EASTER GAME: THE RESURRECTION

Here’s a fun Easter youth group game involving Skittles. Includes a lesson on Jesus’ resurrection, based on Mark 16:5-6.

Hope your students enjoy the game!

Looking for youth ministry curriculum? Check out the…

UNAFRAID – A new 4-week youth ministry series about facing and overcoming fear. In this series, students will learn how faith in Jesus empowers them.

EASTER GAME: THE RESURRECTION

Bible: Mark 16:5-6

SUPPLIES

• Plastic straws (one for each student)
• Several bags of Skittles (or other small round candy)
• Large bowl
• 3-8 empty gallon jugs without lids (water or milk jugs work great)
• Masking tape, rope, or cones

GAME PREP

Set up a bowl filled with jellybeans in the center of one end of the play area.

On the opposite end of your play area, using masking tape, rope, or cones, make a starting line a good distance away from the bowl of Skittles.

Give each student a straw.

Divide students into teams with approximately 4-5 students per team and give each team a gallon jug.

HOW TO PLAY THE GAME

Say: 

• We have a really fun relay game today.

• Each of you will line up with your team on that end of the room behind the starting line [point to the end of the space opposite the Skittles bowl]. 

• Your gallon jug will be placed on the floor in front of you at the starting line.

• When I say “Go!” the first person in your line will run down to the bowl of Skittles; using their straw, they will suck up one Skittle, run with it back to your line, and drop it in the jug.

• If the Skittle falls, suck it back up and continue.

• Once the Skittle is in the jug, the next person in line runs to the bowl of Skittles.

• When the bowl is empty, play stops immediately. 

• If there are people with Skittles on their straws, they drop those Skittles (or eat them) – they do not count.

• The winning team is the one with the most Skittles in their jug!

TEACH

That was crazy.

Skittles sure do bounce around, don’t they?

If you were on your way back to your jug when the final Skittle was sucked up, and the bowl was empty, how did that feel to not have your Skittle count?

[Allow students to answer.] 

It’s not often that we finish a game when something is empty instead of finishing when something is full.

Today, we are going to look at an important passage of Scripture about something else that was empty – Jesus’ tomb.

Mark 16:5-6 says: 

“When they entered the tomb, they saw a young man clothed in a white robe sitting on the right side. The women were shocked, but the angel said, “Don’t be alarmed. You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead! Look, this is where they laid his body.”

Easter is all about the empty tomb.

Jesus was crucified – killed in a violent, terrible, awful way.

He was dead, and the ones who loved Him most – His friends and family – took His body and sealed it up in a tomb.

Guards were stationed at the sealed-up entrance to the tomb to ensure that no one tried to mess with or take Jesus’ body.

So, when the women, who were Jesus’ close friends, arrived that morning, they were confused that the tomb that had been sealed with an enormous rock was now wide open.

I imagine that they first peeked their heads into the tomb because I know I would have been terrified to run into a tomb where a dead body should be.

But they must have finally gone in because we’re told in Scripture that “when they entered the tomb,” they saw a young man – a young man who was NOT Jesus.

Can you imagine what that would have been like?  

To think you’re going to see your friend’s body, but instead, a perfectly healthy young man is there, and your friend’s body is nowhere in sight?

What would you be thinking?

[Allow students to answer.] 

I think these women were probably scared and confused and worried and angry – all at the same time.

And I can imagine that they were also speechless.

This young man, an angel, we’re told, then double-checks with the woman to be sure they are all talking about the same guy – Jesus, the one from Nazareth, who had just been crucified.  

Then he tells them not to be alarmed.

That seems like an impossible instruction.

They are expecting to see the body of their dear friend.

Actually, they are hoping to see a tomb that is still sealed up with guards making sure that no funny business takes place with the body of their dear friend, Jesus.

But instead, they find the tomb open with no guards and an angel sitting where the body of Jesus should have been.

I think they were alarmed, and it was unlikely that they wouldn’t be.

But then, this angel says something even more incredible.

He says that Jesus isn’t there! He has risen from the dead!

I don’t even know what those ladies would have been thinking or feeling.

Did they remember that Jesus had told them that this would happen?

Did they believe what the angel was saying?

Were they confused and terrified at everything going on?

It’s hard to even imagine, isn’t it?

Jesus wasn’t in the tomb because He had risen.

And He still is risen today.

Jesus was crucified and died a violent and awful death.

He was buried in a tomb that was sealed and guarded.

But by the power of God, He didn’t stay in that tomb but is risen.

Jesus died and rose again for us; to cleanse our sins and make us right with God.

On Easter, we celebrate that the tomb was empty because He is risen!

(End Lesson)

Looking for youth ministry curriculum? Check out the…

UNAFRAID – A new 4-week youth ministry series about facing and overcoming fear. In this series, students will learn how faith in Jesus empowers them.

Want to make your Easter message pop even more? Check out this Jelly Bean Illustration.