Evidently the message of Easter is on the same level as sharp objects, horror movies, and rollercoaster rides as “not suitable for children.”  After reviewing the Sunday School lessons for the 5-year olds in their church, leaders at a church in Raleigh, NC decided to change the focus of Easter “because of the graphic nature of the Easter story and the crucifixion specifically.” 

Instead of teaching the children about the cross and the resurrection, the church decided to focus on the Last Supper, “when Jesus shared a meal and spent time with people He loved.”  The church leaders believed that “the crucifixion is simply too violent.”  At the end of the letter the leaders expressed that such efforts were taken for the purpose of “preparing preschoolers to know God’s love personally.” 

The letter goes on to advocate their decision for removing the Easter story by arguing that they are seeking to “build a foundation for that eventual decision by focusing on God’s love and telling preschoolers that ‘Jesus wants to be my friend forever.’”

In other words, these church leaders somehow think that leaving out the actually story of Easter is somehow better for children.  While I am not saying one should go into graphic detail with children concerning the beatings and bodily mutilation that Jesus experienced, you cannot lead anyone, even children, to “know God’s love personally” by bypassing the cross and the empty grave. 

To substitute the greatest message ever told [albeit a violent one] by teaching the Lord Supper as “Jesus spends time with people He loved” so you should be like Jesus and spend time with people you love [which is an extremely problematic interpretation of the Lord’s Supper by itself] is to raise a future generation that will not understand what it means to “take up a cross.” 

In fact, this is exactly the kind of Jesus most people want, namely a Jesus that “hangs out” with us because he “loves us personally.”  He is a lot more comfortable that way.  A Jesus, however, that hangs on a bloody cross, is placed in a borrowed tomb, and walks out of a cold, dead grave serves as a constant reminder of the punishment our sin demanded. 

All throughout the New Testament the gospel writers proclaim to young and old the glory of a humiliating cross and the hope of a gloomy tomb (Acts 2:36-39).  The Bible gives parents and church leaders the tremendous responsibility to raise a generation that finds their identity in a Jewish man who “for the hope set before Him endured the cross” (Hebrews 12:2). 

As the parent of an almost 3-year old and a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ, I have not been given the freedom or flexibility to offer my son, or my congregation, an “alternate ending” or “replacement version” of the Easter story.  For to ignore the cross and resurrection, at any age, is to ignore the only way my son, or my congregation, can “know God’s love personally.” 

So this Easter tell the story, the whole story.  Tell about the man who is God in the flesh, even if it is hard to understand.  Tell about the man who gave his life on a Roman cross, even if it is slightly graphic.  Tell about a man who walked out of a borrowed Palestinian tomb, even if it is hard to believe.  For any other version is simply “not suitable for children.”   

Pastor Wes