Helping Our Kids See Jesus in All of Scripture
To me, it’s one of the scariest scenes in all of Scripture. No, it’s not Jonah getting swallowed up by a huge fish. It’s not some beast with too many heads and lots of horns climbing out of the sea in the book of Revelation. It’s an exchange between Jesus and some Jewish religious leaders.
The authorities are verbally attacking Jesus because He healed a man on the Sabbath. The man in question had been unable to walk for thirty-eight long years, and now he’s up and about, walking through town. But rather than praising God for the spectacular, life-giving miracle, they come after Jesus and accuse Him of wrongdoing. At one point in the heated back-and-forth, Jesus says something that exposed these religious leaders in a way nothing else could:
You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about Me, yet you refuse to come to Me to have life. — John 5:39–40
These Jewish elites knew the Old Testament. They were the experts, the theologians, the Bible thumpers of their day. And yet, they missed the point. The holy texts they loved so much are all about the Son. One of the big reasons the Scriptures were given to the people of Israel was so that when Jesus appeared in their midst, they would recognize Him. But for all their Bible knowledge and rule-following, they missed the Savior. They couldn’t see Him.
As a parent, this terrifies me. My wife and I have three young boys, and we do our best to teach them the Bible. They know the stories, the commandments, and the memory verses. They’re down with Noah’s ark, Jonah’s fish, and Daniel’s lions. They can tell you about the six days of creation, the ten plagues of Egypt, and the forty years in the wilderness. But if they don’t come to know Jesus — to recognize Him when He shows up in their lives — it’s all been for nothing.
God’s Fingerprints
In one way or another, every passage of Scripture points to Jesus: by anticipating Him, showing us our need for Him, or telling us plainly about Him. That, in and of itself, is a miracle. After all, the Bible was written by more than forty human authors, in three languages, on three continents, and across a span or more than 1,500 years. The Bible is a diverse library filled with stories and songs, letters and lists, prophecies and promises — and yet it’s all driving toward Jesus. This is the Holy Spirit’s design, what I sometimes refer to as God’s fingerprints on every page.
God reveals Himself to us so that we might discover His good heart, and in finding it become convinced that we were made for it. God’s heart is our true home, the joy our souls long for. However, the Bible is clear:
If we want to know the Father, we have to know the Son.
John’s Gospel tell us,
No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is Himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made Him known. — John 1:18
The author of Hebrews put it this way:
The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being. — Hebrews 1:3
And Jesus Himself said,
I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. — John 14:6
More Than Story Time
When we reduce Bible stories to moral examples or life lessons for our kids, we crowd out the path to abundant life. We give them Scripture, but we rob it of its power. We tell them what they must do but neglect to share what God has already done for them through His Son. Jesus once said,
Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them, for the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as these.
What an unspeakable tragedy it would be if the way we teach Bible stories to our kids became such a hindrance.
Years ago, a seminary professor told me that the best commentary on the Old Testament is the New. That’s certainly true, but I think it actually works both ways. When the Holy Spirit inspired Genesis, He had Matthew in mind. When He prompted Isaiah to scrawl out his prophecies, he was also thinking about what the apostle Paul would say centuries later. There is no disconnect between the two testaments. They fit together seamlessly.
- And so, all of us — kids included — would do well to learn to read the Bible as one, big, glorious, not-too-good-to-be-true story.
That’s why I wrote The Easter Lamb. I wanted a book for my own kids that would help them connect the dots between the Passover narrative in Exodus and the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ death and resurrection. I wanted them to know that God’s rescue in the book of Exodus is a big, bright billboard pointing to a better rescue. I wanted them to see that just as the Hebrews in Egypt needed the blood of lambs to save them, we need the blood of Jesus, the Lamb of God. And I wanted them to know that the whole Bible — from Genesis to Revelation — was given to us so that we might know Jesus.
Written for FaithGateway by John Greco, author of The Easter Lamb: Jesus, Passover, and God’s Amazing Plan to Rescue Us, copyright John Greco.
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Your Turn
Every passage of Scripture points to Jesus. Let's share Him with our children so they know the great King of kings who came to save them, to know them, and to walk closely with them their whole lives!
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John Greco (pagesogfjoy.com) is a writer, editor, and Bible geek who, right now, if it’s not too late in the day, is probably reaching for another cup of coffee. He’s also a husband, a father, and the author of several books for adults and children. His latest is The Easter Lamb: Jesus, Passover, and God’s Amazing Plan to Rescue Us.