The story of Jesus' torture, crucifixion and death would make a terrifying ghost story such as the ones boy scouts tell at night in a rain-soaked tent out in the woods. As the creepy rays of the flash-light flicker on the tent poles and across the canvas, a haunting whisper sends a little chill up the spines of the young campers.
"There once was a man who was arrested one night by an army of soldiers. It seemed like they were afraid of the man because they brought lots of swords and staves to take him. When the man asked them who they were looking for, they suddenly were knocked off their feet and fell over backwards! Then, one of the man's friends cut off the ear of one of the soldiers.
"Instead of defending himself or trying to escape, the man picked up the soldier's ear, put it back on the soldier's head and healed it!
"In those days, there was a terrible torture called crucifixion where the prisoner was nailed right through his hands and feet onto two beams of wood crossed together. That's what they wanted to do to him. But, the guy in charge tried to stop this from happening, so he ordered his men to beat the man with "the cat" (a cat-o-nine tails, which is nine strips of leather laced with barbs). He figured if the man got beaten with that, the people would see all the blood and let him go. But he was wrong.
"So, even though the man's body was torn apart from the beating, he had to carry his crucifixion cross all the way through town and up to a hill where the soldiers crucified him. The nails they hammered into his hands were about an inch wide and 8 inches long. There were a lot of people standing around watching and they were moaning because they knew the pain was excruciating.
"At the time of his death, the sky went totally pitch black! It was the middle of the day, but it seemed like night time. A big earthquake shook the whole city and the rocks broke up. Then hundreds of graves opened and a lot of dead people started climbing out of their coffins! They started walking around, talking to people and telling them that the guy they had killed was not guilty. They said he was the Messiah they'd been praying for!
"When they got his body down off the cross, they put it in a cave and some religious leaders had a huge rock rolled in front of it so that he couldn't get out. They even put two guards on either side of the rock just to make sure.
"Yet, three days later, the stone was rolled away and the cave was empty! The man's friends went to look for him in the cave so they could put some ointment on his body, but his body had mysteriously disappeared!
"Then, one of the ladies saw him standing right in front of her! He told her not to touch him because he was on his way to see his father, God. Then, he suddenly vanished again! She went back to tell the others about it, but nobody would believe her until, all of a sudden, the man walked right through the wall into their house! It was pretty spooky, but in a good way.
"For forty days, the man stayed around, teaching people about his father. He even cooked and ate fish and things, so I guess he had some sort of a body that could digest food.
"After forty days or so, his body started to levitate, right when he was talking to a group of people! He started floating straight up! He went so high that he disappeared inside of a cloud! Then two angels which stood by said,
"Why are you standing here gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." (Acts 1:11)
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