What are the essentials for Easter with kids? This list from Crosswalk.com is helpful.

1. The Easter story is 100 percent true.

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The evidence for the resurrection is overwhelming. Overwhelming! We don’t have space here to go into all the fulfilled prophecies and logic-based arguments for the Resurrection. Books like Cold-Case Christianity for Kids and The Case for Christ for Kids do an excellent job of explaining that.

It’s critical that our kids understand that Jesus really was God in human form, that He really died, and that He was miraculously raised to life again. They need to know that the biblical Easter story is not a fantasy (or even an embellishment of what happened).

2. Jesus’ death and resurrection is highly relevant to our modern culture.

It’s easy to see that, as humans, we are all broken and in need of healing. As Romans 3:23 puts it, “We all fall short of the glory of God.” 

There’s nothing we can do on our own to fix this brokenness. We can’t do enough good deeds or live a good enough life.

That’s why we need a perfect Savior who is willing to bring that healing for us. That’s exactly who Jesus is and exactly what He does!

His death (which covers all the wrong we’ve ever done) and his resurrection (which proves that His power can conquer all things, even death) is exactly what we need in this modern world to live the full lives we were meant to live. . .

3. It’s okay to ask God questions and to wrestle with him on tough issues (even Jesus did).

Scripture describes Jesus as being “crushed with grief to the point of death” (Matthew 26:38). Christ knew what was about to happen and He asked God to take it away. And yet He demonstrates perfect obedience by eventually saying, “Yet I want your will to be done, not mine” (Matthew 26:39).

Jesus asked the tough questions at Gethsemane, not out of a defiant spirit that wanted to disobey God’s plan, but as one who was anxious about the future and of what was about to happen. What a great example we can share with our kids about how to have a honest, real relationship with God!

4. Jesus really suffered and he understands what it feels like to endure pain.

During his final days, Jesus endured incredible physical pain (including horrible Roman torture and a gruesome death on a cross), debilitating emotional pain (his closest friends either denied Him or hid during his darkest hour), and intense spiritual pain (while on the cross He felt the wrath of God for humanity’s sin).

Our kids will most likely encounter real pain and spiritual attacks in their lives (if they haven’t already). It’s critical that they know that Jesus—the one who says “come to me when you are weary and have heavy burdens” (Matthew 11:28)—is one who understands our pain because He experienced it firsthand himself.

5. Jesus chose to be obedient to God, even though He knew many would not understand His decision, and that He would lose His life for it.

How awesome that Jesus—the one who guides our life—exemplified perfect obedience at the cross, regardless of the consequences. We can teach our kids to follow God at all costs because Jesus perfectly demonstrated this during Easter!

6. Incredible, miraculous beauty can come through our trials.

Jesus’ death was one of the darkest moments in human history. As the Son of God was bleeding, suffering, and heaving his final breaths while being nailed to two pieces of wood at Calvary, Satan must have been rejoicing at what he thought was his apparent victory over Jesus. . .

How else could God have proven that He understands our greatest trials and pains without asking the Messiah to be put through the greatest trial of all? And how else could God have proven that nothing is impossible for Him if He hadn’t risen Jesus from the dead?

Our kids need to know that God can redeem the darkest, most awful trials into incredible victories, and that fact was proven with the death and resurrection of Christ!

7. God has a bigger plan at stake than our momentary afflictions. Always.

We can’t always understand the “why” or know “how long” we must suffer during hard times, but Jesus’ resurrection reminds us that we can trust God to work out the behind-the-scenes details.

He had a bigger plan for Jesus’ suffering (our redemption), and He has a greater plan for our suffering too (to develop endurance and to perfect our character) (James 1:2-4)!

8. There’s nothing that God can’t conquer, and he proved that with the resurrection.

In a world full of huge, seemingly insurmountable obstacles, how incredible it is to know that there’s nothing that our God can’t conquer on our behalf. . .

I want to equip my kids with this confidence, don’t you? I want my kids to hear over and over that Jesus is great, mighty and all-powerful, and that He proved that at Calvary’s cross.

9. Jesus went through all of this because He loved you.

Make no mistake—Jesus’ death and crucifixion is difficult to share with kids. Kids ask questions like, “Why would anyone want to kill Jesus when He was so kind and loving to everyone He met?” and also “Why did Jesus have to die?” . . .

Kids need to know that Jesus went through intense rejection, physical pain, and a horrific death because He wanted to bring healing and hope to each one of us. . .

In short, kids need to know that Jesus died because He longs to have a deep, personal relationship with each of us, and that a perfect sacrifice was the only way to do that. Easter is God’s greatest expression of love for us!

10. True hope, healing, and salvation are found only at the cross. Will you accept it?

Easter is a wonderful opportunity for conversations with our kids about salvation!

Perhaps our kids have gone to church all their lives, but have they every really made a decision to follow Christ for themselves? Maybe they know the Easter story backward and forward, but have they decided to not just follow Christ with their heads but to trust Him with their hearts? . . .

(Excerpt from Crosswalk.com. Article by Alicia Michelle.)

(Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash)