
Strikes Fear in the hearts of evil doers everywhere!
Desert of Judea
Fortress of Solitude
Carpenter's Son
Mild mannered reporter
King of the Jews
Last Son of Krypton
Peter
Jimmy Olsen
Godliness, Righteousness, and the Kingdom of Heaven
Truth, Justice, and the American Way
E'-Li, E'-Li, la'-ma sa-bach'-tha-ni?
Up, up, and away!
Rose from the dead once
Could not be killed
Real
Fictional
Can give you Eternal Life
Can only save you from evil villains
An idea originally posted by Neil MacQueen
A representative of Rotation.org reformatted this post to improve readability.
On this same Super Hero Jesus theme see:
- Games workshop by Neil MacQueen
- Games Workshop by Lisa Martin (using Neil's Ideas)
- Games workshop (Jesus Super Hero and Lent Journey by Amy Crane (nice photos!)
- Art Workshop idea by Neil MacQueen
