Easter Story

As told by Marita Schugk

1. Jesus was a child, just like you. He loves you. He has always loved little children.

   “He took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them” (Mark 10:16).

2. One day Jesus told his disciples (people who believed in him) that he was going away. He told them to remember him and to love everyone.

   Jesus took the sacrament with his disciples to show us that it is important. We take the sacrament bread and water to help us remember him.

   He said, “This do in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19).

3. Jesus knew what was going to happen to him. He told his disciples that on the third day after wicked people had killed him, he would live again and never die. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus suffered and bled for the sins of all people. Those who repent and believe in him shall have eternal life.

   “And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground” (Luke 22:44).

4. Later, wicked people had Jesus whipped and ordered him to be nailed to a wooden cross. Jesus hung on the cross a long time. And even though it wasn’t night yet, it became very dark. Jesus died, and his spirit left his body.

   “There was a darkness over all the earth. … And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit” (Luke 23:44, 46).

5. Joseph, one of Jesus’ friends, had his body taken down from the cross and wrapped in fine cloth. Then his body was put into a tomb, and the entrance to the tomb was closed with a big rock.

   “And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, And laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door” (Matt. 27:59–60).

6. On Sunday morning, three days after Jesus died, an angel rolled the big stone away from the door. When Mary and Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that it was empty, they were afraid.

   “The angel answered … , Fear not … for he is risen, as he said” (Matt. 28:5–6).

7. Jesus was resurrected. His spirit and his body were together again. But Mary Magdalene did not yet understand this. Jesus called her by her name, and he talked to her. She recognized his voice and knew then that he really had risen from the dead.

   Jesus showed himself to others. They saw and touched his resurrected body.

   “Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have” (Luke 24:39).

8. Because Jesus was resurrected, we, too, will be resurrected after we die. This is the true meaning of Easter. Jesus lives, and because of his sacrifice, we will all live again and will be forgiven of our sins if we repent and believe in him.

Christ with the Children, by Harry Anderson

Detail from The Last Supper, by Carl Heinrich Bloch. Original at the Chapel of Frederiksborg Castle, Denmark. Used by permission of the Frederiksborgmuseum.

Christ in Gethsemane, by Harry Anderson. Courtesy of Pacific Press Publishing. Used by permission.

The Crucifixion, by Harry Anderson

The Burial of Christ, by Carl Heinrich Bloch. Original at the Chapel of Frederiksborg Castle, Denmark. Used by permission of the Frederiksborgmuseum.

Fear of Hope, by Derek Hegsted

Behold My Hands and Feet, by Grant Romney Clawson