How I accidentally turned Lazarus into a zombie...

Last week in Sunday School we were supposed to teach the kiddos about Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead.

If there had been a word of the day, it would have been “resurrection”. We all but hit them over the head with it.

First we played a version of hot potato. The rules were the same as regular hot potato (i.e. the person caught holding the ball when the music stopped was out), with one major difference. Randomly the word “resurrection” was called, and everyone who was “out” was allowed to come back in to the circle. The kids really enjoyed this activity. The teachers would have enjoyed it more if there was a good way of ending it. After all, it is hard to find a good stopping point with all the constant resurrecting of old players.

We also had the kids draw butterflies by tracing the outlines of their hands on a piece of construction paper, and then decorating them.


This activity drew heavily on the kids understanding of the whole caterpillar-cocoon/chrysalis-butterfly cycle. The idea was to have the kids connect a butterfly emerging from the cocoon as being reborn or, you guessed it, resurrected.

Additionally, the kids read the Bible story about Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead, and wrote down their weekly bible verse. Basically: Resurrection, resurrection, resurrection.

Finally, it was my turn to teach. I drew a picture of tree in winter on the dry erase board, and asked the kids if the tree looked dead or alive. They all yelled, "Dead", so I asked them how I could make it look more alive. "By drawing leaves on it", they called out.

So, I had them come up and take turns decorating the tree. We only had one green, so the kids also drew lights, flowers and whatnot on the branches. We even had Steve the Squirrel, Tom the Turtle and a random butterly represented, although I am not quite sure how they came to be part of the drawing.






After the tree was finished, the kids returned to their seats and I asked them again if the tree looked dead or alive. This time the answer was, “Alive!”


Me: “So before we drew leaves and decorations on the tree it looked like it was what?”

Kids: “Dead! Like in winter!”

Me: “Exactly! And what do we call it when something is dead and it comes back to life? Like in the story of Jesus and Lazarus? Resur…”

Andrew (one of the kids): “…ZOMBIES!”

Me: “Wait, no…”

Other teacher: “Well, kind of…”

Kids: “Zombies! When something is dead and it comes back to life it is called a 'zombie'!"

Trevor: “[Shaking head] I am never going to think of Easter the same way again.”

Sigh...

I can only imagine what the kids told their parents later on:

Mom or Dad: “So, what did you learn in Sunday School today?”

Child: “Well, we played hot potato and drew pictures of butterflies and learned about Jesus turning Lazarus into a zombie."

Mom or Dad: “That’s nice, hon…wait. What?”