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28
Jesus came alive again
1 On Sunday morning, Mary Magdalene, and another woman that was called Mary, they got up really early and went to look at the cave that had Jesus’s body in it. 2 Suddenly there was a big earthquake. One of God’s angel messengers came down from heaven, and he rolled the big stone away from the cave, and he sat on top of it. 3 His face was bright and shiny, like lightning. His clothes were really white, like snow. 4 The soldiers that were guarding the cave were really frightened. They fell down on the ground like dead men, and they couldn’t move.
5 Then the angel said to the women, “Don’t be frightened. I know that you are looking for Jesus, the man they killed on a cross. 6 But he is not here. God made him alive again. Remember, Jesus told you that this was going to happen. Come over here and see the place where he was lying. 7 Now you have to go quickly to his followers. Tell them, ‘Jesus is alive again, and he is going to Galilee country ahead of you mob. You have to go and see him there.’ So go quickly now, and tell them.”
8 Then the women ran quickly away from that cave. They were really frightened, but they were really happy too. They got up to run to Jesus’s other followers, to tell them the angel’s message. 9 But Jesus met them half-way and called out, “Hello.” They went up to Jesus and showed him strong respect. They even got down and held on to his feet. 10 Then Jesus said, “Don’t be frightened. Go and tell my other followers to go back to Galilee country, and they will see me there.”
The guards told the Jewish leaders what happened
11 While the women were going away, some of the soldier guards went into the city and told the bosses of the Jewish ceremonies everything that happened at the cave. 12 Then the ceremony bosses called a meeting with the Jewish elders. They all agreed to give the soldiers a lot of money to get them to tell a lie. 13 They told the soldiers, “You have to tell everyone, ‘Jesus’s followers came in the night, while we were asleep, and they stole his body.’ 14 If anyone tells the boss, Pilate, about this, then we’ll talk to him and tell him that you didn’t do anything wrong, so he will not give you any trouble.” 15 The soldiers took the money, and they told everyone that lie, like the leaders told them to say. So a lot of Jewish people heard that story, and some of them still tell that lie to other people.
Jesus’s followers have to tell everyone in the world about him
16 The women told Jesus’s message to his 11 special workers. Then those men remembered that Jesus told them to meet him on a mountain in Galilee, so they went there.* Matthew 26:32; Mark 14:28 17 They saw Jesus there, and they felt really happy, and they showed him strong respect. But some of them were thinking, “Is this really Jesus? I don’t know.”
18 Then Jesus said to them, “God, my father, has made me boss over everything now. I’m boss over everything up in heaven. And I’m boss over everything down here on the earth. 19 So go out to all the people in the world, and tell them about me. Teach those people to follow my way, and baptise them with water to show that they belong to the father, and the son, and the Holy Spirit. 20 You have to teach them to do everything that I told you to do. And remember this, I will be with you all the time. I will be with you to help you, right up until the time when this world will finish.”

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*28:16 Matthew 26:32; Mark 14:28

© 2019 The Plain English Project