How to Teach the Story of Easter and Redemption to Kids
They said, “Well, he saved others. Himself he could not save. It was himself he would not save.” There was one man that Jesus refused to save and that was himself. They taunted him. They wagged their tongues at him and they said, “Come down from the cross and we’ll believe.” That was the wrong challenge.
They should have stood in front of that grave and said, “Come out and we’ll believe.” A wise man once said, “If Jesus Christ is still in that grave, nothing really matters. But if Jesus Christ came out of that grave, nothing but that really matters. Take God’s word and be finding Acts chapter 4. When you found it, look up here. A teacher gave this assignment to her students.
They were to write an essay on the greatest living man. One student wrote an essay on Jesus Christ. The teacher said, “This is a wonderful essay, but you misunderstood.” I said, “The greatest living man.” And that student rightly answered that teacher, “He is alive.” He is alive. Others die and they stay dead. Jesus died and he rose again. I was reading about Harry Houdini.
Harry Houdini was an escape artist. Actually, he died in 1936 on November the 29th. But I have read about him. This man was a genius. He could get out of anything. Uh he they said that he had the flexibility of an eel. He had the lives of a cat. They tried all kinds of ways to keep Harry Houdini locked up.
Sometimes they would put him in a coffin, bury the coffin, he would get out. Sometimes they would rivet him in boilers. He would escape. Sometimes they would sew him up in canvas bags and throw him in the river. He would come out. They would seal him in metal milk cans and well the top. And yet somehow he would escape.
One time they put him in a federal prison in Washington, maximum security. He was in there less than a half an hour and he walked out and in the meanwhile he had moved most of the prisoners from one cell to another. An incredible individual. His biographer said he could escape from anything except your memory.
And yet there came a day when Harry Houdini died. And friend, he did not escape. No trickery there, no skill there, no flexibility there. Harry Houdini died. But friend, I want to tell you, there was another who died. His name was Jesus. And he made the great escape. Jesus came out of that grave and he arose.
