Re-purposed Stage Makes the Empty Tomb

Have you ever heard of a buzz prefix? If there were such a thing, I think "re" would be one of them. We "re"cycle, "re"purpose, "re"furbish and "re"store everything today. Instead of throwing out the mouthwash no one uses in our house anymore, I goggled how to re-purpose it. Did you know it will kill the germs in your kitchen garbage disposal?

So this Easter, I thought it very apropos
that I was re-purposing the little building in our stage area into the empty tomb. After all, God is in the "re" business big time. Isn't that what Easter is really all about? Restoring our relationship with him?

I had a lot of left over pieces from when I re-purposed our old puppet stage into the tomb a few years ago, so that is why the building was covered so haphazardly.

I have used these crosses for 4 years now. I attached "Jesus" to the cross with command strips so we could take his body down and wrap it up. He is on some corrugated cardboard that was white on one side.

We followed the gospels of Matthew and Luke for this drama. We began at the crosses and read Matthew 27:59-60. Then we did what the verses said: took the body down and wrapped a long white piece of muslin around it. We carried it to the empty tomb and laid it on a table I had in there. We rolled the stone in front and went into a classroom to read the rest of the story.

We looked at Matthew 28:1, "After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene..." We discussed what day he had been buried (Friday), which day of the week the Sabbath was (Saturday) and what the first day of the week is (Sunday). Then we did what the scriptures said - went to look at the tomb.

While we were in the classroom, my assistants removed Jesus' body from the tomb, rolled away the stone and got into costume as an angel and Jesus.

When we got to the tomb, there was an angel in front of it. The angel told us what is written in Matthew 28:5-7. I wrote it out on a file card for the angel, and condensed it a little.

There was a sign on the wall that said Galilee with an arrow. The kids followed the arrow into the adjoining room, and there was Jesus.

Jesus' lines from Luke for Easter drama.

Jesus greeted the kids and told them the lines from Luke 24:46-49 which I had also written out on a file card.

Then we went back to our main room where we I told them it would be 49 days until the Holy Spirit came. Then we made an optical illusion prop that demonstrated the resurrection of Jesus.