What to Tell the Children About Easter
A Lenten Devotion by Dianne Sefter
Matthew 20:13
People brought little children to him, for him to lay his hands on them and say a prayer. The disciples turned them away, but Jesus said, “Let the little children alone and do not stop them coming to me; for it is as such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs.” Then he laid his hands on them and went on his way.
In the 30 years that I taught in a Christian preschool, some parents would confide that the most difficult story to tell (or NOT to tell) their children was the story of Christ’s death on the cross. Easter was “fine and dandy with sugar candy”, its commercialized Easter Bunny, and egg hunts. Families enjoyed dressing up and going to church on Easter Sunday, and would maybe add Palm Sunday to the list, if they were not frequent churchgoers. The topic of the cross and the events of Holy Week were put on the back burner, and oftentimes, left to the preschool to teach.
But what to tell the little ones? Especially if some parents really didn’t know what they believed, which seemed to be the real crux of the problem if the subject arose. How do you talk about the events of Holy Week without recognizing the force of evil in the world, and its specific target of God Himself? After a little digging, most of these questions arose from those who didn’t really believe that there was such a thing as sin in the world. Therefore, why the need for a Savior, Christ, to die for it? In other words, “Let’s just skip to Easter…”
As for the little ones, they were fascinated with Children’s Bible stories of the Last Supper, the washing of the disciples’ feet, and the Garden of Gethsemane, all of which we reenacted. Whenever we talked about Jesus on the cross, we always followed up with the sentence- “BUT, He didn’t stay dead… Three days later, what happened? HE ROSE AGAIN!” In this way, the events of Holy Week ended with the victory, anticipation and joy of Easter morning, which we celebrated the whole week afterwards with stories like “The Road to Emmaus” and “Breakfast on the Beach”.
It is easy to take the road that the disciples took when the children really wanted to know who Jesus was- keep them in the background, don’t let them get close to the Truth, and “this is serious business, we have no time for play….” But Jesus said, “Let them come to Me- this is what I want my kingdom to be like. Questions and all…”