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When Jesus and His disciples were near Jerusalem, around Bethpage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus said to two of His disciples, "Go into the village and you will find a donkey and a colt. Untie them and bring them to me." So the disciples obeyed Jesus. They found the animals just like Jesus said and they brought them back to Him.
The disciples threw their clothes on the back of the baby donkey and Jesus sat on it to ride to Jerusalem.  As He rode through the towns, people were so excited to see Jesus that they threw leafy branches on the road and some even threw their clothes down in front of Him. They believed He was the Son of God, the Messiah, the Savior, the Chosen One of God.
They wanted to be near Him, to talk to Him, to hear Him speak.  They were shouting, "Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord." Matthew 21:1 -9
Can you imagine how that might have looked?  In this church in the city where the disciples found the donkey and the colt, an artist painted pictures to help tell the story.  Can you use the pictures on the church wall to help retell the story?

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When Jesus arrived in Jerusalem, He went to the temple which was located on the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem. When He arrived He saw people selling doves and exchanging money. Jesus' heart was hurt because the people were being so disrespectful in God's house.
He was so hurt that He started turning over people's tables and chairs, because He knew that the temple supposed to be a place where people could pray and instead the people were using it to in a way that did not honor God.
The leaders in the temple got really angry at Jesus.  They asked Him questions and tried to trick Him. Jesus answered them in stories and scriptures.
Today the original temple is no longer there, because it was destroyed just as Jesus said would happen, but here is a miniature model of how it might have looked.  What do you notice? What do you wonder?
Note: The picture below is of the actual steps from the temple where Jesus taught so many people about God's love and forgiveness.

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After Jesus left the temple, the leaders in the temple started talking bad about Him. It was clear that they hated Him so much so that they wanted to kill Him.
However, not everybody felt that way.  Some people loved Jesus very much, because He was always kind and loving. Everywhere He went He did good things like healing sick people, giving people food, and teaching them about God.
One lady loved Him so much that when He went to visit His friend's house in Bethany, she brought over a bottle of very expensive oil that smelled like beautiful perfume.
The oil was so expensive that it cost as much as some people earned working every day for one year. This lady did not care though, she knew Jesus was much more valuable than money so she broke the bottle and poured the oil all over Jesus' head to honor Him.
That evening, Jesus and His friends had dinner together one last time to celebrate how good God had been to their ancestors in the past. Move the picture so that you can see how it might have looked at the dinner.
Think About It: Jesus was kind to others. How can you show kindness to someone today?

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Jesus knew that after dinner one of His disciples was going to the tell the people who did not like Him where He was.  Jesus was very troubled. He knew He was going to die, so Jesus went to the Garden of Gethsemane to talk to God. He invited His friends to come with Him to pray too and keep Him company.
Sure enough while He was talking to God, the people who hated Him came to arrest Him even though He had never done anything wrong! They hit Him and called Him mean names. He could have stopped them (because He is the Son of God and He can do ANYTHING), but He did not make them stop.
He knew God loved YOU so much and wanted you to be His child too.  The only way people other than Jesus could be God's child was for Jesus to die. Why?
We all do bad stuff that hurts God, but Jesus never did anything bad. So Jesus had to trade His goodness for our bad-ness. When He did, Jesus made it possible for us, like Him, to have God as our Father.
Anybody can talk to God at anytime about anything. In fact, God likes it when we talk to Him or write notes, draw pictures or sing songs to Him. If you drew God a picture, what would it look like?

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After Jesus died, a man named Joseph took His body. He took special care of it and laid Jesus in a tomb made out of rocks. Then, Joseph rolled a heavy rock against the door.
All of Jesus' friends were very sad that He had died, so two of them, both named Mary,  went back to the tomb 3 days later.  Guess what they saw?
The big heavy rock was rolled away and Jesus was not there!  You can see for yourself here.  It looks pretty much like it did when the two friends arrived.
Jesus was gone! Where was He? The ladies were worried until they saw an angel who said Jesus had risen from the dead. The angel told the women to go and tell Jesus' other friends what happened.
They were so excited. They ran all of the way home. After that Jesus appeared to His friend Mary Magdalene, His friend Peter, and more than 500 other people. All of the people saw Him and it proved He was the Messiah, the Savior of the World, the Chosen One, the Lamb of God.
Jesus overcame all the bad things, so that those things won't have any power over those who believe in Him. Today we celebrate Easter to remember what Jesus did for us.
Sometimes people in the Bible used rocks to help them remember important events. Grab your art supplies and find a rock. What could you draw on a rock to help you remember why we celebrate Easter?