BIBLE STORIES

  Jesus was arrested and taken to the governor, Pontius Pilate. The Priests said that Jesus was a bad man. The disciples and crowds of other people said that Jesus was a good man. Pilate had to make a decision about who was right.

 

  It was a difficult decision. But he came up with a plan. At the feast of the Passover, it was traditional to let one prisoner out of jail. Pilate had two prisoners in front of him. One was Jesus, and one was a nasty man called Barabbas. He was certain that if he asked the crowd which prisoner he should let out, they would choose Jesus. Nobody liked Barabbas. That seemed like a good plan.

 

  But unfortunately, he had been wrong. The chief Priests had been talking to the crowd and turning them against Jesus. So the crowd was shouting for Barabbas to be set free. This shocked Pilate. “You have made this choice, not me.” He said to the crowd. So the Roman soldiers took Jesus away. They were cruel to him. They mocked him, and teased him. “Hail, King of the Jews” they said to him. They made him a crown made of thorns and put it on his head. Pilate still didn’t want to kill him.

 

  He took Jesus out to the crowd again, to see whether they had changed their mind. “Kill him, kill him” the crowd shouted. Finally Pontius Pilate gave in, and sentenced Jesus to be killed by being nailed to a wooden cross.

 

  Jesus was made to carry his own cross. It was very heavy and the journey was long. He was taken to a hill called the Place of the Skull. Once there, the Roman soldiers nailed him to the cross. There were two other men there who were also nailed to crosses. They were robbers. Jesus’ mother, Mary, was crying as she watched as Jesus died.

 

  Once Jesus had died, Pilate gave his body to a man called Joseph of Arimathea. Joseph and his friend Nicodemus took the body, wrapped it in strips of cloth which smelled of spices and put it in a new grave which Joseph had made. Together they rolled a great big heavy rock against the doorway to block it shut.

 

  A short time later, Mary Magdalene went to visit the tomb. But something didn’t seem right. The stone had been rolled away and where the body had been, there were now only some strips of cloth. Mary ran to fetch Peter and some of the other disciples. When the men came, they found the tomb to be as she had described.

 

  Peter and his friend had to go home, but Mary stayed by the tomb. As she gently cried to herself, she looked inside the tomb. She was amazed. Where Jesus’ body had been, there were two angels. Mary looked around her, and next to her there had appeared a man. “Why are you crying?” he asked her. Mary wondered whether he was a gardener. She told him that she was crying because Jesus had died.

 

“Mary” the man said. Mary looked up at the man’s face. It was Jesus! He was alive!

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