Leader Guide
Game
- Toilet paper—one or two rolls of two-ply toilet tissue for each team of five children
- Timer, such as a stopwatch, clock or watch with second hand, or timer app
If the rolls of toilet tissue are short, use two per team. One-ply tissue is typically not strong enough to use for the game.
For smaller classes, divide the class into teams of three children.
Before Lazarus was placed in the tomb, his body was wrapped in linen cloth to prepare him for burial. In the Bible, we can read of someone else who was prepared in this way. Do you know who this was? Jesus.
Read John 19:40:
Following Jewish burial custom, they wrapped Jesus’ body with the spices in long sheets of linen cloth.
Divide the class into teams of five children. As much as possible, teams should be all boys or all girls. Explain that each team should choose a child to play Lazarus, while the rest of the group will wrap Lazarus from head to toe with the toilet paper.
Here is how the game works: two children in each group will work as fast as they can to wrap Lazarus for 15 seconds. Then, two different children in the group will take a turn for 15 seconds. Work this way until the roll of toilet paper is empty. The team that finishes first scores five bonus points. After everyone is done, we will vote on which team did the best wrapping job on their Lazarus. We will look at how much of the body is covered and how neat the wrapping job is. That team will receive five points. Are you ready to wrap Lazarus? Go!
All teams play at once. Use the timer and signal for the pairs of children within each team to start and stop every 15 seconds. Only two children may wrap at one time. Once one team finishes their roll of paper, award them five points. All the children on the remaining teams should work quickly to finish wrapping their Lazarus.
Great job everyone! I believe Lazarus is ready for the tomb! However, this game isn’t over! Let’s read John 11:43–44 to give you a hint of what happens next.
43 Then Jesus shouted, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 And the dead man came out, his hands and feet bound in graveclothes, his face wrapped in a headcloth. Jesus told them, “Unwrap him and let him go!”
When I say, “Unwrap him and let him go,” each team will help their Lazarus remove the grave clothes. The first team to free Lazarus scores five points! Are you ready?
“Unwrap him and let him go!”
Award five points for the first team to completely unwrap their Lazarus. The team with the most points overall wins.
Once again, great job everyone. You are truly talented wrappers and un-wrappers! Yes, Jesus told the people to unwrap Lazarus. Now, let’s see if the same thing happened with Jesus at His resurrection.
Read John 20:3–7:
3 Peter and the other disciple started out for the tomb. 4 They were both running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He stooped and looked in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he didn’t go in. 6 Then Simon Peter arrived and went inside. He also noticed the linen wrappings lying there, 7 while the cloth that had covered Jesus’ head was folded up and lying apart from the other wrappings.
What was different about Jesus and His grave clothes? Jesus needed no help in removing His grave clothes!