Jesus Goes to the Cross

Jesus is God’s only Son.  Jesus came to earth to share God’s love with everyone and to die for our sins (all the bad things that we have ever done).  Jesus knew before He left heaven that He would have to die to pay the high price for our sins.  Jesus gladly came to die for everyone in the entire world – for you and for me – because He loves us so much.

Jesus told His disciples that He had to die but He also promised that He would rise again.  His disciples did not like it when Jesus said that He had to die!  But Jesus told them that He would do whatever His Father told Him to do because God always knows best. And Jesus always obeyed His Father.

Jesus prayed a lot. One night after He had finished praying, Jesus gathered His disciples and said, “It is time.” They weren’t sure what that meant, but right then, a mob of Jewish leaders and soldiers came up to arrest Jesus! One of Jesus’ disciples named Judas Iscariot was with the mob! Even though he was a disciple, Judas never truly believed that Jesus was God’s Son. Judas walked up and kissed Jesus on the cheek. Judas had told the soldiers, “The one that I kiss on the cheek is Jesus. He is the one you should arrest.”

The soldiers arrested Jesus and all of His disciples ran away! The soldiers took Jesus to the Jewish leaders who decided that He should be crucified (hung on a cross to die) for saying that He is God’s Son. The soldiers took Jesus’ clothes away from Him and put a cloth around Him. Then they beat Him with whips and sticks. They pulled the hair from His head and from His beard and they put a crown of long, sharp thorns on His head.

Then, the soldiers put Jesus on a cross. They nailed His hands and His feet to the cross and they cut his side with a sword.

As Jesus hung on the cross, He looked down at the people who had done this to Him and prayed for them. He said, “My Father, please forgive these people. They don’t understand that they are doing this to Your Son.” Jesus knew that the devil had caused them to hate Him so badly. But Jesus also prayed that they would realize that He loved every single of them so much that He was dying for them.

When Jesus died, He was laid in a tomb (like a cave) and a large stone was rolled in front of the tomb to cover the doorway. Jesus was in the tomb for three days.

On the third day, some of Jesus’ followers came to the tomb because they missed Jesus so much. When they arrived, they saw that the large stone had been moved from in front of the tomb and Jesus was no longer there! While they wondered what had happened to Jesus, an angel appeared and said, “Why are you looking for someone who is alive in a place for dead people? Don’t you remember that Jesus said He would die but that He would rise again?

Suddenly, the women did remember Jesus saying that! They couldn’t wait to tell Jesus’ disciples what they had seen and heard from the angel! They couldn’t wait to tell them that Jesus was alive!

Jesus kept every promise He ever made. Jesus promises that whoever believes that He is God’s Son will be saved! He died so that His blood could wash away our sins when we ask Him to forgive us! He arose from the dead just like He promised He would do and He is in heaven with God, His Father. One day, everyone who is saved and follows Jesus will live with Him in heaven forever! That’s the good news of the gospel! And that’s the good news that Jesus wants us to share with everyone!