This Easter, celebrate the best event in our history—the empty tomb! Perhaps your congregation does a special event for your children and the kids in your community. As part of that event, consider tying in a special children’s message that will bring Easter into sharp focus for those in your congregation.
What You’ll Need
As you call the kids up to the altar, be sure to have an Easter basket with plastic eggs in full view. In the eggs, place chocolate candies, small toys, and one big bill ($100 or so). Also, have an egg that is empty.
Scripture Passage
Read Luke 24:1–8.
The Message
Ask the kids if they have ever been part of an Easter egg hunt. (Have the kids raise their hands if they have.)
Ask what the goal of an Easter egg hunt is. (To get as many eggs as possible.)
Ask why people do Easter egg hunts on Easter Sunday. (Responses might be a lot of fun!)
Ask if we might be missing something in the connection between Easter and an egg hunt.
Say the following: “In the Bible passage I just read, the women were going to the tomb prepared for one thing. But SURPRISE—they instead found the most incredible discovery! What did they find? Was it (open one egg and pull out candy) this? Or (open an egg with a toy) this? No. Both of these are pretty neat, but they aren’t amazing or life-changing.
(Open the egg with the $100 bill.) “Do you think the women were amazed because they discovered this? (Allow for responses.) No! These are all neat to find in an egg hunt, but what the women actually discovered was in this egg. (Pull out the empty egg. With some flourish, open the egg.)
“Why is this empty egg the best or most life-changing thing the ladies could have found? (Allow for responses.) When the women went to the tomb, they fully expected to find the body of Jesus. They had gone to the tomb to do burial rites that were part of what their culture did when someone died. Instead, they didn’t find the tomb closed—it was open! The burial rites they thought they’d come there to do were replaced with incredible surprise and joy as they saw the risen and glorified Christ. You see, Jesus has risen! He has risen indeed!
“So often, we miss the joy of Easter and instead settle for so much less. Instead of the joy of Jesus risen from the dead and the joy that we will also get to be with Him in heaven, sometimes people settle for egg hunts. Today, let’s take it all in. God loves us so much. He gave us His only Son, Jesus, to live with us, to die for us, and to rise again so we will one day rise as well. If you ever are doing an egg hunt and you see an empty egg, remember the incredible surprise and joy we have because God loves us so much. He is risen! He is risen indeed!”
Supplement your Easter children’s message with free object lessons, activities, and craft ideas.
