Beyond Easter Eggs: Teaching the Story That Really Matters

If you lead a Church of England or Christian school of any kind, you may not know the finer points of the Easter story and the elements of Holy Week and Lent that are so important to Christians — even if you are a practising Christian yourself.

Everybody knows the Christmas story. Most small children know the Christmas story. But very few people know the whole (if any) of the Easter story. If you are still in school during Holy Week — which, if you didn't know, is the week with Easter weekend at the end of it — this is an excellent opportunity to work with your church, especially with some of your older children, on some of the darker and deeper aspects of the Easter story.

Really, you should have started on Ash Wednesday, which is the day after Shrove Tuesday, (or Pancake Day as people often call it). This signals the beginning of Lent. Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness, where he was tempted by the devil and did not give in. There is so much teaching — Christian or otherwise — to be had from this part of the Bible.

The next significant moment is Palm Sunday: Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey like a celebrity that everyone loves (remember he is killed within the week - fans are so fickle). Some of the best assemblies I ever did were the ones where I told this story to the children and then searched for pictures of donkeys on the internet, live in assembly, so they could see that every donkey has a cross on its back — marking where it carried Jesus into Jerusalem (try it!).

Then there are the events of Holy Week itself. There are plenty of materials out there to guide you, but it is really worth pulling the story apart and telling it over a number of days in assemblies or lesson time. If Easter falls during the holidays, I would take the story all the way up to Good Friday before breaking up, and then pick it back up from Easter Saturday onwards when returning to school — covering the crucifixion before the break, and the resurrection afterwards.

The story from Palm Sunday onwards is so rich and important: the friendship and loyalty of the disciples, the denials, the Last Supper and its direct link to Holy Communion, and then all the events from after the Last Supper through to the crucifixion itself. Then Easter Saturday, when Jesus lay in the tomb, and finally the resurrection on Easter Sunday.

Someone once told me that whatever we go through in life, Jesus went through the same or worse. Nowhere is this more evident than in Holy Week. Every friendship issue, every betrayal, every moment of feeling alone or let down — Jesus experienced all of it with his disciples. Use this to teach children that they are not alone in what they face. These same struggles have been happening since Jesus' time, and that is a powerful and comforting message for young people to hear.

So why Easter is associated with eggs, bunnies, flowers and all the signs of spring and new life? — and the answer is beautifully simple. The resurrection of Jesus is the ultimate symbol of new life. After the darkness of the crucifixion and the silence of Easter Saturday, Jesus rises from the dead on Easter Sunday — life conquering death. Everything we associate with Easter reflects this. Eggs represent new life hatching forth. Spring flowers push up through cold, dark ground into the light. Even the humble rabbit, with its associations with new life and renewal, fits the same theme. Nature itself, waking up after the darkness of winter, mirrors the Easter story in a way that makes it a wonderful teaching opportunity — especially for younger children who may not yet be ready for the deeper and darker elements of Holy Week. So the eggs and the chocolate and the flowers are not just commercialism; they are, at their heart, pointing to the most important message of Easter. Something that was dead is now alive. That is worth celebrating.

For Christians, this is far, far more relevant to our daily lives than Christmas. The fundamental belief of a Christian is that God sent his only son — whose birth we celebrate at Christmas — who died for us so that we could be forgiven for our sins, and that those who follow him will not die but have eternal life. The crucifixion, the resurrection, and everything that surrounds that part of the Bible is so much more central to the Christian faith than Christmas, yet most people can tell you the Christmas story and not the Easter one.

So if you lead a church school, I urge you to find out more - if only to do better in your SIAMS! Tap into the resources that are out there. Contact your diocese, the church your school is connected to, or another local church and get those children truly immersed in what is, for Christians, the greatest miracle of all.