The Jewish leaders didn't like what Jesus was saying or doing. They wanted to kill him.

So they got the soldiers to arrest him. When the soldiers came to arrest Jesus, all of His

friends ran away and left Him all alone.

The Jewish leaders had the soldiers take Jesus to Pilate's palace. They wanted Pilate

to kill Jesus because Jesus said that He was the Son of God.

All the people agreed that Pilate should put Jesus to death. They shouted, "Crucify Him!

Crucify Him!" That means that they wanted Him to die by nailing him on a cross. Pilate didn't

want to do it, but he finally gave in. He didn't want  to be responsible for Jesus' death. 

The soldiers were horrible to Jesus. They whipped him and beat him. They placed a crown

of thorns on His head. They even made fun of him and laughed at him.

The soldiers made Jesus carry his own cross. He was very weak from being beaten so

badly but the soldiers didn't care. They made him carry it through the streets until he could

not carry it no longer. Then they made another man carry it for him.

The soldiers hung Jesus on the cross by putting nails in His hands and feet. As they did,

He called out, "Father, forgive them. They do not know what they are doing." Even though

the people were so mean to Jesus, He still prayed to His Father in Heaven and asked him to forgive them.

Suddenly, it got very dark. Nobody knew what was happening. Everyone was afraid.

The darkness lasted a long time. Jesus cried out in a loud voice, saying "It is finished!"

 and then he died. After that, there was a terrible storm.

A man named Joseph, who was a follower of Jesus, went to Pilate and asked if he could

have Jesus' body. He took it down from the cross, wrapped it in cloths and laid his body

in a tomb. The tomb was like a big cave, made of stone. Joseph rolled a big stone in front

of the door so no one could go in and take the body away.

The Jewish leaders didn't trust Jesus' followers so they asked Pilate to have some guards

stand outside of the tomb so no one would try to go in. They had heard Jesus say that he

would rise from the dead. They didn't want anybody to come and steal the body and then

say that Jesus was alive!

The next day was Sunday. Some women who were followers of Jesus came to the tomb

early in the morning. They brought some spices with them because they wanted to anoint

Jesus' body. But they didn't know who would be able to roll the stone away so they could

get inside the tomb.

When they got to the tomb, they saw the stone was rolled away. A young man, dressed

 in white, was standing by the opening of the tomb. The women could not believe their

 eyes! The man told them not to be afraid because Jesus was no longer in the tomb.

He was not there because He had risen from the dead!

The man dressed in white told the women to go and tell Jesus' disciples what had

happened and that they should go to a place called Galilee. The man said that they

would find Jesus there. They were so excited that they dropped their spices and ran

to tell the disciples that Jesus was alive!

After the women told the disciples that Jesus had come back to life, they went to Galilee

to meet Him. They were so happy when they saw him! He had many things to tell them.

He wanted them to make sure they would tell everyone the Good News of his return!

Jesus had died on the cross so that people could accept him as their Saviour and live

 with him in Heaven one day.