Nailing our sins to the cross

Today's Scripture: Jesus Cleanses the Temple--Matthew 21:12-17

At a youth retreat one year, one of the men from our church led a devotional. He was talking about Jesus and the sacrifice He made for us. During the middle of his lesson, he had us write one of our sins on a slip of paper and one by one we went up front to a wooden cross and nailed our sin to the cross. Wow! That was an incredible lesson. It really brought to life the fact that Jesus was nailed to the cross by my sins. I've never forgotten the way that made me feel. I felt guilt. I felt discomfort. I felt pain. But, I also felt free. Free from whatever sin was haunting the junior high me. My kids and I have talked about sin a little over the past year. They are old enough to understand when they do something wrong and why it was wrong. I wanted to let them experience something similar to what I experienced by nailing my sin to a cross. I want them to see what freedom feels like when we have our sins washed away, when we have our sins nailed to the cross.

Supplies:

Cork board square

straight pins

little colored circles

Sharpie

I drew a cross on the cork board. Then we brainstormed types of sins and looked up some scripture about sin. The kids wrote these sins on the cross. Then, we each thought about something that we are doing that is wrong.  We said a prayer for God to forgive those sins, and then pinned a colored circle on the cork board. The circle represents Christ's perfection. The pins represent the nails that held Jesus to the cross.

 We left the cork board in a central location in our house, so that each time we did something wrong we could ask for forgiveness and cover up another place on the cross. This really taught the kids, and myself, the importance of asking for forgiveness and repenting of our sins.  Hopefully, by Easter we will have completely covered the sin on this cross, just like Jesus covers our sins with his death on the cross.

For younger kids, you could do this fun, simpler craft!  Mosaic cross

Print a blank cross on card stock (or draw one on construction paper) and write the word SIN in the middle of the cross. Use a glue stick to put glue on the cross. Tear up little squares of tissue paper and let the kids stick the squares to the cross!! Easy and fun, with little mess!