Year 3 Christianity Jesus portrayed through art and The importance of the Cross (Spring 2)
Session 1 - How do pictures of Jesus from around the world show a personal relationship with Christians?
KEY WORDS - Historical Figure; Believers representations; Messiah
Why did followers of Jesus consider him the ‘Messiah’?
‘Messiah’ and ‘Christ’ both mean ‘anointed one’, Jesus was seen as the saviour of the Jewish people.
Explore the children's own experiences of knowing how someone looks.
Talk about what is known historically about Jesus. That he was someone who historians agree existed, was a leader, a teacher but Christians also believe he was the Son of God, God incarnate, could do miracles and was resurrected.
Explain that very little is known about Jesus' appearance; there is no written description of him and paintings were not done until at least 150 years after his death. All images of Jesus are influenced by the experiences of the people who provide them.
Talk about the importance to believers of identifying with Jesus, explaining that in visual representations his features often mirror those of the people themselves.
Look at some of the images together - which ones do you want to give more context to?
Task - write about a few images you like - explaining why and what the painter is trying to portray about Jesus.
How do pictures of Jesus from around the world show a personal relationship with Christians? What is Historically known about Jesus?
Before we look into this a little more I would like you to discuss with your partner "how we know what someone is like"
Can you describe your class friend in words referring to their personal qualities as well as their appearance.
Very little is known about Jesus' appearance; there is no written description of him and paintings were not done until at least 150 years after his death. All images of Jesus are influenced by the experiences of the people who provide them.
Were there any cameras? Electricity? Computers? Who has read a book and the character, when the book was made into a film, was not how you thought they would look like? It was the same for Jesus...
Let's take a look at the following images of Jesus
Now let us take a look at Jesus if I lived in Africa.
Are the pictures similar? If I lived elseswhere I would be influenced by the people around me
Talk about the importance to believers of identifying with Jesus, explaining that in visual representations his features often mirror those of the people themselves.
On white boards can you draw a bust of Jesus - like the Romans did of important people or of important influence. That is from the shoulders upwards in great detail.
Jesus described himself as “The bread of Life, The Light of the World and The Good Shepherd.” How has this inspired art?
Three objects to be placed around the room that the children can sit around in groups: (a) a loaf of bread (b) a candle (c) a picture of a shepherd and some sheep. Each table to have one object plus one member as their scribe, and discuss in a circle/table what the object is.
What does it/he/she do? How can it/he/she be used? What is its/his/her purpose?
Come back together and ask the scribes to share the group's discussion, and add any more ideas that the others see as important. Then give the children these three extracts about how Jesus describes himself and ask them in pairs to read them.
‘I am the bread of life': John 6: 35
'I am the light of the world': John 9: 5
'I am the good shepherd': John 10: 14
Discussion - what do you think Jesus was saying about himself in these passages. Ask the children to write about the three passages on a prepared sheet answering what the passages mean to Christians, and what the children understand from them about who Jesus was saying he is.
WORKSHEET record your answers.
Now to see what the 'Faith Club' has to report in Files