The Teaching of Christ Narrated for Children

Chapter 52
And when Jesus was already hanging on the cross, people surrounded him and cursed him. People came to him, nodded to him, and told: “Well, you wanted to destroy the Temple in Jerusalem in three days, and in three days to build the new one. Come on now, rescue yourself, come down from the cross!” And the chief priests and the scribes stood nearby and also laughed at him and told: “You saved others, but cannot save yourself. Show us now that you are the Christ, come down from the cross, and then we will believe you.” “He said that he is the son of God, and said that God would not leave him. What about now – has God left him?” And people, and the chief priests, and soldiers laughed at him. And one of the robbers crucified next to him, told the same: “If you are the Christ, then save yourself and us as well.” But another robber heard this and said: “Aren’t you’re afraid of God, you are hanging on the cross yoursel... (From : Wikisource.org.)

Chapter 51
Pilate wanted to release Jesus so much that he again began to speak to people and said: “How come you want to crucify your king?” But the Jews said to him: “If you'll let Jesus go, then by doing this you’ll show that you are a bad servant to Cesar, because the one who makes himself a king is the enemy of Cesar. We have one Cesar, so crucify this king.” And when Pilate heard these words, he realized that he could no longer avoid executing Jesus. Then Pilate went out to the Jews, poured water on his hands in front of them and said: “I’m washing my hands from the blood of this innocent man.” And the people shouted: “Let his blood be on us and on our children.” And then Pilate commanded first to whip Jesus out. When they whipped him, the soldiers who did that put a wreath on his head and gave a stick into his hands and put a red cloak on his back and began to mock him. Mocking him, they bowed to him and told: "Hail, the king... (From : Wikisource.org.)

Chapter 50
And they have brought Jesus to Herod. Herod heard a lot about Jesus and was now glad to see him. Herod called Jesus to come closer and began to question him about all he wanted to know. But Jesus didn’t answer him anything. And the chief priests and scribes, just like they did before Pilate, and now before Herod, accused Jesus in all crimes and told that he was a rebel. But Herod took Jesus for an empty person, and to make fun of him, ordered to put a red dress on him, and in that clown dress sent him back to Pilate. When the second time they brought Jesus to Pilate, Pilate again called the leaders of Jews and said to them: “You have already brought this man to me for agitating the people, and I interrogated him in front of you, and I do not see him being a rebel. I sent him with you to Herod, and here you can see that nothing dangerous was found about him. And, in my opinion, there is nothing to execute him to death for, wouldn't it be better to whip him up and let hi... (From : Wikisource.org.)

Chapter 49
After that, they took Jesus to the Roman governor Pontius Pilate. When they brought him to Pilate, the governor came out on the porch and said those who bought him: “What do you accuse this man for?” They said: “He is a villain, that’s why we brought him to you.” Pilate said to them: “But if he's a villain according to you, then punish him according to your law.” And they said: “We brought him to you so that you execute him, as we are not allowed to execute anyone to death.” Then Pilate asked them again what they accused him for. They said that he agitates people, forbids them to pay taxes to Cesar, and calls himself the king of Jews. Pilate listened to them and told them to bring Jesus to his judgment hall. When Jesus entered, Pilate asked him: “Are you the king of Jews?” Jesus said to him: “Are you are asking this on your own or are you repeating what was told?” Pilate said: “I am not a Jew, but... (From : Wikisource.org.)

Chapter 48
And the elders and the scribes gathered at the high priest’s place. And when everyone has gathered, they brought Jesus there, and the high priest asked him what his teaching was about and who were his disciples. Jesus said: “I have always spoken before everyone and hided nothing from anyone. What do you ask me about? Ask those who have heard and understood my teaching, they will tell you.” When Jesus said that, one of the guards struck Jesus on his face and said: “To whom are you talking? Is this the way to respond to the high priest?” Jesus said: “If I said something bad, tell me, what’s wrong with what I said. And if I didn’t say anything wrong, then why did you hit me?” The high priest and the elders tried to accuse Jesus, but did not find enough evidences to prosecute him. Then they found two false witnesses, and those witnesses said about Jesus as if he told that he would destroy the temple and build it again for three day... (From : Wikisource.org.)

And scribes and Pharisees, with all their power tried to destroy Jesus; they gathered in the council and began to decide how to do it. They said: “We must stop this person. He proves his teaching in such a way, that if we leave him alone, everybody will believe in him and will abandon our faith. By now already half of the people got to believe in him. And if everybody will believe in his teaching, that all people are children of one Father and that all are the brothers, and that there is nothing special in our Jewish people that would stand them out from other people, then the Romans will come and take us, and there won’t be Jewish Kingdom anymore.” And scribes and Pharisees consulted for long time. They wanted to kill Jes... (From : Wikisource.org.)

And on another occasion, Jesus told people a parable about what human life is like. He said: “There was a rich man, and he had to leave his house. And before leaving, he called his servants and gave each of them by ten pounds of silver, and said: ‘Work, each of you, on what I gave you while I'm away.’ He said so and left. And when he left, the servants were free and lived as they wanted. And so, when this rich man had returned, he called his servants and ordered them to tell what each of them did with his silver. The first one came and said: ‘Here, master, out of your pound of silver I made 10.’ And the master told him: ‘Well done, good servant, you had been faithful in small thing, I will put you over a ... (From : Wikisource.org.)

And rumors about Jesus spread in the area, and a lot of people began to walk behind him and listen to him. And he told people: “Remember, you went to listen John in the desert, why did you go to see him? People go watch someone in rich clothes, but those live in palaces, and there was nothing like this in the desert. Then why did you go to John, in the wilderness? You went there to listen to someone who taught you a good life, didn’t you? What did he teach you? He taught you that the kingdom of God must come, but that for it to come, so that there is no evil in the world, all people need to live not apart, each for himself, but so that everybody would be together, and so that all would love each other. So in order for the kingdo... (From : Wikisource.org.)

After that, Jesus began to convey to all the people in parables how they should understand the kingdom of God. The first parable he told was this. After a man sown seeds in his field, he is not thinking about them, and sleeps at night, and rises during the day, and does his work without worrying about how the seeds come up and grow. The seeds by themselves get swollen, sprout, turn to greens, grow to tube, to ear, ripe grain. And only when the harvest is ready, the master sends reapers to harvest the grains. The same way God does to establish the kingdom of God among people by force, but entrusted the people themselves to do this. The second parable Jesus told was that if there is no kingdom of God within a person, then God will not accept ... (From : Wikisource.org.)

And also Jesus said that of all the temptations, the most harmful is temptation of anger. Man gets angry with his brother for his sins and thinks that he, with this anger, can rescue his brother from his sins, but he forgets that no one can be the judge of a brother, because each of us is full of sins; and that before correcting brother, one should correct himself. Because we see the mote in the eye of brother, and see no chips in our own. And therefore, if you think that your brother has acted badly, then approach him, choose time and place to talk with him face-to-face, and tell him briefly what you have against him. If he listens to you, then he, instead of being your enemy, will become your friend. If he won’t listen, take pity on... (From : Wikisource.org.)