CrossKids Devo | Young Donkey
Activity – How RU Doing
Draw a line on a sheet of paper. Place a 1 on the left end of the line, a 10 on the right, and a 5 in the middle. As kids arrive, ask them to pencil in their initials on the line.
Say: If your day was so awful you wish you'd slept through it, place your initials by the 1. If it was a great day and you wish you could repeat, put your initials by the 10. Place your initials anywhere on the line that shows how you feel today.
Bible Time – Young Donkey – Mark 11:1-10 The people Jesus met were looking for a king. God had promised to send one. They needed one. So they were always scanning the horizon, awaiting a king's arrival. They just didn't expect their king to look like Jesus.
Where was his army? His crown? Why wasn't he leading them into battle, pushing the Romans out of Israel?
Jesus might be an interesting teacher, sure, but a King? The people who dismissed Jesus got it wrong. They missed seeing him for who he truly was and still is.
Yes, Jesus is a teacher. He is the Savior. He is the Son of God. But he's also the King—the King of Kings.
In this session your kids will not only discover that Jesus is a King but that he's their King.
Explain that you'll read aloud a passage from the Bible, but need help with sound effects.
Tell kids they'll all play the part of a donkey, which means they'll be braying, making the sound donkeys make. Ask them to do that several times, and afterwards point out that a donkey bray is described differently in various languages. Assign these different versions of braying to one or more kids:
Icelandic: E-Haw Haw
Hebrew: Yi-Ah
Turkish A-Iiii A-Iiii
French: Hihan
Dutch: I-A
After kids practice their donkey brays, tell kids to shout out every time they hear you say donkey.
Read: Mark 11:1-10
Take some liberties: be sure to work the word donkey in often by adding details that aren't necessarily in the text. For example, "The donkey (bray) was a nice donkey (bray) who had a lot of donkey (bray) friends."
When you've finished reading, have kids let out with a couple of full-volume brays to wrap up, and then, as a group, discuss:
In what ways did people show Jesus they thought he was their King?
When you ask the next question, lead by sharing your answer to the question.
In what ways do you show Jesus you think he's your King? And how might you do that more?
Say: Many years before Jesus showed up on a donkey, the prophet Zechariah described how Israel's king would come into Jerusalem.
Read: Zechariah 9:9-10.
Say: You can see why people were excited that Jesus came into Jerusalem riding on a donkey. And why they thought Jesus would get rid of the Romans and make Israel a great nation again. But Jesus didn't come to just set up a new kingdom in Israel and be king of the Jews. He came to set up a kingdom that would last forever, and to be the King of everything--including our hearts.
God wants us to know that Jesus is the King ... our King!
Pray