Easter Stories: A 5-Day Reading Plan Sample

Jesus Lives

Jesus knew he was going to die, but that he wouldn’t stay dead.

Friday was dark and sad. Saturday was stone-cold silent. But Sunday—the third day—was not just another day or another week. It was another age. A new time had begun. The Biggest Story had turned a page. The world would never be the same.

At the break of day, Mary Magdalene and a group of women went to the tomb. They thought they would find Jesus there and put perfume on his dead body. What they found instead was a complete surprise. On the outside of the tomb the stone had been rolled away, and on the inside of the tomb, there was no Jesus!

The women wondered what this meant. But before they could think very long, two angels as bright as the sun stood by them. “Why do you seek the living among the dead?” the angels asked. “Jesus is not here. He has risen, just as he said!”

Then the women remembered that Jesus had said that he would be raised on the third day. They had not understood what this meant. But now they did. The slithering serpent had not won after all. Death had been defeated. The wages of sin had been paid for. The long-awaited Snake Crusher had kept his promise, and all the promises of God would forever be kept in him

Mary and the other women ran back to tell the disciples what they had seen and heard. At first, the disciples didn’t believe them. “A dead man back to life? What a fairy tale,” they thought.

But Peter got up and ran to the tomb to see for himself whether the good news was too good to be true. When he arrived at the tomb, it was even more amazing than he had dared to hope. Peter hurried into the tomb and found nothing but grave clothes. Jesus wouldn’t be needing those anymore. He wasn’t dead any longer, and he wouldn’t be dead ever again.

In the days and weeks ahead, Jesus appeared to the disciples several times—in a room, along the road, on the beach making breakfast. He even appeared to more than five hundred of his followers at one time.

God raised Jesus from the dead, and plenty of people saw him with their own two eyes. The light of the world was still shining. The bread of life was still alive. The true vine was the first fruits of a new hope. It turns out the best news in the history of the world was too good not to be true.

PRAYER: We thank you, God, for the resurrection and the new life we have in Jesus. Amen.

This Plan was adapted from The Biggest Story Bible Storybook by Kevin DeYoung, Illustrated by Don Clark