Does Easter sneak up on you? I have been meaning to update our Easter scripture activity for years, but I am surprised every year, so I don’t get it done. This year, even though I have two adult age children, I finally did it. I wanted more of a Holy Week activity, with readings about the Savior’s actions and teachings during the last week, not just Gethsemane and the Crucifixion. I found a good LDS podcast which educated and inspired me to do more to commemorate the week and looked up several reading lists for Holy Week to help me narrow down which Bible passages to use. In the end, my favorite additions are the alabaster vial with a reading about the anointing woman and some doves for the reading about the cleansing of the temple. Instead of an empty egg representing the empty tomb, I have small Christus in the final egg. He is tangible and present, and not a missing person.
Here is a list of the readings I chose. I typed out the passages, printed, and folded them into numbered eggs along with these small objects. This year, we will read them all in one or two sittings. In the coming years, I hope to do two readings a day in the week leading up to Easter.
- Jesus Enters Jerusalem: Matthew 21:1-11 (palm leaves, donkey)
- Jesus Cleanses the Temple: Matthew 21:12-15 (money, birds)
- Mount of Olives Discourse about the Second Coming: Joseph Smith-Matthew 1:1,4-11, 22, 31, 37 (picture)
- The Anointing Woman: Mark 14:3-9 (small white vial)
- The Last Supper: Luke 22:7-8, 15, 19-20 (bread, cup) additional: John 14:6-7, 15, 18, 25-27
- Gethsemane: John 14:31; Matthew 26:36-45 (picture)
- Arrest: Matthew 26:14-16, 47-50, 56; (30 quarters, rope)
- Trial and Peter’s denial: Mark 14:53-72 (rooster)
- Jesus is Brought Before Pilate and Sentenced to Death: Matthew 27:1-2; Matthew 27:24-30 (scourge, purple cloth)
- The Cross: Luke 23:33-34, 44-47; John 15:13 (nail)
- Jesus is Buried: Luke 23:50-54 (white cloth)
- The Stone is Sealed and a Watch is Put in Place: Matthew 27:59-66 (soldier, stone)
- An Angel Appears to the Women: Mark 16:1, Matthew 28:2-8 (angel)
- The Resurrected Lord Appears to Many: Mark 13: 9-15 (Christus)