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.)

After that, Christ came to Jerusalem again, and in the temple he began to speak to people about wrong life of the Pharisees. He said: “Beware of the teaching of scribes, the self-proclaimed teachers. Beware of them, because they took place of the true teachers, prophets. They self-willingly took the power to preach the will of God to people. They only talk, but do not do what they say. They want to be teachers, and for that they try to show off: dress, glorify themselves, yet they don’t do anything. Don't believe them. Know that no one should call himself a teacher. These self-proclaimed Orthodox teachers think they can lead to God by the superficial cremations, oaths, and they don't see that the external means nothing, that eve... (From : Wikisource.org.)

Another time Pharisees came to Jesus and began to ask him whether a husband can leave his wife and take another wife. And Jesus said to them: “You know that a child can have only one father and one mother. That is established by God. And therefore people must not violate what was established by God. If a person violates what was established by God, and lets his wife go, and moves in with another, he does the triple evil – to himself, to his wife, and to other people. He does evil to himself by getting used to lewdness. He does evil to his wife when he leaves her by driving her to sin. He does evil to other people by seducing them through setting a bad example of the adultery.” And the disciples said to Jesus: “It is ... (From : Wikisource.org.)

Once Jesus’ mother and brothers came and they could not come close to Jesus because there was a lot of people around him. And one person saw them, came to Jesus and said: “Your family, your mother and brothers, are standing outside, wanting to see you.” And Jesus said: “My mother and my brothers are those who know the will of the Father and follow it. For every human being, the will of our Father, God, should be more important than the father and mother, and wife, and children, and brothers, and sisters, and all of the property, and the fleshly life. Because, in worldly matters, every reasonable person, when he starts anything, will count whether it is profitable what he does, and if it is profitable, he does it, and... (From : Wikisource.org.)

Once it happened that Jesus came to have lunch with a Pharisee. And while he was sitting at the Pharisee’s home, a woman came from the city. She was infidel. She learned that Jesus is in the house of the Pharisee, and she came there, and brought a bottle with perfume. And she knelt down at Jesus’ feet, and burst into tears, and poured her tears over his feet, and wiped them with her hair, and poured the perfume from the bottle. Having seen that, the Pharisee was tempted and thought about Jesus: ‘If this man were truly a prophet, he would know that this woman was infidel and dissolute, and would not allow her to touch himself.’ Jesus understood what the Pharisee thought, turned to him and said: ‘Should I tell yo... (From : Wikisource.org.)

And, having heard these words, one Pharisee named Nicodemus came to Jesus and asked him: “How to understand that the kingdom of God is within us?” And Jesus said: “The kingdom of God is within us means that every person, in order to enter the kingdom of God, must be born again.” And Nicodemus asked: “How can a person be born again? How can man enter the belly of the mother again and be born?” Jesus said to him: “Be born again means to be born not by a fleshly birth, as a child is born from the mother, but to be born in spirit. And to be born in spirit means to understand that the spirit of God dwells in a person, and beside that every person is born from mother, he is also born from the spirit of Go... (From : Wikisource.org.)