Easter Three

Place black ‘paving stones’ onto wall hanging if using, plus a picture of some trees.
Divide Rally into teams. Give each a piece of paper and pencil. Write up on black/whiteboard ADUSJ

Ask them to find a persons name from these letters. Take suggestions until JUDAS is guessed. The pencil & paper is to play with the order of letters if they find it hard to work out. You might like to make it a team competition to see who correctly gets Judas first.

Judas was one of Jesus disciples. Jesus had 12 disciples – they were the men who had become his very close friends. They lived and travelled together as Jesus went around teaching people about God and healing those who were sick. They were all very good friends and shared what they had with each other.

But Judas had a big problem – he loved money. He loved it so much that he was prepared to betray Jesus - his teacher and friend! The Jewish rulers wanted to get rid of Jesus but the people wanted Jesus to be their King. That didn’t suit the rulers, so they planned to arrest Jesus on a false charge. But how could they get Jesus without all the ordinary people causing a riot? Only by catching him at night when the rest of the people were at home!
So some of these Jewish rulers had a private talk with one of Jesus disciples – Judas. They offered him 30 pieces of silver if he would tell them when and where they could catch Jesus and arrest him, away from all the crowds who followed Jesus around. So, after the special Passover – and we talked about that last Rally – Jesus took his disciples out into the night to the Garden of Gethsemane. They often went there to relax and wander through the trees. But Judas slipped away unnoticed and went off to tell the Jewish rulers where they could find Jesus.

The rest of the disciples all sat down under a tree to relax. Jesus asked them to stay there while he went further to pray privately to God. They didn’t see Jesus throw himself on the ground, or weep, or talk with God about the suffering he knew was going to happen to him. They just went to sleep! Jesus came back and woke them up – he wanted his friends to also pray. But they were tired. When Jesus went away to pray again, they went off to sleep again.

Suddenly Jesus was back beside them. “Are you still sleeping?” he said. “Enough! The time has now come. Look! It is time for me to be handed over to wicked people. Get up. Here is the man who is betraying me.”

And suddenly they were all surrounded by temple guards holding torches & lanterns, and Roman soldiers wielding swords & clubs. They had come to arrest Jesus. The disciples scrambled to their feet and saw Judas. Judas came up to Jesus and gave him a kiss. That was the signal to the soldiers so they knew which man to arrest.

“Who is it you are looking for?” said Jesus.
“Jesus of Nazareth,” they said.
“I am He,” said Jesus.
The disciples were scared and worried. “Should we use our swords to fight?” they said. And suddenly Peter slashed out with his sword at a man and cut off his ear.” But Jesus said, “No. put your swords away. This is what God has planned for me and I must do it.” Then he picked up the ear and put it back on the man. Amazing isn’t it – in all this Jesus, although he knew he was about to be arrested and mistreated, was concerned for the man and healed his ear.
Then the soldiers took hold of Jesus and held him tight. He said to them, “Did you have to come with swords and clubs to capture me as though I were an outlaw? Every day I sat down and taught in the temple and you didn’t arrest me. But I know all this has happened so that the Old Testament Scriptures will come true.”
Then Jesus said, “You are looking for me. Let these others go.” And so the rest of the disciples escaped into the darkness.

Next Rally we will find out what happened to Jesus after his arrest.