Walk to Emmaus

A Bible Games Workshop

Scripture Reference:
Luke 24:13-33

Lesson Objective:

This Bible Games lesson seeks to highlight how the two disciples were able to recognize the Resurrected Jesus. There are two games in this lesson.

The full lesson is attached.

The first game, "What IS this?" involves showing odd objects/gadgets (like a mouth harp) to the class and having them guess the name of the item and what it does. The focus of the activity is that just because we can see something, doesn't necessarily mean that we recognize it, just like the disciples in the story see Resurrected Jesus, but don't recognize him.

From the attached lessson, here is how the 1st Activity is explained (in first person), as well as the questions that follow the activity:

Explanation for “What IS this?” Activity

• The activity we’re going to start out with is a guessing game.
• We’re going to split into two teams.
• Each team will then choose a captain for the round.
• A round consists of figuring out what the item is that I’ll be holding up in front of you.
• During the round, teams will take turns.
• A turn consists of the captain of the team asking me a “yes/no” question and then making a guess as to what the thing is. The team can help the captain ask the question and make the guess, but I will only accept questions and guesses from the captain of the team.
• A valid guess will either be the name of the object or the correct action that the object does or is used for.
• The round ends when one team correctly guesses the item.
• Whoever wins the round gets one point.
• We’ll play best out of three, which means if one team gets two in a row, then we won’t play a third round.

Ask/Tell

• So the objects were right in front of you! Why didn’t you get the answers right away?
• What helped you finally figure out the answer? (asking the right questions; getting hints from the teacher)
• So what we just experienced is a version of what the disciples experienced in today's story.
• Resurrected Jesus is right in front of them, but because they’ve never seen and barely have heard about Resurrected Jesus, they don’t know what it/he looks like. They can’t recognize him without knowing more of what’s going on.
• Also, it does seem like the Resurrected Jesus looks somehow different than regular Jesus did.
• What helps the two disciples to finally recognize Resurrected Jesus is their previous knowledge of Jesus and of the Old Testament Bible stories.
  The disciples would not have been able to ever recognize the Resurrected Jesus if they hadn’t been Jesus’ disciples and didn’t know the Old Testament Bible stories.
  --For example: Just think how hard it would’ve been to guess what the “mouth harp” was if you didn’t even know what a musical instrument was!?! Probably impossible, right?

The second game is a memory game that seeks to demonstrate how we help each other remember and how previous knowledge informs our current understanding. This activity can also reinforce why "Biblical literacy" helps us more easily/readily see Resurrected Jesus in our midst.

The point for children is that there are things they can do to PREPARE THEMSELVES for a personal encounter with Christ.

Download the attached Word document for the full lesson.

To view the other lessons in this lesson set (located on rotation.org) click HERE for Storytelling and HERE for Arts & Crafts.

A lesson written by member Nathanael Vissia. See more of his lessons at his free lesson site, www.rfour.org/curriculum.html

I was searching for a fun science experiment that I remembered from grade school and found this YouTube video (among many) that shows exactly what I remembered doing.

Kids create a color wheel, then spin the color wheel and the colors disappear. This experiment could help kids understand how the two followers saw Jesus but didn't recognize Jesus. SEE THE TWIST BELOW suggested by Rotation guy Neil!

Why do we see all the colors blending together into "white"?  There's a scientific explanation I've included below. But the TEACHING POINT is something like this:

1. As long as we don't take the time and slow down to really read and understand Jesus' life and message, it will all just look like a blur of white.
2. As long as we're too busy and not taking the time to pray and listen for Jesus' voice, we're only going to see a white blue.
3. As long as we don't make time to worship him with our heart and soul, he's going to be nearly invisible to us.
4. What we need to do is slow down, and take the time to really look at Jesus, and talk to him, then we will understand who his is, and what he is trying to say to us about our life.

Have the kids create their own color wheels and experiment with different colors.

But here's my twist!   Use a color clipart image of Jesus on the wheel so that when you spin it, it turns into a white blur.  (Thanks to Neil who mocked this up for me.) 

Here's the scientific explanation:
Light is all of the colors in one: white. When the wheel spins up to the right speed, the light bouncing off the wheel blends back into white light. Our eye can't work fast enough to keep them separated.

Click to enlarge and save Jesus in Color for this experiment.

FOR FOLLOW UP:

Pull out a prism and show how what we see as "white light" is actually made up of many colors.
Jesus is more than meets the eye!  Have you examined his life's story and teachings?

An Emmaus Road Quiz Game

Add a Bible study to this game idea!

The folks at Brentwood Baptist in Nashville have created the attached PDF with game instructions and all the quiz questions needed to play this fun game about the story of the Road to Emmaus.

In brief:
Players toss a suction cup toy at a board (seen right). Hit a "?" and your team gets a question about the story.

Tip: Instead of suction cups tossed at a whiteboard, you could toss a ping pong ball or beanbag towards a collection of buckets or boxes to see which it lands in.

Game instructions:

Divide the class into at least 3 teams.

Write each team’s name on the board so you can keep score.

Place the chair several feet from the board. Have a player from one team stand behind the chair and throw the suction cup ball at the board.

Wherever it sticks, the team has to follow the directions. If the suction cup ball misses the chart or does not stick, their turn is forfeited. If the suction cup ball sticks on “Lose A Point” the team looses a point. If the suction cup ball sticks on “Take A Point” they may take a point from any team they choose.

If the suction cup ball sticks on “?” the team player draws a Question Card from the basket and reads it out loud. The teacher then turns over the minute timer while the team ponders the question. If they answer the question correctly
before the minute timer runs out, they receive a point and it is written on the board.

If they are not correct, they do not receive a point. The next team takes their turn (each player on the team must take their turn throwing the suction cup ball) and so on. The game continues until all the Question Cards are gone. The team with the most points wins.

Suction cup "balls" can be found on Amazon.

Road to Emmaus Blindfold Game

In a previous church when we studied this story, we adapted an old youth group game to demonstrate how hard it is to SEE something or FIND something when your eyes are closed and you're getting a lot of conflicting help.

In an open space in our game room, we stood in a large circle, and then split into two teams -- every other person in the circle being on the same team.  Then one player from each team stepped forward to the center of the circle and we blindfolded them (using a ski mask!) and had them get down on all fours.

Then a teacher stepped forward to place an object SOMEWHERE on the floor within the circle without letting the two blindfolded people know where or what the object was, and without their team members allowed to name the object.

On "GO!" the teams shouted to their teammate where to go to find the object. The two blindfolded players crawled around aimlessly patting the floor until they stumbled upon the object.

Once they had it, the shouting stopped and they had to say what the object is without help and without taking their blindfold off.

Some of the objects we used in the game/placed on the floor:
A Cross
A Bible
Money
A can of food
A toy
A piece of posterboard
A clock

Once they correctly identified the object, we briefly discuss "how that object" could be used to serve Jesus.

About two-thirds the way through the game time, I put several folding chairs "IN THE WAY" of the kids groping on the floor for a few rounds.   After everyone had gone and we had had a good time, I asked them what THEY thought the game meant.

Then we read the story of the Road to Emmaus.

We then talked about the metaphor of the conflicting voices and instructions, and the "obstacles" that get in the way of finding Jesus.

How does Jesus help us "see" his message and the needs around us?

Is "seeing" what we really need? Or is "listening" and "following" what we need ?   Etc etc.