Stories of Jesus for Children 8 - Stopping and thinking

Today is the one day where there isn't a story of Jesus for me to tell you, because poor Jesus was lying dead in his tomb.

Have you put a stone in front of the cave in your Easter Garden? It needs to stay there today. But tomorrow, something amazing is going to happen!

Soldiers stood outside Jesus' tomb, to stop anyone from stealing the body, and sometimes we put some soldiers in front of the stone...

Do you recognise these soldiers?
So, poor Jesus was dead, and his friends and family were very, very sad, and very, very scared, in case the important people came after them next. They hid and cried.

But we have today to try to work out the puzzle: Why did Jesus decide to die? He didn't have to go to Jerusalem. He didn't have to annoy the important people. He could have run away when the soldiers came or told everyone that the important people were lying about him. But he didn't! Why did he let them kill him?

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Now, grown-ups find this hard to understand, and have different ideas about exactly why, so don't worry if you don't understand all of it! But think about Jesus washing his friends' feet. He said that the most important person must be like a servant to the others.

Then remember that Jesus told his friends that the bread was like his body, broken for them. Did we see his poor body broken yesterday? We did.

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He told his friends that the wine was like his blood, given for everyone. Did he bleed on the cross? Yes, sadly he did.

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So there are the clues. Jesus wanted to be like a servant for us. He wanted to give his body and his blood for us, even though it would hurt him and finally kill him. He didn't die because of a horrible mistake, or even because the important people wanted him to die, but he died because he loved us. He died because it would be good for us.

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We'll find out more tomorrow, the BIG DAY!

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Activity: Put some soldiers in front of the tomb.

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Questions: I have been asking the children questions all week, so now it's the children's turn! Ask your grown-ups anything you like about the stories. Leave a comment for me and ask me questions too, if you like! Remember what I said - even grown-ups don't completely understand this - God is a lot cleverer than the best grown up and it's impossible to know everything about him. So maybe you'll ask a question we can't answer!