Lesson cont...

Warm Up

Does your mom wear perfume? Or your dad cologne? Do you like the smell of it? Do you ever wear perfume, cologne or other smelly things?

Today, we're going to learn about a time in the Bible when someone poured a bunch of expensive perfume all over Jesus!

Teach the Story

Story Summary

The story of Mary anointing Jesus with perfume is short and can be read directly from the Bible to your students. Here are some highlights and context:

• According to most chronologies, this event occurs just before Holy Week (which begins on the Sunday before the Crucifixion with the Triumphal Entry). We include it here in the "Preparing for the Crucifixion" section as Jesus clearly points to his impending death and burial within the story.

• Notice Martha serving dinner again while Mary does something else!

• Keep in mind that this happened almost directly after Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. Most likely some very interesting dinner conversation!

• Jesus mentions that Mary was symbolically anointing him for burial. For a while, the Jewish leaders had planned to kill Jesus for the things he was saying, and Jesus was predicting his death to his disciples frequently. Given how much time Jesus spent with Mary, Martha and Lazarus, it isn't hard to believe that Mary had a sense that things were coming to a climax.

• Spices and oils were used to embalm the bodies of the dead in preparation for burial. See Luke 24:1-2

• The practice of anointing with oil was used in the Old Testament as well, for various purposes. See Exodus 30:22-38 for the instructions Moses was given on Mt Sinai.

• Mary uses a perfume made out of nard (or spikenard).

The important thing to get across to your students is that this was done in preparation for the Jesus' crucifixion and burial.

(Note: This story is the subject of considerable debate. All four gospels record an event where Jesus was anointed with costly oil by a woman. The question is whether it is one event told in all four gospels, or whether there were two different events, one recorded in Matthew, Mark, and John and a separate event recorded in Luke. We won't go into all the details of each argument. Rather, we focus on the John account in telling this story. For reference, the other accounts of Jesus being anointed with oil are in Matthew 26:6-13, Mark 14:3-9, and Luke 7:36-50)

Comprehension Questions

• What city did this story happen in?

Bethany, the same city Mary, Martha, and Lazarus lived in

• What had Jesus just done for Lazarus?

Raised him from the dead

• What do you think they talked about over dinner?

Who knows? But I'm guessing some people had some questions for Lazarus!

• Who was cooking and serving the meal?

Martha

• Who poured the perfume all over Jesus?

Mary

• What did she wipe Jesus' feet with?

Her hair

• Why did Judas get upset?

He said that the perfume was expensive, and should have been sold so they could give the money to the poor

• What did he really want to do with the money?

Steal it for himself

• Who else have we recently learned about that would steal money from others?

Zacchaeus

• What did Jesus say Mary was doing?

Preparing him for his burial

• Mary spared no expense to show her love for Jesus. She poured out an expensive jar of perfume to honor him. How can we honor Jesus with our lives, like Mary did?

Memory Verse

Directions

1. Give the kids 5 different colors of construction paper and have them draw hearts of various sizes on each.
2. Let them cut them out and glue them together by size. 
3. Have them write the words you see in the picture on each of the hearts. 

Directions

1. Divide the kids into two teams.
2. Let one child from each team pretend to be "Jesus" a sit in a chair at one end of the room.
3. When you say go, one child from each team must go through the obstacle course to get to Jesus. When they get to Jesus, they must stick their head in the bowl (it is empty but we are pretending there is perfume/oil in there) and then use their hair to put it on Jesus's feet. They must dip their head in and rub Jesus's feet 3 times and then go back through the obstacle course and tag the next person in line!

Directions

1. Give the kids a plate and stick and have them decorate themselves a tennis racket! 
2. Blow up one balloon and divide the kids into teams. 
3. They must play tennis using their rackets and the balloon.
4. **Helpful hint*** If kids are not taking turns, you can place them particular spots on each side and tell them their feet are "glued" to the floor and they can only hit the balloon if it comes to them.