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Children’s Sermon

Matthew 21:1-11

Seeing Jesus on Palm Sunday

April 2, 2023

Palm Sunday | 6th Sunday in Lent

Lectionary Year A

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ASK (a.k.a The On-Ramp)

Good morning!
I have here a picture. [hold up picture and show the kids] Can you tell me what this is a picture of? (A dog!)
That's right! Do you notice anything interesting about this dog? (Yes! It’s made up of words!)
Can you read what some of those words say? (Warm, fuzzy, tail, Woof, Bark, dogs, cute, friendly, etc.)
Those words are all part of what makes a dog "a dog," right?
So much so, that if you took away all those words that make a dog “a dog, [hold up a blank piece of paper] -- then there would be no picture at all, right?
Another thing that's interesting is that the further you are away from the picture, the harder it is to tell what the words say, OR that they are words. Just starts to look like scribbles, doesn't it?
(Optional: Let's see if that's true [Hold up dog picture for the congregation to see and ask them: Can you tell if these are words and if so, can you read what they say?])
It's only when you get really close to the dog that you can see the words that make it a picture of a dog.

TELL (a.k.a. The Freeway)

So in today's scripture story, we hear that there are a lot of people around Jesus who are having a party, a celebration – a PARADE for him!
But then we hear in the story that most of the people don't even know who Jesus is.
Some of the people think Jesus is going to be their king (that's what they mean when they call him a "son of David").
Others think that he's a prophet.
And still others don't know who he is and are confused about why there's a parade for him at all.
The reason so many people think so many different things about Jesus is because most of them have only seen and heard about Jesus from a distance.
Maybe they heard a few stories about him and maybe a few of them even went to go listen to him teach once or twice.
But what they haven't done is get close to Jesus and really learn the words that he was speaking and sharing and living.
Which is like this picture [hold up dog picture again]: From far away, it either looks like someone scribbled on a piece of paper -- or it looks like an incomplete drawing of a dog.
But when you get closer to it, and really look at it, you realize that there is much more to it than it just being a drawing of a dog.
The same thing is true of Jesus -- when we, like the disciples, follow Jesus closely, then we learn all the amazing things about God that he has to teach us.

SHARE the Good News (a.k.a. The Destination)

So today - Palm Sunday - is a day where we celebrate Jesus.
But if you think about it, it's kind of hard to have a celebration for a person if you don’t know that person.
And for some of us, we might think, "It is ALSO kind of hard to celebrate someone who we can't see"
Which, one more time [hold up picture of the dog, one more time], brings us back to the this picture of a dog made up of words.
Just like we can "see" this dog because it is made up of words, the same thing is true for us with Jesus.
When we keep reading and hearing and learning the stories about Jesus, when we hear the words about what Jesus did and said, and talk about those words with each other, then those words start to create a picture in our head of who Jesus is. Sort of like this…
[ Hold up one or both Jesus pictures found on the last page of the PDF]
Can you tell me some of the words that make up Jesus’ name?
[ Read some of the words together ]
All these words that are in the stories that we learn about Jesus – then create a picture of Jesus for us.
Reading and talking about these stories help us to see and know Jesus.
Which then makes it a lot easier to for us to celebrate him on days like today.

And that's the Good News for today. Let’s pray.

CLOSING Prayer

This is a repeat-after-me prayer.

Dear God,
Dear God,

Thank you for all the words and stories…

…about what Jesus said and did.

Thank you that by knowing Jesus better…

…we then get to know you better.

Thank you and Amen.

Originally posted April 6, 2014
Updated on March 4, 2023
Written and edited by Nathanael Vissia

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Supplies: Printed pictures from page 4 and 5 on this PDF and a blank sheet of paper.

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