Jesus

There are many varieties of Christian belief, but all Churches trace the origins of their tradition back to Jesus of Nazareth, who lived and was put to death by Pontius Pilate, the Roman Governor of Syria, in whose territory Israel was sited. The aim of this unit is to ensure that students know about and understand Jesus’ life.

By the end of this unit:

• most of your students will know about aspects of the life of Jesus
• some students will be able to explain the impact of certain aspects of the life of Jesus on world events
• a few students will be able to articulate the theological concepts and principles that lie behind some of the stories in the Gospels.

Prepare by reading the support material below. (You may also wish to provide this material for your more able learners.)

Jesus and the Gospels

Refer to the Christian beliefs tour of the virtual visit, particularly screens 14-21.

Starter

Ask students to think back to their primary school days. Can any of them think of famous stories or incidents from Jesus’ life? Record these as a starting point.

Activity

Begin with a short question and answer session to identify how much the students know about Jesus’ life.

Then ask the students to look at the screens about Jesus (screens 18-21) of the Christian beliefs tour of the virtual visit.

The activities for this unit are quite challenging intellectually, so you will need to work through the support material given above with the students before setting them off on the activity sheets provided below.

Jesus activity sheet

Exploring Christian Internet imagery activity sheet

Plenary

Run the Microsoft_® PowerPoint presentation below as a slideshow. Each click will reveal a new word or sentence which you can use to prompt a discussion with the students about what they have learnt.

Fact or faith?

Homework activity

A few years ago, a mobile phone company had an advertising campaign which had the hook line “Who would you want to have a one-to-one with?” Ask students to imagine they could have a one-to-one with Jesus. What questions would they ask him? What things would they like to know about him and his life? Ask them to write out the imaginary dialogue.