(upbeat music)
- [Narrator] God's story: Easter
So part of God's story is about Easter,
and it begins like this.
You might know Easter as the Sunday
a ginormous bunny hides chocolate inside plastic eggs,
but Easter is really all about how much Jesus loves us
and how God sent Him to rescue us.
Remember how the Jews, God's special family,
were waiting for a king to come rescue them?
Well, Jesus was the King, and this rescue
was the whole reason He came to Earth.
God had already rescued the Jews once before,
but this time it was going to include everyone.
So one night, Jesus told His friends about the rescue.
Exciting, right?
But talking about this rescue was sad.
That's because Jesus was going to rescue the world by dying.
Kids, every mean or bad thing we do deserves punishment.
By dying, Jesus took our punishment.
Lots of things in life have good parts and bad parts,
and just like candy bars are mostly good
as long as you brush your teeth after you eat one,
this story is a really good one.
Anyway, talking about the rescue made Jesus sad
since He didn't really want to die.
Thankfully, we can talk to God when we're sad.
So Jesus took a few friends into a garden to pray.
In the garden, a guy named Judas,
who people thought was Jesus' friend,
came with some people to help arrest Jesus.
Peter, one of Jesus' true friends,
was so mad he cut off a servant's ear with his sword,
but Jesus didn't want His friends to hurt others,
so Jesus healed the ear and let them arrest him.
Then Jesus was taken to trial.
One of the most powerful men in the city,
Pontius Pilate, wanted to let Jesus go,
but many of the people wanted Jesus to die.
They didn't believe He was the Son of God
or any kind of king.
Even after all the miracles Jesus did
like healing sick people and making blind people see,
they didn't believe in Him.
The people were so mad they started yelling, "Kill Him!",
so Pontius Pilate let the soldiers take Jesus.
The soldiers made fun of the idea that Jesus was a king.
They put a crown of thorns on His head
then nailed him to a cross.
Many people watched,
but not all of them wanted Jesus to die.
His mother and close friends were there too.
Just imagine how they must have felt.
Once Jesus was up on the cross,
the sun stopped shining for three whole hours
in the middle of the day,
but those soldiers kept right on making fun of Him.
They said, "if you're really God's Son,
"why don't you just call on some angels to save you?"
Jesus could have called on angels to save Him,
but he loved us so much that he wanted to rescue us.
So instead, He prayed to God,
"Father, I place my life into your hands."
At that moment, Jesus died.
(loud ripping noise)
(loud thunder)
(loud rumbling)
And when He died, the soldiers who had just killed him
realized he really was the Son of God.
Later, Jesus was put into a tomb,
and a big rock blocked the entrance.
Jesus' friends thought that was the end,
but three days later, God sent an angel
to roll the stone away.
Don't worry, Jesus could get out on His own.
The angel moved the rock so everybody else
could see the tomb was empty.
Jesus' friends were the first to stop by the tomb.
The angel said, "He has risen!"
Which is another way of saying, "Jesus is alive!"
Nobody could believe it.
Jesus took our punishment and then proved
He really is the Son of God by coming back to life.
Now, if we choose to follow Jesus,
God forgives us for all the wrong things we do
because Jesus already took our punishment,
and that's the story of Easter,
but that's not all there is.
Here's a quick version of what happened
after the angel told the good news.
Jesus' friends got scared.
Jesus appeared to them.
They saw His scars.
It was really Him.
Now they could share the good news too.
Jesus appeared to more than 500 people.
He went back up to heaven,
and the best part, he promised to come back someday
for everybody who follows Him,
and all that is a part of God's story.
(uplifting music)