The Easter Story using Eggs:





My story begins on the Sunday before Easter that we call Palm Sunday. Jesus asked one of His 12 friends called his disciples, to go and get him a young donkey, He was going to go to Jerusalem for a special festival Jerusalem was very busy, the streets were crowded and very noisy.



When they heard Jesus was coming, there was great excitement. Jesus Climbed onto the donkey, and began to travel towards Jerusalem. Jesus is coming the crowds shouted, Jesus is coming. They waved palm trees, and made a carpet for his donkey to walk on- like they do for kings. The crowd thought that Jesus had come to free them from the cruel Romans, but Jesus wasn’t the kind of King they expected. He didn’t come into Jerusalem on a big white horse but a little donkey. He didn’t come to make war but peace.



It seemed that everyone in the world wanted to be friends with Jesus. They crowd was excited they laughed and cheered and shouted for joy: Hosanna! Hosanna! Here comes God’s promised King!



But NOT everybody liked Jesus, the Romans didn’t like him they thought he was a trouble maker, the Priests didn’t like him, they didn’t believe he was the son of God, they didn’t like the way he cared for everyone, and told them about God’s love.



‘We must get rid of Jesus’ they said..



Judas wanted Jesus to be a proper king, he was one of his 12 special friends. But Judas wasn’t friends with Jesus any more. So Whisper, whisper, whisper…



They made secret plans to catch Jesus – alone.



3rd Egg





Jesus and his disciples were going to celebrate a special meal together, called a Passover, before they sat down to supper, Jesus got a bowl of water and a towel. He was their leader but he knelt and washed their dusty smelly feet! Phewee…. He did this to show that we must love and care for each other.



During the supper Jesus took some bread he thanked God for it, then he broke it into pieces and gave it to them to share. Then he took a cup of wine and thanked God for it, and gave it to them to pass around. He told them that His death would bring many people back to God.



4th Egg





Judas loved money more than anything else, and those that hated him offered him money to betray Jesus.



For just thirty silver coins Judas told them where to find Jesus.



That night Jesus went to an olive grove garden that was dark and quiet there, among the old grey trees, to pray to his Father God.



Eleven of his close friends were with him.



And it was there that Judas carried out his bad plan. Judas arrived in the garden where Jesus was praying and greeted him in the usual way with a kiss.



Suddenly there were soldiers carrying weapons and lanterns they sprang out from behind the trees, they arrested Jesus and took him away. Then there was a clatter, Judas led men with weapons to take Jesus to his enemies.



Jesus didn’t try to run and he didn’t try to fight.



But he must have felt sad when his friends ran away afraid.



The soldiers took Jesus to Pontius Pilate the ruler of the land.



They tried to prove he had done wrong things.



They told lies about him to get him into trouble.



But Jesus stood silent, he didn’t argue or shout back.



The ruler of the country, Pontius Pilate, could see that Jesus had done nothing wrong. "I always set a prisoner free at the time of this special festival" he said to himself. "I’ll ask the crowds if they want me to set Jesus free".



But the enemies of Jesus had told the crowds what to say, the shouted Crucify Him, Crucify him..



Jesus let it happen: all the bad things, all the cruel things, all the unkind things.



The soldiers took Jesus away.



5th Egg



The soldiers weren’t very nice to Jesus.



they made fun of him,



they dressed him in a purple robe,



they put a crown of thorns on his head, they hit him, they spat on him, and they whipped him.



But Jesus still didn’t get angry.



6th Egg.



The soldiers put a heavy wooden cross on his shoulders and they forced him to march to the place where he was to die. The journey to the cross was a long one, Jesus was tired, and in a lot of pain. Jesus had known all along that the journey to Easter would end this way, but it was still hard and painful for him. He knew that he would have nails put into his hands and feet. This sad end was what his whole life had been for, but he also knew that there would be a new beginning.



On a hill outside the city, Jesus was nailed to the rough wooden cross with two criminals one on his left and one on his right.



Before he died, Jesus said a prayer to God:



Father forgive them, they don’t know what they are doing.



Jesus loved everyone to the very end.



The sky turned black, the ground rumbled, there was an almighty crash, and Jesus died.



One frightened soldier shook his head, Oh no, he really was the Son of God.



The friends of Jesus, just couldn’t believe what was happening they watched in disbelief, tears rolled down their faces, they were very upset. It was the saddest day…



7th egg



Later that day His friends took Jesus down from the cross, wrapped him in a cloth and laid him in a special cave.



Then a big heavy stone was pushed and rolled, to close the cave tight shut and two guards were put in front of the stone to make sure that nobody took Jesus.



Today Christians call the day that Jesus died Good Friday, a time of great sadness.



But the story isn’t over. We have one more egg left.



Very early on Sunday morning just as the sun was rising, a special friend of Jesus called Mary went to the cave where they had laid Jesus.



As she approached the cave, she couldn’t believe her eyes, the stone was rolled away, she crouched down and peered into the cave.



8th Egg



(Ask a child to open the egg.) There’s nothing in it. Just like the cave, the body of Jesus wasn’t there.



Mary started crying……



A man came and stood by her, ‘Why are you crying?’ he asked. ‘Who are you looking for?’ Mary looked around, in the morning sunlight, she couldn’t quite see who it was. She thought it was the gardener. ‘Please, tell me, where you have put him, she sobbed’



The man spoke again very gently, ‘Mary’. She turned and looked.



It was Jesus. ‘Go and tell my friends I will see them soon’.



Mary ran as fast as she could, shouting Jesus is alive, Jesus is alive.



And from that day word spread quickly from place to place from land to land, and today Christians like me believe that Jesus is alive and lives in you and me, through the kind things we do, and the love we have for each other. And this week in Churches all around the world remember the Easter story and pass on the most Amazing Good News that Jesus is Alive.



God’s Not Dead…



God’s not dead, NO, He is alive, God’s not dead, NO, He is alive, God’s not dead, NO, He is alive!



Serve Him with my hands, follow Him with my feet, love Him in my heart, know Him in my life; for He is alive in me.



Easter is an eggstraspecial day, when we should eggspress our joy at the eggstraordinary news, that Jesus is Alive….Alleluia!!



HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!

About Unknown

RELATED POSTS

The shops are full of them… All different kinds, all sorts of sizes…It’s tradition to give and receive chocolate eggs, and children love egg hunts. It was tradition in myfamily when I was a child to paint eggs and then race them down a hill. It was great fun.But I wonder why we give eggs at Easter?What is so important about Eggs at Easter??One reason is that the people who lived in this country used to give each other eggs around the time of Easter before Christianity reached here. They used to celebrate the coming of Springtime, and eggs are all part of the spring, with its promise of new life.An Anglo-Saxon legend tells how the Saxon goddess Eostre found a wounded bird and transformed it into a hare, so that it could survive the Winter. The hare found it could lay eggs, so it decorated these each Spring and left them as offering to the goddess.When Christians first came to our country and told people about Jesus, they thought the egg was a very good way of explaining the Gospel, so an egg is still the symbol for Easter and the resurrection of Jesus.I have some eggs and they are going to help me tell the story of Easter.(I have been using these eggs with children for a number of years now. Both in class and in assembly. It’s a good way of getting across the Easter message.)You can buy the plastic egg.s At Easter one year they had mini eggs in them I think. But it doesn’t matter what kind of plastic eggs you have but they have to be quite big so you can put things inside them.In each egg is another part of the story, you could lay it out on a table as the children take the different parts out of the eggs.1. Jesus2. Palm leaves and a donkey.3. Towel and Feet!4. Thirty pieces of silver in a little bag. 5 or 10 pence pieces are a good choice to go in the bag.5. A purple cloak and a crown of thorns.6. Three crosses, 3 nails.7. A stone and a white piece of cloth.8. Final egg has nothing in it.The first egg has a man in it, His name is Jesus, the Easter Story is all about Jesus.He was born in Bethlehem, and grew up to become a carpenter just like his dad, when the time was right God told him that he was a very special person, His very own son, and He told him he had a very special job to do. For three years Jesus travelled around everywhere Jesus went special things happened. Jesus changed peoples’ lives, he made sad people happy, he helped people feel well again, and he made people feel special because he loved them, just as they were.Jesus told stories to help them change their lives and taught people how much God loved them. Everywhere Jesus went people stopped and listened. Everywhere Jesus went great crowds of people gathered.