Share the Whole Story – Even the Hard Parts
As Christian parents, it’s tempting to focus only on the happy parts of Easter. We love the waving palm branches, the empty tomb, and the joy of new life. It’s not that those things aren’t wonderful; they are! But celebrating Easter with our kids deepens when we teach them the hard parts of the story, too.
Kids can handle tough things. In fact, when it comes to God’s Word, they need to hear them.
If we want our children to fully celebrate the resurrection, they first need to understand why it was necessary. That means talking about sin. That means talking about sacrifice. That means talking about blood. And that’s okay.
Before we ever get to the Cross, we need to talk about the problem Jesus came to fix. Here’s a simple way to explain sin to kids: Sin is doing things God says not to do or not doing things He tells us to do. There’s a tendency to look at sin only as the really terrible things “bad” people do, but God’s Word says that “all have sinned” (Romans 3:23) and “whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin” (James 4:17). Not one of us, adult or child, doesn’t sin on a daily basis. We can help our kids see sin for what it is by putting it in terms of everyday life. It’s telling a little lie, disobeying, using unkind words, ignoring someone who needs help, and being selfish. Even very young children understand what being naughty means, and they know from personal experience what consequences are.
Talking about the consequences of sin is where many of us hesitate with our kids. But the Bible doesn’t soften it, so we don’t need to either. Romans 6:23 reminds us that “the wages of sin is death…”. From the very beginning, sin brought death into the world. Because God is perfectly holy, sin separates us from Him. Throughout the Old Testament, God showed His people that sin required a sacrifice.
As Leviticus outlines sacrificial laws, God was teaching His people something important. Sin is not a small matter. Sin costs life. In the Old Testament system, an innocent animal would die in place of the guilty person. It was a substitute. The animal took the punishment the sinner deserved. But those sacrifices had to be repeated over and over and over again. Every year. Every time someone sinned. They were temporary, but they were pointing forward to something greater.
This is where the Old Testament and the story of Easter become wonderfully amazing. It’s why we shouldn’t skip the hard parts with our kids. When John the Baptist saw Jesus, he said: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). That phrase—Lamb of God—wasn’t random. Jesus wasn’t just a good teacher. He wasn’t just a miracle worker. He was the final, perfect sacrifice. Unlike the animals, Jesus was sinless, chose to lay down His life, and His sacrifice was once and for all. Where Old Testament sacrifices covered sin temporarily, Jesus’ death paid for it completely. That’s why when Jesus died on the Cross, He said, “It is finished” (John 19:30).
Teaching kids the full story of Easter doesn’t mean giving them graphic details; it means sharing the truth in age-appropriate ways. We can say things like, “Sin is very serious, and it separates us from God”, “In the Old Testament, something innocent had to die so people could be forgiven,” and “Jesus chose to die in our place so we wouldn’t have to be separated from God forever” communicate Biblical truth to help our kids see the big picture. Kids understand fairness. They understand consequences. They understand when something costs a lot.
This year, lean in and teach your kids about the hard parts of Easter, even if it feels difficult. Weigh the seriousness of sin against the marvelous gift of grace. As you do, it will encourage your children not to take forgiveness lightly and to see that God’s rescue plan for us cost something infinitely precious. When they grow in the truth of all aspects of the Cross, celebrating the resurrection becomes so much more meaningful and exciting.
