I'm teaching children on the Magi this week and find them quite boring. What can I do to make it meaningful

Question

I want to stay true to the text but have some excitement and meaning in my lesson. The text is Matthew 2.

Answer 1

I found the most interesting point from the text was that these men were from outside the Jewish faith but they found enough validity in the prophecies to recognize that the "star" that they followed fulfilled the prophecy to the point that they asked Herod, "Where is He who is born King of the Jews?".

Today so called wisemen refuse to even consider any validity from Scriptures.

Interesting isn't it?

Answer 2

Remember the gifts they bore represented Jesus' roles as King,(gold was given as homage to a ruler) Priest,(frankincense was used in temple worship) Sacrifice (myrrh was used in embalming)
Odd gifts for a young child, it must be they had some foreknowledge?
You don't have to stay in Matthew 2, but show from the different parts of the Bible where Jesus is shown to be King, Priest, and our Sacrifice for sin.
This will also help the student to see how the Bible backs up the Bible, how it all fits together.
What we are NOT told in the account is that in those days, traveling any distance was not easy. These three must have has a good sized caravan to carry all the provisions they would have needed. So, when their show rolled into town, it was going to draw great attention...and scare the snot out of the ruler Herod. It apparently did, and led him to have all the younger children murdered, which fulfilled yet another prophecy.
Many ways to go on this...You may or may not want to include the political madness of Herod, centering instead on Christ.

As for the YouTube video, I watched it, and I don't think much of it. There's too much that is claimed w/o being backed up. It's just another claim typical of nonbelievers to discredit Christianity. What I saw was a list of the counterfeits from the enemy.

Answer 3

The Magi are cool, but the reason they were travelling , their focus, the newborn Son of God is the intresting point. I think if you relate how the prophets spoke of jesus 700 years or so ahead of the happening, you would not only make it more interesting, but educational at the same time; something they would carry with them the rest of their lives. Some of the verses from the old testament prophesying his coming would be Isaiah 7:14, Isaiah 9:6, and Micah 5:2

Answer 4

Really, I think they're fascinating! They were scholars, not cut out for the life of a traveling desert caravan, but they made the trip. Imagine how dangerous and alien that must have been for them--bandits, wild animals, ill-tempered camels (or donkeys) the freezing nights in the desert, the bad food. Yet they were driven to keep going. What was their motivation? And then the palace intrigue with Herod. Finding the child Jesus--were they puzzled, disappointed, glad it was over? Maybe if you asked the children to imagine being a magi, or took them on a "desert pilgrimage." You could give them water and dates and say "How would you like to eat this for weeks while traveling?"

As you can see, I taught a lot of kids' church classes. :)

Answer 5

The actual word we translate as magi is the word for sorcerer. It is politically incorrect for translators to use "sorcerers" and it would also include children. However, they were ancient sorcerers. They were the wise people of the time, they were the educated people. They saw the stars, according to the story, and due to their beliefs, realized something amazing was happening. They are not boring, they dropped everything to go see a great event, not knowing what the event was yet.

Answer 6

check out http://kingskidstuff.home.att.net/wise_men.htm
and
http://www.catholicmom.com/epiphany.htm

maybe have them make christmas stars or mini kings cakes?

here is an idea from the above
EPIPHANY HOME BLESSING

The Holy Family welcomed the Magi on Epiphany. There is a beautiful tradition that has been inspired by this event. Take some chalk and either have it blessed by your pastor or say your own blessing over it with your family/class. Ask God to welcome strangers to your home during the coming year. Finally write these numbers and letters over the front door of your home:
20 + C + M + B + the last digits of the current year.
The letters represent the traditional names of the Wise Men--Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar.

Answer 7

The Magi were quite an interesting group based in Persia with considerable historical influence beyond just the Bible story. They were early astronomers, open thinkers, and scientists.

Just do a little research.

Answer 8

I'm guessing that you have to keep the story withing the bounds of Christian lore, but magi were wizards and astrologers involved in looking for and working around fateful portents within the stars. Early people thought that the planets were gods who capriciously ruled peoples' fates and their spirituality had to do with trying to figure out how to trump them-- that is, how to transcend their influence and get closer to God, which was one of the reasons why --even in non-Judaic religions--they started to hope or expect that God would send a "savior.."

The words magician and magic are derived from the word magi (original spelling was magoi). They originally came from Persia and were involved in astrology in accordance with certain aspects of the Persian (Zorostrian) religion. Magian arts (what we would term magic, sorcery, or wizardry) were supposedly disseminated through the ancient Roman world and even into northern Europe. The magi were somewhat feared because they were magicians and, in time, came to be thought of as threats and persons involved in black magic (and this might be because the path of magianism became corrupted as followers became less interested in spirituality and mysticism and more into spellcasting and coercive magic). But the magi in the Bible story were interchangeably called "wise men" because the higher, more sophisticated type of magianism was the quest for gnosis--for a higher truth and for enlightenment and God-realization, as I already mentioned.

You might want to get into the meaning of the gifts of the magi or take it further and tell them about a legend about the Cave of Treasures (Search Cave of Treasures on the Web), which is a medieval legend about what happened to Adam and Eve after being expelled from Paradise and the lore goes that the gifts of the magi were stored in the cave until and brought out from the Cave to Treasures (also called the Cave of Concealment) to the cave in which the Christ was born.

Answer 9

How about you ask them to read through the text themselves, maybe in turns? Then tell them they have to solve a mystery. You give them one fact, the fact that it is not God who placed that star the magi followed in the sky. (You can show them that this is so because God is against looking for omens- so he wouldn't encourage it himself- Deut. 18:10-12 and Isa. 47:13-15)

Let them read the story carefully and find out why we can say that it is Satan who put the star up there.

(The star led them, not to Bethlehem where Jesus was, but to Jerusalem, which led to Herod's finding out about the new "king", which in turn led to his plotting to kill Jesus. Only after they had informed Herod did the star lead them to the house where Jesus lived.)

I think that would be fun for the children, and they'd learn how to recognise the lessons behind the stories found in the Bible.

Answer 10

Thank you for letting me know the age of the children. Kids love to "play act". I suggest you get some props, give each child a role and let them act out the story as you read it. They will have fun and remember the story better if they are involved.

Good luck and...
Merry Christmas!!