The Sabbath is the day of rest.

The Jewish people of the time of Jesus believed that God made the world in six days. On the seventh day he rested. To remember this, they believed that God had told them, the Jews, to keep every seventh day - that is Saturday - as a Sabbath, a rest day.

This day became very important for the Jewish people. When they kept the Sabbath they were showing people how important their faith was to them. Jews sometimes preferred to die rather than ignore the sabbath.

But sometimes Jews worried - what was work and what was not. How could they be sure that they were keeping the sabbath properly? At the time of Jesus the Pharisees tried to make the Sabbath easier to keep by explaining - in very great detail - what you were allowed to do and what you were not allowed to do on the Sabbath day.

The trouble was that it became more important to keep the rules on the Sabbath than actually to do good. Some Jews thought that it was more important to rest than it was to help someone. Jesus disagreed. This got him in a lot of trouble with some religious leaders.

Jesus healed people on the Sabbath. He said people were more important than laws. He said he knew better than the religious teachers. They didn’t like this at all.

Christians believe that Jesus rose from the dead on the First Day of the Week, which is not Saturday, but Sunday. This was the day when they met together for Mass, and it came to be the day which Christians made their Sabbath. Many Christians believe that it is wrong to work on Sundays, unless it is absolutely necessary, and that shops should only be open for essential things.

There are plans to open local shops on Sundays, and some local Christians disagree. Write a letter to a local paper giving your point of view.

1. What was the name of the town where this story took place?
1. What did Jesus begin to do in the synagogue?
1. Why were the people amazed?
1. What did the man with an evil spirit say to Jesus?
1. What did Jesus say to the spirit?
1. What happened after Jesus spoke?
1. What did the people say to one another after this happened?

Do a Newspaper Front page - ‘Jesus breaks the Sabbath’. Include words and a picture to tell the story. You could interview Jesus’ disciples and the Pharisees to get their point of view.

The Eucharist began in the Jewish Passover Festival. This was when God saved the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt. Even today, the Jewish people have a holy meal every year to remember this. At the first Passover they sacrificed a lamb and ate it. They put the blood of the lamb on the doorpost so that the angel of death would ‘pass over’ their houses. The story of the Passover is in the book of Exodus in the Old Testament.

In modern times the Jews still have a lamb bone on the table as part of the Passover meal, but they do not eat it.

On the night before he died, Jesus celebrated the Passover meal with his disciples. He showed that he was the Passover Lamb, who would die so that people’s sins would be forgiven.

At the Passover meal he took the bread and said ‘This is my Body’ and the wine and said ‘This is my blood’. He told his apostles to do this celebration again, in memory of him.

1. Where does the Eucharist come from?
1. What does the Passover remember?
1. What meat did the Jews eat at the first Passover?
1. What did they do with blood from the sacrificed lamb?
1. Do the Jews still eat Lamb at the Passover today?
1. When did Jesus celebrate the Passover meal with his disciples?
1. What did Jesus (and Christians today) compare Jesus with in the Passover?
1. What did Jesus say over the bread at the Passover meal?
1. What did Jesus say over the wine at the Passover meal?
1. What did Jesus tell his disciples to do in future?

Draw a diagram or poster showing the connection between the Passover and the Eucharist. For example, with words and pictures link together the Lamb, Jesus and the Bread and Wine.