The Jesse Tree

What is a Jesse tree This is meant to be used during Advent It is a way of preparing for the coming of Jesus into our world. At the beginning of Mathew’s Gospel there is a very long list of the ancestors of Jesus. It seems a very boring way to start a book but Mathew was writing for the Jewish people A lot of the names on the list are Jewish prophets. These prophets talked about the coming of the messiah and what we needed to do to get ready for his coming. Mathew wants to make the point that Jesus is the Messiah the one who was promised

The Jesse tree is a way of remembering these prophets, of how they lived and of how they asked people to change It is a reminder that we too need to do something to get ready for Jesus. We too need to change

The prophet Isaiah said, “a shoot will spring forth from the stump of Jesse and a branch out of his roots.” This is a poetic way of saying the Messiah will be a descendant of Jesse To create the Jesse Tree you first need to decide who you are going to put on it. You need one person for each day of Advent. You then create a symbol for each person based on their life Each day we hang one symbol on the tree and remember the life of the person.

These are some symbols another group made Any ideas who the people they represent might be?

So exactly what is a prophet? Someone who sees the problems in the world and understands how God wants people to behave. They answer God’s call to help by reminding people of the right way to live and show people by what they say and do what this means They risk everything to speak God’s word

What qualities do you think a prophet should have?

Moses- A prophet Moses was an Israelite but brought up as an Egyptian. At the time the Jewish people were slaves in Egypt As he grew up Moses began to realise he was different than other Egyptians. As an Egyptian he was rich and powerful but other Israelites were suffering. He didn’t know what to do.

One day he saw an Egyptian mistreating an Israelite. He lost his temper completely and killed the Egyptian then because he was afraid he ran away.

Moses ran to the desert and became a sheep herder and got married. He tried to forget the past. One day he became aware that God was calling him to help his people. He was afraid so he made excuses to God. Basically he said “Why me can’t you find someone else.”

How do we hear God’s voice today? Do we make excuses? Eventually though Moses decided he had to do the right thing. He went to Pharaoh and asked him to let the slaves goes free. Even though he was afraid he challenged Pharaoh. He knew that God had forgiven him his past mistakes and wanted to do the right thing.

Pharaoh refused at first but eventually the slaves escaped into the desert. Moses led the people.

In the Desert the people got frightened because they thought they wouldn’t have enough to eat or drink and they wanted to turn there backs on God. Moses wouldn’t let them. He constantly reminded people of the right things to do and how much God loved them

It was hard for Moses having to lead the people and always be strong but he never gave up. Eventually he led the people to a new land but Moses never got there. He died just before they got to their new home.

From the list of qualities you picked out for prophets which ones did Moses have? Does anything in the story surprise you? Why do you think God chose Moses?

Jonah

The Story of Jonah God said to Jonah go to Nineveh and tell the people to change their ways and become better people. Now didn’t want to go. Nineveh was one of the largest cities at the time but it was an enemy of Israel. Jonah wanted to see God destroy the city.

Jonah decided not to do as God wanted. But because he thought God might be angry at him he ran away. (Why was this a silly thing to do?) He ran off to sea and boarded a ship. A fierce storm blew up

The sailors were worried they thought they would all die. Then they found out Jonah was trying to run away from God. They blamed Jonah for the storm. Jonah thought it might be his fault too so he told the sailors to throw him overboard. They did!

The sea calmed and the sailors were saved but Jonah was in danger of drowning. Even though he had run away from God he new God would never leave him so he prayed for help. Jonah was washed up on the shore. This time he decided he would go to Nineveh

In Nineveh he told the people that they were doing it all wrong and hurting each other and God. He said they must repent and change

They listened to Jonah and their king ordered everyone to wear sack cloth and fast and ask God for forgiveness God forgive the people but Jonah still wasn’t happy. He thought God should have destroyed the city

God said Jonah if you care about this tree and are sad when it dies imagine how much I care about all the people in this city. I want them to live not die. Jonah sat down under a tree to get some shade and began moaning at God. During the night the tree died. In the morning Jonah saw the state of the tree and was really upset.

Finally Jonah understood that he was there to help people turn back to God not to tell them that God would destroy them