This is the fourth lesson in a series that explores words frequently used during the Easter liturgical season. The words covered in this series are resurrection, joy, completeness, and victory.
Setting: The messages were written to be shared during the children’s message time of a worship service. The assumption is that the leader will have no more than 5 minutes per talk, meaning that pedagogically we can drop seeds of ideas in children’s minds but not do any deep dives on the content. That setting also means that the message has to be accessible for 5-year-olds to understand, but also has the opportunity to be instructive to all the adults listening in the congregation.
Note: Any text written in italics is either instructions to the speaker or the answer to a given question. Always allow kids a chance to provide the answer before giving it to them. Whenever possible, positively affirm their contributions to the conversation.
Good morning, everyone…
Who knows what the word “victory” means? Pause to let kids respond.
Victory is about defeating an enemy or winning. Can you think of an example of a victory? Pause to let kids respond.
Sometimes victory refers to a battle or a war (for example, David’s victory over Goliath) or it might refer to a sports game like how the Eagles were victorious over the Cowboys! (Insert whatever local sports reference might mean the most to your kids.)
So victory is about one side winning and another side losing.
Did you know that victory can be a word to describe Easter? When you think about the Easter story, who do you think is the winner? Kids will probably say Jesus.
Why? Why was Jesus victorious? Because he came back to life.
One way to understand the Easter story is that it shows us that God and God’s son Jesus have victory over death.
That doesn’t mean death goes away. It’s still a part of our lives.
Jesus’ victory over death shows us that God is with us through all the hard things, just like God was with Jesus at the end of his life. And it shows us that God gets to write the end of the story. The world tried to kill Jesus, but God said, “Nope!” because the end of every story with God is life.
I’m so glad that we get to live our lives knowing that God loves us and shares Jesus’ victory with us.*
Will you repeat after me as we pray? (Speak one line aloud at a time, allow kids and congregation to echo before saying the next line.)
Victorious God,
We praise you
For your great power
And victorious love.
Alleluia!
Amen.
*To try an embodied prayer at the end of this message, invite kids to stand in a victorious position. They could decide for themselves what this looks like or you could guide them – stand with feet apart (like a superhero) and arms raised in a “v” shape above their heads. Then pray holding that position.
