The Creator Rose Again

The Creator Rose Again

Mooster: Woot! Woot! Woot! Oh yeah … I’m all excited!! One of my favorite holidays is almost here!! Monkey Moe!!! Come on out here!

Moe: (Be right there! 45, 46, 47, 48!)  [pops head through curtain] Here I am, Mooster!

Mooster: What were you counting?

Moe: Colored eggs! You know what holiday is this Sunday!!

Mooster: Yes, I do – I’m all excited, too. I –

Moe: Right – mom insists I get a new pair of pants and a nice shirt and a brand new bow tie. I agreed if I could get one in banana yellow. She wants me to look nice. I like getting new clothes. You should see the pretty new dresses my sisters got! Woooeeee! They look really cute…even if they are my sisters.

Mooster: Well I’m glad you think they look nice, but that’s not -

Moe: Plus, Mom always buys me this humongous Easter basket! I can’t wait to see this years!

Mooster: Oh, that’s nice but -

Moe: Yellow peeps – love those things! Chocolate covered marshmallow bunnies, a hundred and twelve varieties of chocolate eggs, jelly beans, -

Mooster: Moe –

Moe: The little toys, all that funny Easter grass, the solid chocolate bunny….I love biting off the ears first, then the tail!

Mooster: Moe -

Moe: And then the best part - the Easter egg hunt! I was just counting up all the colored eggs. I have four dozen of them! Blues and greens and yellows and purples and pinks…I’m so ready for this holiday! Plus, there are going to be plastic prize eggs. If I find one of those I might find a nickel or a dime!

Mooster: Breathe, Moe! Let’s talk about the real reason we celebrate Easter.

Moe:  Oh, okay. Well, I’ve found that the best place to buy the malted milk egg balls is CVS, especially after the Holiday. They get really cheap then and they still taste great! But I want to know, how come no one makes banana flavored eggs? Bananas are a great Easter color – yellow!

Mooster: Moe, I’m not talking about the eggs or the clothes or the candy or the chocolate.

Moe: Huh? You said you wanted to talk about the real reason we celebrate Easter. Oh – are you worried there won’t be enough eggs for the Easter egg hunt? Don’t worry – I told you, I have 4 dozen!

Mooster: No, Moe, it’s not about the egg hunt.

Moe: Ohhhhh…..I get it. You want to talk about the Easter bunny!

Mooster: No, Moe, the real reason for celebrating Easter has nothing to do with candy or the Easter bunny. Don’t you know why we have this holiday?

Moe: Um…to celebrate springtime?

Mooster: No.

Moe: To get a few days off school? Spring break?

Mooster: No.

Moe: Oh…you’re not talking about spring cleaning, are you? I hate when my mom wants to do that. EVERYthing has to come out of the closets and we get all dirty and dusty and I have to wear a hairnet to protect my cute hair and all those dust balls start chasing me all over the tree house.

Mooster: No, Moe, not spring cleaning either. Can’t you think of any OTHER reasons to celebrate Easter?

Moe: Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm…OH! I think I know. To celebrate new life? You know, this is the time of year when all the new baby animals are born.

Mooster: You are getting warmer, Moe. It is a celebration of life. Can you think of Whose life, specifically?

Moe: Um…can I have a hint?

Mooster: Do you remember how the past few weeks we’ve been talking about God in the various roles He plays?

Moe: Oh yes – we talked about God as the Wise Creator and how He made everything so He got to make all the rules, too. Our verse was Romans 14:12 “So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.”

Mooster: Right. And we talked about how He was Holy and Righteous and always made the right decisions. He has the authority to hand out rewards or punishments. The Lord is the Perfect Judge. Our memory verse was Proverbs 15:3, “The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.”

Moe: Oh – and last week we learned how the part of God we call Father was in the place of a judge and the part of God we call the Son, or Jesus, stepped down from the place of judgment and was willing to pay the fine for the accused person.

Mooster: That’s right, Moe. God the Son was willing to take the punishment and pay for the sins of all the people in the whole world, so that we could all have an opportunity to go to heaven.  Last week we learned that the Lord is the only Savior. No other gods that man may make can help us. Some people worship Buddha or Mohammed or the trees or the sun. But none of those are real gods. They are false gods. There is only one real and true God – the God of the Bible.

Moe: Yep – and all we have to do to get to heaven is believe that Jesus died for us and ask Him to forgive us of our sins and save us!

Mooster: That’s right, Moe. But does our salvation end at the death of Jesus?

Moe: Well, He did die on the cross.

Mooster: Yes He did, and it was a horrible death. Then they took His body off the cross and laid Him in a tomb. But there’s more to the story.

Moe: Oh, yeah, Jesus rose again! I remember that. He’s alive right now and sitting at the right hand of the Father.

Mooster: Exactly, Moe. The story of the resurrection is what we celebrate on Easter. Jesus did not stay dead. He was crucified and laid in a tomb. Then on the third day, Sunday morning, He rose from the dead!

Moe:  Oh yeah, I remember now. I always wondered…how could Jesus raise Himself from the dead? I mean…He was dead, wasn’t He?

Mooster: Yes, Moe, Jesus really did die for us on the Cross. But because He is the Creator, and He made all the rules, He is also the only One Who could make a way for us to still be saved. And because is all powerful, death had no way to hold Him in the grave. Remember – Jesus was 100% God and 100% human, both at the same time.

Moe: That’s hard to understand.  

Mooster: Well, it is, but we can believe it by faith because that’s what the Bible says.

Moe: Okay so then what happened?

Mooster: Well, on Sunday morning, some of the women who were followers of Jesus went to the tomb, in order to finish preparing His body for burial. Back then, they would wrap the bodies in oils and spices and pieces of linen material.

Moe:  And when they got to the tomb?

Mooster: The Bible tells us in Luke 24 that the women came to the tomb and saw two men in shining garments.

Moe: Were those men angels?

Mooster: Yes, Moe.

Moe: What did the angels tell the women?

Mooster: They said, “Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen!”

Moe: So the body of Jesus wasn’t there anymore?

Mooster:  Nope. The Bible says that Peter ran into the tomb to see for himself. When he looked inside, all he saw were the graveclothes, lying as if someone had just left them there!

Moe: Wow! That’s amazing!

Mooster: It sure is. And that’s why we celebrate Easter – to celebrate the day Jesus Christ rose up from the grave. He is alive today!

Moe: If Jesus hadn’t been able to rise again, we wouldn’t have any hope, either, would we?

Mooster: The Bible says that Christ is the firstborn from the dead. That means that those of us who trust Him for our salvation will one day also be free from death. The Bible says that for those who die knowing Jesus as Savior, when they stop breathing here on earth, they are immediately in the presence of God in heaven!

Moe:  That’s so cool. That’s way cooler than candy or bunnies or egg hunts. I see why you are excited to celebrate Easter, Mooster!

Mooster: Did you know that early Christians would even greet each other with the greeting: “He is risen!” And the other person would respond, “He is risen, indeed!”

Moe: Do you have a memory verse?

Mooster: Yes. It’s actually the end part of Luke 24 and verse 5 and the beginning part of verse 6. It’s from the part where the angel is speaking to the women who came to the tomb. They said, “Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen..”

Moe: Those are awesome words. I’m going to try and memorize that!

Mooster: Boys and girls, you may have lots of ways of celebrating Easter. Sometimes families get together for a big Sunday dinner or for egg hunts. Sometimes you might get baskets full of toys or candy. And egg hunts can be fun any time of the year! But however you celebrate Easter this year, please remember to stop and thank Jesus for His wonderful work on the Cross of Calvary. Thank Him for dying for your sins. Thank Him that He was victorious over death and hell and the grave. Celebrate that Jesus Christ rose from the grave and that He is alive forevermore, and that because of what He has done, you can live forever with Him in heaven. He is risen!

Moe: He is risen indeed!