Jesus Loves Me

Bob:  Can young children really understand the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection?  Here’s Dennis Rainey.

Dennis:  He opened it up.  He’s reaching inside. What is it?

John:  Coins! I knew it was.

Child:  I thought it was—

Child:  I knew it was!

Dennis:  John knew it was the three coins.  Do you know what those coins represent, John?

John:  They represent trying to arrest or betray Jesus.

Bob:  This is FamilyLife Today for Thursday, February 21^st. Our host is the President of FamilyLife^®, Dennis Rainey, and I'm Bob Lepine. We’re going to take you back many years today—back to a room full of children, including a couple of my own who were very little at the time—to hear the Easter story.  Stay tuned.

Meredith:  And welcome to FamilyLife Today.  Thanks for joining us on our Thursday edition of the program.  Our host is the wonderful, marvelous Dennis Rainey; and here’s Bob Lepine.

Dennis:  How about that; huh?—exactly like I wrote it.

Bob:  Looks, to me, like my job is in jeopardy!  We do want to welcome you to the Thursday edition of our broadcast.  And that voice belongs to Meredith, who is in the studio with us today.

Dennis:  Meredith wanted the mike bad, too.

Bob:  She did.

Dennis:  She came in here wanting your job from the very beginning, Bob.

Bob:  She’s not alone, though. We have a lot of children in here who are anxious to be on the radio with us.

Dennis:  And a couple of them are related to you.  To your right is John Lepine, who right now, is acting like his dad—doing some kind of an impersonation.

Bob:  Hello, John. What are you doing? Are you acting like a monkey?  [Laughter]

Dennis:  I think he is.

Bob:  He looks a little like a monkey.

Dennis:  To John’s right is our guest co-host, Meredith. We’ve already introduced her. Next to her is Jennifer. How old are you, Jennifer?

Jennifer:  Four.

Dennis:   Four years old.  She has a cute blue ribbon in her hair, and she has a grin that just makes you want to just kiss those cheeks.  [Laughter]

And there is Alyssa; right? And she has a ribbon that is so pretty. It is blue, and red, and yellow; and she has curly hair and a cute smile.

Alyssa:  It’s a school bow.

Dennis:  It’s a school bow?

Bob:  Oh, really?

Alyssa:  With an apple and a pencil on it.

Dennis:  And then next to Alyssa is—

Jimmy:  Jimmy Lepine.

Dennis:  Jimmy Lepine. Do you do an Elvis impersonation, Jimmy?

Bob:  Go ahead and give it a try, there, son.

Jimmy:  Very much.

Bob:  You caught that; didn’t you?

Dennis:  I caught it.

Bob:  That was, “Thank you very much,” “Thank you very much.”

Dennis:  And Jimmy is how old?

Jimmy:  Nine.

Dennis:  Nine years old.

Jimmy:  Yes.

Child:  He’s the oldest.

Dennis:  He’s the oldest in the bunch.  Well, we’ve asked you all to come and join us today because we’re going to have an object lesson.

Child:  Object?

Dennis:  Yes, an object lesson.  We have some objects that are hidden in some Easter eggs. Do you know what these eggs are called?

Children:  “Resurrection Eggs”^®.

Dennis:  What are the eggs all about?

Child:  Jesus’ resurrection?

Dennis:  About the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  That’s exactly right.

Bob:  John, we’ve used these “Resurrection Eggs” at home, too; haven’t we?

John:  Yep.

Bob:  What have we done?

John:  We’ve hidden them in the backyard sometimes.  Sometimes, we make stories—stuff like that.

Bob:  Yes, stuff like that.

Dennis:  Stuff like that. Did anybody else—Jennifer, did you do anything fun with these eggs at your house?

Jennifer:  We just open them and just look at them.

Dennis:  When you were three years old. We’ll see if you remember this first one and what it is.  I’m going to open the blue egg. What’s that, Jennifer?

Jennifer:  Donkey.

Dennis:  A donkey.  Meredith, do you have any idea what that represents?

Meredith:  Jesus rode on a donkey through the town.

Dennis:  He came into Jerusalem on a donkey. And do you know that that donkey had never been ridden before?  It was a miracle that that donkey let Jesus ride on Him, and that Jesus represented the King who was offering peace.

Bob:  Jimmy, have you ever been on a donkey?

Jimmy:  No.

Bob:  Alyssa, have you ever ridden on a donkey?

Alyssa:  No, but I’ve rid a horse.

Bob:  A horse. How about you, Jennifer? Have you ever ridden on a donkey, Meredith?

Meredith:  No.

Bob:  John, have you ever ridden on a donkey?

John:  You know that!

Bob:  That’s true. I do know that.  But if a donkey had never been ridden, what do you think a donkey would do when somebody got on his back?

John:  Be a wild bronco.

Dennis:  But the donkey wasn’t wild; was he? He was calm. Do you know why?

John:  Because Jesus made him.

Dennis:  That’s exactly right, John. He made him, and He rode him; and He’s the Prince of Peace—the King of Peace.  He helped the donkey be peaceful.

Child:  The Prince of Peace.

Dennis:  The Prince of Peace.

Child:  And I think I can guess what’s in the next egg.

Dennis:  You can? What’s in there?

Child:  I think it is a little tiny palm leaf?

Bob:  Well, let’s open it up and see.

Dennis:  A palm leaf? 

Bob:  Let somebody else open it. Can I open it? You get to open all of them. Let me open it.

Dennis:  Okay, Bob. Go ahead.

Bob:  Thank you very much.

Child:  I think it’s Judas’ money.

Bob:  You think it’s Judas’ money?  [Laughing]

Dennis:  Judas’ what?

Bob:  No, she said, “Oh they work together so good.”  [Laughter]  Thank you, Meredith.

Dennis:  You noticed how I shared with him?

Bob:  Yes, you were very good.

Dennis:  You all need to share your toys, too. He opened it up.  He’s reaching inside—

Children:  Coins!  Coins!  I thought it was coins. I knew it was coins.

John:  I knew it was!

Dennis:  John knew it was the three coins. Do you know what those coins represent, John?

John:  They represent trying to arrest—betray Jesus.

Child:  When that guy paid Judas for—if he would—

John:  Thirty pieces of silver.

Dennis:  That’s right, John.  Thirty pieces of silver.

Child:  If he would —

Dennis:  Betray Him.

Child:  Yes, if he would betray Jesus, he would pay him thirty silver coins.

Dennis:  Jimmy, do you know what it means to betray somebody?

Jimmy:  Yes, if somebody is your friend and then you go against them and find like somebody else to be your friend—and you’re not their friend anymore—then, you’re betraying them.

Dennis:  That’s exactly right.  Judas was a friend of Jesus. In fact, he was one of the disciples. They tempted him with money, and did Judas do what was right?

Jimmy:  Yes.

Child:  No.

Dennis:  Did Judas do what was right?

Jimmy:  He didn’t do what was right, but he knew what was right.

Dennis:  He knew what was right. That’s exactly right.

Jimmy:  I thought you said, “Did he know what was right?”

Dennis:  No, we asked if he did what was right.

Jimmy:  No, he didn’t do what was right.

Dennis:  He didn’t. He betrayed Jesus; didn’t he?

Jimmy:  Yes.

Dennis:  Do you know what else Judas did? How did he betray Jesus?

Jimmy:  He betrayed Jesus by telling the soldiers where Jesus would be that night.

Bob:  And when the soldiers came, what happened, Meredith?

Children:   [All trying to answer.]

Bob:  Hold on! I asked Meredith.

Meredith:  So the soldiers would know which one to take—Judas went up, and he told the soldiers that he’d kiss the person on the cheek; and then, they’d know which one to take.

Dennis:  Who wants to open this egg?

Children:  I do!

Dennis:  Oh, man, we’ve got all kinds of volunteers, Bob.

Bob:  Sure do.

Dennis:  We’d better start with the ladies first. What do you think? We’ll start with Alyssa, and then we’ll go to you next, Jennifer. Okay? This is a purple egg.  Right now, Alyssa is opening it.  She’s pulling it out.

Alyssa:  The glass!  The glass that was broken.

Child:  Is it from the Last Supper that they had together or something?

Child:  The wine—the wine part.

Child:  From the last supper—how they drank the wine. He said that it was His blood.

Dennis:  Okay, so the cup represented the Last Supper; right? The cup represented Passover.  Passover was God passing over and protecting His people.

Child:  Yeah, in the Egyptian times.

Dennis:  That’s right. The angel of death was going to take the life of the first-born, but God had the Israelites spread blood up around their doorposts.

Child:  Lambs.

Alyssa:  And Pharaoh didn’t do it, and so his son died, and he let the people go—

Child:  He must have had a—

Dennis:  That’s exactly right, Alyssa.

Alyssa:  —because he was so sad.

Dennis:  That’s exactly right. So Jesus, by lifting the cup, was reminding us that God is our Protector. Did you know He protects you boys and girls? He does. He’s looking out after you.

Okay, we have another egg here. Bob, why don’t you hand this one to somebody?

Bob:  Okay. Jennifer, you’re going to open this. Everybody move back so—

Child:  The bread. I think it’s the bread.

Bob:  Oh, good. What is it?

Jennifer:  Praying hands.

Bob:  Praying hands. Why do you think there are praying hands in that egg, Jimmy?

Jimmy:  It’s when Jesus prayed in the Garden, asking God if it was possible for Him to bypass dying on the cross.

Dennis:  That’s exactly right. In fact, Jesus was troubled. He was upset because He was having to go to the cross.  His spirit—it said—was deeply troubled, but He prayed. You know, that’s an important thing for you, as boys and girls, to know—that when you are afraid or you’re troubled, you can pray and God will hear your prayer. That’s an important thing.

Did you know, while Jesus was praying, what were His disciples doing?  Who knows the story of that?

Children:  I do!

Dennis:  Meredith, what were they doing?

Meredith:  They were sleeping.

Dennis:  Did they sleep just one time, or how many times did they go to sleep? Do you know?

Jimmy:  Three.

Dennis:  Three times.

John:  Nails are next!  Nails are next!

Bob:  John.

John:  I heard you guys.

Dennis:  I think we need to go to another egg, here, Bob.

Bob:  Let’s go on to the next egg. That would be this one.  It’s still time for a girl to open one of the eggs for us.  So, Meredith is next.

Child:  I know what it’s going to be.

Dennis:  You know what let’s do. If John—

Child:  The piece of leather when they whipped Him.

John:  I forgot about that one.

Bob:  Yes, you forgot about that one. You were banking on it being nails.

John:  Forgot that, too.

Bob:  Could I ask John, this time, if he can explain about that piece of leather?

Dennis:  I think it would be appropriate for the dad to do that.

Bob:  And about Jesus being whipped. Can you tell us about that?

John:  I don’t want to.

Dennis:  You don’t want to. Because it’s sad; isn’t it, John?

Child:  They whipped Him with a piece of leather, and it had broken glass and nails in it.

Dennis:  Yes, it’s called a cat of nine tails; wasn’t it? It was called scourging. It was very cruel to do to a person.  It really hurt them badly.

Child:  I know what’s next!

Child:  Something for the spear.

Child:  I think it’s the spear that they put in His side.

Dennis:  You know what? Let’s let him find out what’s next, Bob.

Bob:  Okay. Go ahead and open that up.

John:  Okay.  Crown of thorns.

Dennis:  Crown of thorns—do you know what that represents, John?

John:  It represents them making fun of Him.

Bob:  What do you mean?

John:  They maked fun of Him by like giving Him crowns of thorns and stuff like that.

Dennis:  They were saying that He was the King of the Jews.  They were making fun of Him because they really didn’t believe He was a king at all. In fact, they were getting ready to crucify Him and put Him on a cross; weren’t they?

Bob:  If this was a real crown with real thorns on it, and somebody put it on your head and pushed it down, what would that feel like?

Child:  Ouch!

Bob:  It would hurt; wouldn’t it?

John:  Why didn’t you take it off your head?

Bob:  If you took it off your head it would hurt you even more.

John:  It would?

Bob:  Because those thorns would dig into your head as you were trying to take it off.

Dennis:  We have an egg, John.  I want you to open this egg because I think I know what’s in this.  I think you know, too.

John:  It’s the spear, maybe, or the nails.

Bob:  Spear or nails. Let’s see.

John:  It’s the nails!

Bob:  That’s right. Why do we have nails in there? What were the nails used for?

John:  They were used for making Jesus stay on the cross.

Bob:  Could you imagine—what it would feel like if somebody pounded nails into your hands and into your feet?

Children:  Ow!

Dennis:  Yes. John, why did Jesus have to die?

John:  Because that’s what He came on earth to do—for the sins of Adam and Eve and everyone else.

Dennis:  Very good. That’s exactly right. He died for our sins; didn’t He?

Well, I promised your son, Jimmy, the next two eggs.  So, I’m passing the light green egg and the purple egg.  I want you to open the light green egg first, Jimmy; and I want you to tell us what it is.

Jimmy:  Okay.

Child:  It’s the dice.

Jimmy:  It’s a dice.

Dennis:  It’s a die.

Jimmy:  Oh, I know what they used it—they used it to gamble for Jesus’ clothes.

John:  Coat.

Dennis:  Did you know that was mentioned in the Old Testament, nearly a thousand years before Jesus died?  In Psalm 22:18—that it says they would cast lots for His garment—for His clothing. But how did Jesus respond to them when they were insulting Him, and making fun of Him, and gambling for His clothing, and they did wrong to Him? How did Jesus respond, Meredith?

Meredith:  He responded, “Lord, please forgive these people for the sins they have made.”

Dennis:  That’s exactly right. Luke 23:34, “Father, forgive them—”

John:  “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

Dennis:  Very good, John.  Okay, we have another egg that Jimmy is going to open. What is it?

Jimmy:  A spear.

Bob:  A spear. That’s the other one John wanted to open; isn’t it?

Dennis:  Yes.

Bob:  John, why was there a spear in one of these eggs?

John:  Demonstrating how they stick the spear in His side.

Bob:  They stuck a spear in His side.

John:  Right in here, and all of His blood came out.

Bob:  Yes. Meredith?

Meredith:  They did that to make sure He was dead.

Bob:  Yes. And was He dead?

Child:  He died on the cross.

Bob:  He had died on the cross.  When they stuck the spear in His side, they could tell that He was dead; couldn’t they?

Dennis:  Do you know what else they used that spear for? They used it for something else, too. They used it—do you know, Jimmy?

Jimmy:  To break someone’s leg.

Dennis:  That’s right. Did they break Jesus’ legs?

Jimmy:  No.

Dennis:  Why?

Jimmy:  Because He had already died.

Dennis:  That’s right. And it was also foretold in the Scripture in Psalm 34, verse 20, that not a one of His bones would be broken. Jesus was not going to have His legs broken; He had already died.

Bob:  In fact, did you know that a lot of the things that happened during the last week that Jesus was alive had been written about years before that? The Bible calls those prophecies.  Hundreds and even thousands of years before Jesus was even born, God told men about how they would know who the Messiah was. He told them things like: “He will die on a cross,” and, “He will not have any of His bones broken.” They told about a lot of those things so that men would recognize that when God did send His Son, as Messiah, that He was the Messiah.

Dennis:  Well, we have three eggs left here—

Bob:  And we have three young ladies.

Dennis:  We have three young ladies. You know, since John got to open the nails, I’m going to let each of you young ladies open one of these.

John:  I’ll help you.

Dennis:  She’s opening—now don’t tell her. Don’t tell her. Do you know what that stands for?  It’s a piece of cloth.

Alyssa:  They wrapped it around His body.

Dennis:  Alyssa, they wrapped it around His body? What was that called, Meredith?

Meredith:  It’s like a mummy—sort of.

Dennis:  Grave clothes; that’s right.

Child:  Grave clothes?

Dennis:  They wrapped His body in that clothing so they could lay His body in a tomb. Jesus was dead. Did His disciples lose hope? The Bible says that they pretty much lost hope. They kind of went their own way and went back to their own businesses. They really weren’t expecting to see Jesus again. They had forgotten what He promised—that He was going to come back again, three days after He died.

And that leads us to the next egg because this is a very important egg. I’m going to let you open this one, Alyssa.

Alyssa:  [Shakes egg.] It’s a stone.

Dennis:  It’s a stone.

John:  It’s the stone for the grave!

Dennis:  Well, why did you need a stone for the grave, John?

John:  So that people won’t go in and like take His body.

Bob:  So it was a big stone. The one that you pulled out of that egg is not that big, but it was a big stone.  Where did they put it, Alyssa?

Alyssa:  They put it on the door.

Bob:  It covered the door of His cave, where He was buried.

Child:  They had to get a big stick and two of them helped roll it with the stick.

Dennis:  Really?

Child:  Yeah!

Bob:  Do you think, if you were there, do you think you could roll that stone away? Do you think your daddy could roll that stone away?

Child:  Uh, uh.

Bob:  Now wait a sec. Your daddy is pretty strong; isn’t he?

Child:  Yes.

Bob:  But you don’t think he’s strong enough to roll that stone away?

Child:  Yes, because God is the strongest.

Bob:  Yes.

John:  God did it.

Dennis:  John?  John, you think God did it?

Jimmy:  Two angels did.

Bob:  Two angels did?

Jimmy:  There were angels.

Bob:  And what did they do?

Jimmy:  They rolled the stone. 

John:  Uh-h-h-h.

Dennis:  John is demonstrating the rolling of the stone away, right here.

Bob:  A little sound effect, there.

Dennis:  There you go!

John:  All they had to do was this—whoosh! It fell.

Dennis:  I think we need to move to the last egg—to Meredith.

Bob:  It is Meredith’s to open.

Meredith:  I know what’s in here. It’s nothing. It’s from when He arose.

Dennis:  It’s empty. What does that mean? It’s empty.

Meredith:  It’s from when He arose from the tomb.

Bob:  And why is an empty egg like Jesus arising from the tomb? Do you know?

Meredith:  The grave was empty.

Bob:  That’s right. When Jesus rose from the grave, then the grave was empty. Is it still empty today?

Child:  Yes.

Bob:  There’s nobody there.

Child:  But Mary and two girls looked, and an angel appeared in there.

Child:  I don’t think the angel is still in there.

Dennis:  No, the angel’s not there now. Do you know why we asked you boys and girls to come in here and go through these eggs?

John:  For the radio?

Dennis:  John, that’s a great answer.  Jimmy, how would you answer it? Save the Lepine family’s pride, here.

Jimmy:  So other people, who are listening to the show, can know about Jesus, and about the “Resurrection Eggs”, so they can get some.

Dennis:  That’s exactly right. We wanted to talk about the reality of the Resurrection and wanted to see how easy it was to talk to boys and girls about who Jesus Christ is and the beautiful story about the Resurrection. What’s your favorite part about the Resurrection story?

Alyssa:  Mine is the empty egg.

Dennis:  Alyssa, yours is the empty egg? Why is that your favorite?

Alyssa:  Because that’s the part where I get more excited.

Bob:  Good!

Alyssa:  At first, I’m real happy; and then I get sad, and then I get excited!

Dennis:  Very good. You know what? That’s my favorite part, too, the empty egg. Meredith, what’s your favorite?

Meredith:  The empty egg because you know He arose from the grave.

Dennis:  Jennifer, you’re holding your hand up.

Jennifer:  The stone.

Dennis:  The stone. Jimmy, what’s your favorite?

Jimmy:  The gambling part because sometimes you can play with cards.  It’s kind of like gambling, and I like playing with cards.

Bob:  Okay. Thanks very much, son.  [Laughter]

Child:  I like the empty one because it shows that Jesus arose.  It makes you more happier when you hear that Jesus is arose.

Bob:  Yeah. That’s my son, the gambler.

Dennis:  But John over here is about to—John is going to protect the family.  John, what’s your favorite part about the eggs? John.  John.

John:  The empty one.

Dennis:  The empty one?

John:  Yes, because it makes you more happier to know that Jesus has arosen than just to win one thousand bucks.  [Children’s laughter]

Bob:  Do you have a sense, here, that we have completely lost all control?

John:  I can sure make you eggs crack up!  [Laughter]

Bob:  I can imagine—anybody who has ever taught Sunday school has experienced moments like that—where everything just kind of gets away from you, and the kids are all laughing. What we’ve been listening to today was obviously the telling of the Easter story, using a set of “Resurrection Eggs”. 

That was my son, John, there at the end. He had just turned six when we recorded that; and his brother, Jimmy, was nine years old—Jimmy the Gambler.  We had a whole crowd of kids, obviously. It was a lot of fun, but what was interesting was to see that the kids had a great time.  They got the story, and they understood it. They knew the Easter story and why it was important, by the time we were all done.

Since that time, since that was recorded, more than a million and a half sets of “Resurrection Eggs” have gone out, all around the world, and have been used in homes to share the Easter story with children and with grandchildren. Again, this year at Easter, we have them available if you’d like to get a set to use in your home or to send to your children to use with your grandchildren.  Go to FamilyLifeToday.com for more information about “Resurrection Eggs”.  There is information there about the new book for kids called Lily’s Easter Party that can be used in conjunction with the “Resurrection Eggs”. We’ve got a storybook you can use, if you’d like, as your kids open the “Resurrection Eggs”.

Again, the website is FamilyLifeToday.com.  There is also a downloadable PDF file that gives you activities that you can do with “Resurrection Eggs” —games you can play, and coloring pages, and crafts for the kids. And there’s information on the website about some of the resources Barbara Rainey has developed for Easter, including the new “Behold the Lamb” wreath that can be used in your home.  Again, the best thing to do is just go to the web; FamilyLifeToday.com is the website. Or if you have questions, call us at 1-800-FL-TODAY; 1-800-358-6329; that’s1-800-“F” as in family, “L” as in life, and then, the word, “TODAY”.

I should also mention that we’re making available, this week, a book by Lee Strobel called The Case for Easter. We’re making that available to those who can help support the ministry of FamilyLife Today with a donation of any amount. We are listener-supported. We are grateful for those of you who, from time to time, will get in touch with us and make donations to help cover the cost of producing and syndicating this daily radio program.

We thought it might be nice this week to say, “Thank you,” with this book that offers a critical examination of the claims of the Bible—that Jesus really did come back to life from the dead. Go to FamilyLifeToday.com to make an online donation.  Click the button that says, “I CARE”.  When you make your online donation, we’ll be sure to send you The Case for Easter. Or call 1-800-FL-TODAY.  Make a donation over the phone.  Ask for a copy of the book about Easter when you do that.  Again, we’ll send it out to you. And we want you to know how much we appreciate your partnership with us and your support of the ministry. It really does mean a lot to us.

And we want you to join us back tomorrow when we’re going to have a history professor join us. Dr. Paul Maier will be here to talk about the very first Easter and what we should understand from the historical data about that event.  I hope you can join us for that.

I want to thank our engineer today, Keith Lynch, and our entire broadcast production team.  On behalf of our host, Dennis Rainey, I'm Bob Lepine.  We will see you back next time for another edition of FamilyLife Today. 

FamilyLife Today is a production of FamilyLife of Little Rock, Arkansas. 

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