当我女儿还小的时候, she wanted a lemonade stand to raise money to help with summer camp expenses. 我很自豪. Later, I realized I had missed her point entirely.
我们的教会小组要去G.A. 夏令营，女生传教夏令营. I was delighted that my daughter wasn’t interested in raising spending money for herself, but instead wanted to help pay someone else’s way. Even then, her grit, her determination to work all day at her makeshift stand didn’t make sense.
After all, the church was going to help anyone with financial concerns.
Dollar signs clicked away in my mind as I made gallon after gallon, 投入更多的糖, 更多的柠檬水, 杯以上. Still, she was undeterred, even when her “profits” soared above $150.
然后我明白了为什么.
My daughter sold lemonade with one particular friend in mind, 一个学校里需要耶稣的穆斯林女孩.
Knowing that explained everything – my daughter’s actions, 她的热情, 甚至那个星期她问的问题. I was stunned, and ashamed, that I hadn’t understood sooner.
Perhaps that is how the disciples felt as the truth of the resurrection sunk in. They must have thought, “That explains everything.”
N.T. 赖特借用C. S. Lewis to say it this way: “I believe in the resurrection as I believe that the sun has risen. Not that I can see it, but that by it I see everything else.”
The resurrection makes sense of the biblical story, 耶稣的教导, 以及我们应该如何生活. Here are three ways to show children what this means.
孩子理解恐惧. In varying degrees, they understand the fear the disciples felt at 耶稣’ arrest and crucifixion.
在复活之后(真的, 在五旬节), the disciples and the early church became bold despite opposition and persecution. If death was the most the Jewish or Roman leaders could do, there was nothing to fear. 耶稣已经战胜了死亡. When we emphasize this dramatic change to children, we help them see that the disciples’ new courage is evidence that the resurrection really happened.
People die for beliefs that are not true, but people do not die for beliefs they know are lies. The early Christians faced death with courage because they had seen, 跟, 与真正活着的耶稣一同吃饭.
First-century Jewish life revolved around the Sabbath. It was commanded by God and central to how they lived, worshiped and thought.
Changing from worshipping on the Sabbath to worshiping 耶稣 on Sunday would have been monumental for the Jewish believer. Only seeing, talking to, and eating with a living, breathing 耶稣 could affect that kind of change.
Today, the current COVID-19 isolation may help a child better understand this point. The canceling of important events such as birthday parties and school or the heavy restrictions on events such as weddings shows that it takes something very serious to change how people act and think.
不过，还有更多.
N. T. Wright points out that most Jews believed that resurrection was an event that would happen at the end of time for the righteous dead. Resurrection was not a core belief of Judaism.
But Paul makes it clear in 1 Corinthians 15 that the resurrection of one man, 耶稣, in the midst of history rather than at the close, 福音的核心是什么, the non-negotiable centerpiece that grounds everything else Christians believe.
对耶稣的犹太追随者来说, this immense change could happen only if 耶稣 had truly risen from the dead.
Any attempt to explain suffering is to wade into deep theological waters, 当然, 在这里找不到答案. 成年信徒可以, 而且必须, give great thought to what the resurrection means for life’s hardest moments.
But there are lessons here about difficult times a child can understand.
孩子们知道害怕意味着什么. They know what it means to hide (see John 20:19).
恐怖, 的猜测, the fear that they had been wrong about everything, must have crushed the disciples in the hours after the crucifixion. Maybe this is why it took them so long to understand what the women reported.
门徒来见了, children need to hear that God is still at work even when life has been turned upside down. They need reassurance that God’s greatest blessings sometimes flow out of life’s most heartbreaking moments.
As the COVID-19 stay-at-home mandate came into effect, 新奥尔良 pastor Matt Tipton urged Christian parents in a recent sermon to model for their children “not fear, 但无畏的信仰.”
Fearless faith is possible because the resurrection shows 耶稣 has conquered death. It is possible because the resurrection explains everything.
玛丽莲•斯图尔特 is assistant director of communications at 新奥尔良 浸信会神学院 and Leavell College.
