This Easter we spent a full week celebrating. Not my typical holiday slacking.
It all started with Palm Sunday. Our four year old daughter’s class would be joining all the other 3 & 4 year olds in waving real palm branches while there was joyful music and dancing through our service. So we took the opportunity to teach her why she would be doing that. We talked with all the kids about Passover. We pulled out our Bible Storybook - My First Message and read to them about Moses and the Egyptians. We talked about who and what was being “passed over”. Then we read The Triumphal Entry and Jesus in the Temple from the same story book,0 followed by Luke 19:29-44 from our NIrV Adventure Bible, and then pulled out our cutesy Palm Sunday donkey book (talking about what is real and what is pretend – “the Bible is always real, this cute donkey story is just to help us think about that day a little better”).
And here’s where I did things a little differently than I normally do. I decided to tell the Passover week story, and Good Friday leading to Easter Sunday just like I do our read-alouds. As a cliff-hanger. Get to one good part that is leading up to the part of the week we’re studying and … stop! They wanted me to finish, to tell them what was coming next. I didn’t. I told them we would follow the week as it unfolded. Dwelling at each place for as long as it lasted. Talking about all the events, decisions, and surroundings of that particular moment in time. We talked of washing feet and serving others.
As Friday approached we talked of The Last Supper and communion and remembering. Our church had an interactive, self-guided Communion Service. Geared to families. Even families full of littles. It was a drop-in service. They had an 8 minute looping video (short is AWESOME! I can hold off my 3 year old ”must potty now” and my 5 month old “wiggly, talky” with a paci for that long) It was really something to see Matt tear up while reading from the screen the words of Jesus’ death. To see the faces of my older three watching the multi-media video. There was a flier with “families with children” suggested prayers, discussion questions, and confession prompts. We skipped a lot of the explanation that was suggested; we’d already been covering all that for a week. Then after praying with our family Matt handed out the bread and juice. We had prepared the kids for days what it stood for, to the 3 year old we reminded him simply that this meant Jesus loves you very much. We reminded them before going in that they would be holding their bread and juice until our whole family was holding it and daddy prayed over it. We took communion together quietly.
Through this week I’ve had some amazing discussions.
When getting in the van after the Communion Service TheMiddlest said, “I almost cried watching that about Jesus.”
When reading about Judas’ betrayal TheOldest asked, “Why did Judas do that if Jesus was going to give himself up for us anyway?”
While explaining sacrifice and the law and forgiveness of sins TheOldest said, “Boy, we’d have to have a lot of lambs.” (I’m sure this statement has absolutely nothing to do with my propensity for cussing, right?)
My girl talked of Barabbas to us and her Nana and Papa like she was recounting a movie she had seen. With casual familiarity.
And a few new observances from me as well. It was interesting to me that in Luke 22:1-6 that Satan entered into Judas. Interesting, I didn’t remember that. He went to the chief priests and officers to see how he could betray Jesus. And then they offered him money. I always thought they came to him, offered him money, and then he consented. Interesting. He also waited for no crowd to be present.
And here was the kicker for me. In Matthew 27:1-10 Judas hanged himself out of such remorse before Jesus was crucified. I didn’t remember that. It was even before seeing the sky go dark, before knowing that the temple curtain had been torn, before seeing the empty tomb. Before seeing Jesus walk back into the locked house with the disciples inside. Before.
And just now, as I was discussing this with Matt and reading the passage aloud to the family I summed it up with, “and so, Judas killed himself because he was so sorry over what he had done.” TheMiddlest said, “Did he go to Heaven?”
Matt looked at me and there was silence in our house. I asked Matt if we knew that or not. TheMiddlest offered that we could look it up. We discussed that Judas knew he had sinned. He was sorry. He confessed it.
But what weighs on me is that he knew he had betrayed an innocent man. Not the Son of God. Not the Savior. But an innocent man. Noble. And good. But.. We don’t know. We can’t look it up. It’s not for us.
What is for us… What shall we do, then, with the one called the king of the Jews? ~Mark 15:12
