My Stories

 

THE CRUCIFIXION OF JESUS

 

       This wonderful story is found in the Bible, in the Gospel of John, Chapter 19. Even though this is a wonderful, it is also a very, very sad one.  It’s sad because in today’s story, Jesus dies on the cross.  But it’s also happy because he did it for you and me so that we can go to heaven. 

 

        In my other stories, I told you how Jesus was healing many people and making them well.  They loved him and followed him and wanted him to be their king.  But, there were also other people who hated Jesus.  They hated Jesus because he said he was God.  They didn’t believe he was the Son of God, and they didn’t want the other people to believe in him and follow him.

 

         So one dark night, they tied him up and they took him away.  They took him to Pilate and then to Herod and they lied about him and accused him so badly that after many trials, they said, “He must die.”  Jesus then had to drag his own heavy wooden cross to the streets of Jerusalem and at the barren, brown dry hill, called Golgotha, the place of the skull.  There they pounded ugly, heavy nails into his hands and feet onto the cross. They stood it up onto the ground and pounded it in.  It was so awful because he hurt and he suffered very much.  But even on the cross, he loved.  He said, “Father, forgive them because they don’t know what they are doing.” 

 

       Jesus hung there for a long time.  Suddenly, it became very, very dark, like night, even though it was noon and the sun had been shining.  People began to scream and run away and others became very, very quiet.  God had made it dark as all the sins - all the bad and wrong things that man had done and will do were laid on Jesus.  Jesus was our savior at that time.  He was taking our punishment on the cross, and because of Jesus’ death, God could now forgive us.  After 3 long, dark hours, Jesus said, “It is finished” and he gave up his spirit and he died. 

 

        Two of his friends got permission to take him down from the cross, and they wrapped him in white linen clothes and 100 pounds of special smelling spices for his burial.  Then they laid him in a new tomb, a cave that was in a garden.  And they rolled a heavy huge stone over the doorway so that no one could get in.  Jesus was dead and he was buried. 

 

        Jesus’ friends and followers went home and they cried and they were very, very sad.  Some of them even hid.  They forgot that Jesus told them that he wouldn’t stay dead and that he would rise up and come to life in 3 days.  But would he really do it?  Did he really do it?  Be sure and listen to the resurrection story of Jesus to find the answer.