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 also Jesus told about that this parable. He said: “One rich man began reckoning with his debtors. And a debtor who owed him thousands of rubles was brought to him. And he wasn’t able to pay the rich man. And for that the rich man could decide to sell the debtor's property, and his wife, and his children, and the debtor himself. But the debtor began to beg for mercy from the rich man. And the rich man pardoned him and forgave him the whole debt. And then this man’s debtor, a poor man, came to him and began to ask him to forgive his debt. But the debtor, whom the rich man has pardoned, did not have mercy on his own debtor, but demanded the immediate payment of the whole debt. And no matter how the poor man bowed or begge... (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.)

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.)

More and more people went after Jesus and listened to his teaching. And the Pharisees did not like it, and they started to think how to accuse Jesus before people. One Saturday Jesus went with his disciples across a field. The disciples plucked ears of wheat along the road, crushed them with their hands, and ate the grains. And according to the teaching of Jews God established a covenant with Moses so that people should not work on Saturdays at all, but should only pray to God. The Pharisees saw that Jesus' disciples plucked the ears of wheat on Saturday, stopped his disciples, and said to them: “You are not supposed to do that on Saturday. On Saturday you are not allowed to work, but you crush the wheat ears. It is stated in the law ... (From : Wikisource.org.)

Among those who have heard these words of Jesus, many of the powerful and rich people believed in the teaching of Jesus, but were afraid to admit that before the Pharisees, because none of the Pharisees accepted the teaching of Jesus. They did not accept the truth, because they got used to believe worldly teaching, rather than godly. And the Chief priests and the scribes gathered again in the courtyard of Caiaphas. And began to conspire how to take Jesus in secret away from people and to kill him. They were afraid to capture him openly. And to their meeting one of the first disciples of Jesus, Judah Iscariot, came and told them: “If you are afraid to take Jesus openly, before people, then I’ll find time when there will be few pe... (From : Wikisource.org.)