A gift

This happened a while ago now. I was reminded of it because I had cause to tell it again recently.

I was telling the story of Paul's first letter to the Corinthians to a group of 8-10 year olds. 

I held in my hand a long rectangle of white cotton fabric, rolled up to look like a scroll, while I introduced the story.

A long time ago, there was a man called Paul.

He travelled from place to place, telling people about Jesus.

When people heard about the wonderful things that Jesus had said, and the amazing things he had done, they wanted to follow him.

This is what happened in Corinth. Paul had told the people about Jesus, and people had started to follow Jesus. And after a time, Paul went on to another place.

But the story of Jesus has parts that don't seem to make sense. The people in Corinth were disagreeing over what was true. 

So Paul wrote them a letter, on a scroll, to explain what was right, and how it did make sense.

I placed the scroll on the ground, and as I unrolled it, I added pictures which described something about Jesus' life.

Jesus was born. God became a person, a small baby.

Jesus grew up, and did all the things that people do. He worked, he learned to be a carpenter, like his father.

Jesus was God. He said wonderful things, and did amazing things. He healed people of all kinds of illnesses.

He ate with people who weren't ... the right sort of people. 

Jesus' life shows that God is caring, powerful and forgiving.

So far, so good. I placed the next card, a photo of the cross that hangs in the auditorium of my church building.

And then Jesus was killed on the cross as a criminal. 

A little girl to my right, gasped and jumped. She physically moved up and forward when I said this. She didn't say anything. 

I paused. No one said anything.

I repeated the line, and continued on.

This bit doesn't make sense. 

Jesus, who had done nothing wrong, who did such amazing things, was killed as a criminal. 

He was killed for all the wrong things everyone else had done.

Paul reminds the people of Corinth that God uses the things that seem weak, to show the powerful that they are not so powerful at all.

Jesus' death shows God's great love for all people.

God raised Jesus to life again. Many people saw him alive.

Jesus returned to heaven, to be with God, and to make a place ready for all who follow him. 

God raising Jesus to life shows the power of God.

I then wondered with the group. A few things. But I started with this: 

I wonder: Can we take anything out of the story, and still have everything we need?

One boy, across the circle from me, smiled, pointed, and said 'the cross'. I knew he was trying it on, but choose to give respect to all answers. So I moved it out of the scroll, so that we could sit with that idea. The girl on my right wasn't having a bar of it, and quite forcefully moved forward, and put the cross back on the scroll. Where it belonged. 

I acknowledged the action, and continued on, but her reaction has stayed with me.

I loved the contrast in her. She clearly was not happy with Jesus' death. And yet, at the end, she had a firm conviction that the story needs the cross. I think that's what we all need. I know the end of the story, and so perhaps the sadness of Good Friday is lost in the joy of Easter Sunday. Perhaps. 

Her reaction was a gift to me. I can't unlearn what I know. I can't respond to the story as if for the first time. But I can remember her response, and try to come to Jesus as a little child.