Explore & respond

Adult & All Age

Respond to the Word: Christ has power over death

Activities for adult and all-age groups

Make the most of a long but highly dramatic story. The raising of Lazarus was an overwhelming and terrifying event. Use a contemporary translation of the Bible, such as ‘The Contemporary English Version’ or ‘The Message’ (see Further resources ). If using a dramatised version, it would be easy to wrap the person playing Lazarus in (white) loo roll to simulate the grave clothes.

Plant a ‘reporter’ in the gallery, or somewhere high up, and another at floor level and ask them to report after the gospel reading on how they saw the story. The one with the eagle’s-eye view will stress Jesus’ authority and power; the one observing from the floor will stress his humanity, compassion and vulnerability. Draw out how both aspects are present in the way John tells the story and in how we, too, understand Jesus as the Son of God.

The story refers to the smell of the grave when someone had been dead four days. Then, in chapter 12, Mary fills the whole house with a beautiful smell. Smell is probably the most evocative of all our senses. Ask people to describe bad, good, or highly particular smells they have experienced and the feelings they evoke — but only if you are able to be unfazed by any jokers in the congregation! What sort of smells would have been around in the story of Holy Week and Easter?

Respond to the Word: Jesus coaches his disciples

Activities for adult and all-age groups

Tell the story of Beauty and the Beast (particularly well known in the Disney film version). The bewitched prince appears as an ugly and demanding monster until he is truly loved by a kind woman. How does God transform what is ugly in our lives by kindness and patience? How does God bring to life what has become dead in us?

Begin to crack open our current taboo about death. Ask an undertaker to talk about how they go about their trade. Or invite someone who has done bereavement counselling — even someone who has come through a bereavement — to talk about the stages of grief that people experience. Acknowledge the suffering involved in losing someone you love in a way that will be supportive for whoever in the congregation is presently bereaved. Do all this in the context of our sure faith that it is not death, but God, who has the last word.

Take the story of Lazarus as an opportunity to list and pray for members of the community who have died in the last year, and those who have been bereaved. Is there anyone who would appreciate being sent a card of remembrance in time for Easter?

This story has particular significance for gay people, for whom ‘coming out’ has a special meaning and is a very risky and courageous thing to do. How would your congregation respond if you asked a gay person to tell the story of their ‘coming out’? Alternatively, you might ask the parents of such a person who have come to terms with their child’s sexual orientation. What are the parallels with the story of Lazarus?

Reflection: The death and raising of Lazarus

A meditation put into the mouth of Mary, sister of Martha

I dreamt last night
that I was at his feet again,
lying there, helpless, weeping,
unable to shake the grief and pain
that stormed within me.
I couldn’t look at his face.
I couldn’t lift my eyes to see his eyes,
afraid perhaps of finding his tears there again,
afraid that this time he might turn from me
though he never has before.

Where is he now
when I need him most?
Who will heal this ache within me?
I woke with fists and stomach clenched
hardly able to breathe.

A dream, a dream, only a dream.
But it was no dream
when in my house,
so long ago it seems
I took the most expensive gift,
the lavish prize of rich ointment
and fell at his feet
to cover his precious skin
with perfume and tears.

There was nothing else to give,
no other way to show
my love, my need,
my joy at his tenderness and goodness.
With my tears I prepared his feet
for the journey ahead of him,
but not my heart for the life and death to come.

I wished it were a dream
when my brother died,
and loss bore down heavily on all who loved him well.
Why did he not come?
I wanted so much to rebuke him,
rail against this too sudden death,
question the point of all this pain …
until he came… and I fell before him
covering his feet with my tears.
That day I saw the earth give up its dead,
a man walk from the tomb and live.

Can it be that another will rise again?
Can the feet at which I shed my tears,
those feet, battered, bruised, trodden on and nailed,
can they walk again?
If my tears could make them whole –
as they do in my dream –
then let the night end
and the dawn come
and I will weep no more.

Children & Young People

Respond to the Word

Activities for children and young people

For children

Play it again

Younger children might also want a chance to act out this story. You will need lots of toilet paper or bandages.

Keep it very simple, with a wrapped-up Lazarus lying down, and people to be Mary, Martha and Jesus. When Jesus calls, ‘Lazarus, come out!’ Lazarus comes to life. Give everyone who wants to the chance to play the different parts. Talk about how everybody’s sadness changed to surprise and joy.

Make a model

Make a model of the scene at the tomb when Lazarus walks out. You can do individual models or a larger one as a group activity. For the people, use play figures or make them from pipe cleaners or cardboard tubes. Dress them in scraps of cloth. Make the tomb from air-dry clay or salt dough, and paint it when dry. Add greenery and pebbles for realism.

Speech bubbles

Write out the following names of characters from our story: Martha, Mary, the Jews, Jesus, Me.

Cut out speech bubbles and write on the following quotations from the Bible verses. The words in italics are the answers, so don’t write those on.

This illness is so that God’s glory may be shown. Jesus
Let us go with Jesus and die with him. Disciples
I am the resurrection and the life. Jesus
If you had been here my brother would not have died. Mary/Martha
I believe you are the Son of God. Martha
Lazarus, come out! Jesus
The teacher is here and is calling for you. Martha
See how Jesus loved Lazarus and his sisters. The Jews

Display the names and give out the quotations to each child or small group. They try to place the quotation under the appropriate name.

Which of the quotations might they match with their own name? Why?

Family groups

Remind the children that Mary, Martha and Lazarus were sisters and brother. Then play a tape of lively music, giving instructions to children for them to follow — such as hop, skip, run. When the music stops, the leader calls out a number below six and the children have to form groups of that number. Anyone left out helps the leader to choose the next number. Talk about how hard it was for the tiny family of Mary, Martha and Lazarus when Lazarus died.

Presentation

If appropriate, work on a presentation for the rest of the church on today’s Gospel. This could be something as simple as asking the children to write down their reactions to today’s session and then displaying them. Or, it could involve acting out the story and leading some prayers.

Cards

Make greetings cards for church or family members who are not well or housebound. If possible, make arrangements for some of the children to deliver the cards with the leaders.

Caring for others

Explore ways to help a local care home or hospital, such as learning some songs and asking permission to perform them and delivering any special news or gifts from the church.

Exchange photos to keep the memory alive and help continue the relationship.

For young people

Jesus, son of God

Make a bubble-chart with Jesus’ name in the centre. Write in one colour around it all the actions and characteristics from this story that help us to recognise him as human, and use another colour for those that help us see the divine nature.

Make it

Make a scene of the raising of Lazarus. You need a large piece of cardboard, some modelling clay, coloured paper, fabric scraps, pipe cleaners, and paints or felt-tip pens. Fold the card in two, scoring along the centre line to get a neat straight fold. Shape most of the modelling clay into the shape of a rocky cliff with a cave in it, and roll the rest to be the boulder that closed the cave tomb. Put these features into position against the back-board. Then use coloured paper and paints to create trees, grass and bushes around the tomb, and pipe cleaners and scraps of cloth to make figures for Jesus, Mary, Martha, Lazarus, the disciples and the bystanders.

Victory over death

See if you have any budding songwriters in your midst. Invite the group to write songs about today’s stories, working individually, or in small groups to share talents. They can start with writing some lyrics — like writing a poem — and then put a tune to them.

Talk about

Discussion ideas for children and young people

For children

Jesus did not go to Lazarus as soon as he was called. Sometimes it seems as if Jesus has not heard us, either. Why do you think this is? Could it sometimes be better for us to wait? Maybe we are not ready for what God wants to do in our lives. Does God always hear our prayers?

How do you think the disciples felt after seeing this miracle? Do you think that it would have given them courage, considering the danger they faced? (See vv. 8 and 16.)

Does believing in Jesus change the way we feel about dying? How can we best comfort people around us who are sad and suffering?

Check how much of the story the children have taken in by seeing if they know which of these statements are true, and which false.

Lazarus lived in Bethlehem. F
He had three sisters. F
One of his sisters had once wiped Jesus’ feet with her hair. T
Jesus had been in danger of being stoned to death. T
Jesus said that Lazarus was only sleeping. T
Then he said he was sorry that he had not been there earlier. F
The disciples said, ‘Let’s go and die with Jesus.’ T
Jesus told Martha that her brother would rise again. T
Some people said, if Jesus could feed 5,000 people, couldn’t he have helped Lazarus? F
Martha said her brother had been dead for five days. F
Before he spoke to Lazarus, Jesus prayed to God. T
This miracle caused lots more people to believe in Jesus. T

For young people

The two parts of the story may seem at first to have little to do with each other. But Jesus asks all the people in the story to understand that God-in-him is constantly in control. Things do not happen at random, or in frustration of God's purposes, for those who believe. All the people in the story are led to experience more fully the way Jesus is in touch with his Father's purposes. But that means they, and we, have to learn to wait on God's time. Can the young people think of times when they have been impatient of God’s choice of time?

Talk, gently and sensitively, about death and bereavement. Remind everyone that Lazarus would have to die again. Try to bring out the wonder of Jesus’ authority over death. Does knowing Jesus make a difference to the way we feel about death?