Each Easter season I love to share the Palm Sunday story with my kids. They hear it multiple times at home, in Sunday school lessons, in children’s church, and in homeschool community.
I love the exposure they are given to the story of Easter and Palm Sunday. It’s so simple for kids to understand and so powerful at the same time.
If you’d like to share the story of Jesus with your children this Easter as well, I hope this blog post helps you teach it in a way they can easily understand.
I believe it’s important to open your Bible as you talk about it. That way your kids know this story is coming from the true word of God and is different than other stories they see in fiction books or movies.
Young kids have a hard time differentiating between what is real and what is pretend. So it’s important that you explain that Jesus really lived.
The Easter bunny however is made up and pretend.
So let’s jump into the Palm Sunday story from the Bible written on a level that anyone can understand. You can find all of this information in Matthew 21, Luke 19, and John 12.
The Story of Palm Sunday for Kids
Jesus had been traveling around Israel performing many miracles. He healed those who were sick, opened the eyes of the blind, and even raised a man named Lazarus from the dead!
He also taught the people all about God and His love for them. He told parables which were stories that helped the people understand God better.
He talked about the future and what it means to be a Christian.
Many people were following Jesus and believed in Him. They saw the miracles He performed and heard the good news that He shared.
One day as the Jesus and His disciples were walking toward the capital city, Jerusalem, Jesus gave two of His disciples an important job to do.
He told them to go ahead to a nearby village. There they would see a young donkey or a colt tied up.
Jesus told the disciples to untie the donkey and bring it back to him. If the owner asked the disciples what they were doing, they should say, “The Lord needs it.”
Jesus said the owner would let them take the donkey.
So the two disciples did what Jesus asked them to do. They found the young donkey tied up. As they were untying the donkey, sure enough the owner said, “What are you doing?”
The disciples replied, “The Lord needs it.” And the owner let them take the young donkey to Jesus.
The Bible says the disciples placed their cloaks on the donkey’s back. Cloak is another word for clothes. They probably put an outer piece of their clothing on the donkey. That way Jesus could sit comfortably on it.
Jesus got on the donkey to ride it through the streets of Jerusalem.
There was a great crowd of people who had gathered around Jesus as He rode the donkey. They loved him and wanted to worship him. To show Him honor, they placed their outer clothes on the ground for the donkey to walk on.
In those days, the people would lay their cloaks on the ground to show honor and respect to someone who was special.
Another way they honored Jesus was by waving Palm branches as He rode by. Some people also laid the palm branches in the road along with the cloaks.
This was also a tradition of the Israelite people when someone special came to town.
As Jesus rode on the donkey through the crowd of people in Jerusalem, they shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!” (Matthew 21:9)
Hosanna means “Praise God!”
The people were praising God and giving honor to Jesus.
All of this was a prophecy coming true.
Long before Jesus was born a prophet named Zechariah had a message from God to His people. He said, “Shout in triumph, O people of Jerusalem! Look, your king is coming to you. He is righteous and victorious, he is humble, riding on a donkey—riding on a donkey’s colt.” (Zechariah 9:9)
Jesus is the King of Kings! That means he is the king of all kings in the entire world, not just the king of Israel.
Most of the time kings rode big, strong horses. They didn’t ride on small donkeys like Jesus did.
But Jesus wasn’t like other kings. Jesus didn’t come to earth to be crowned a king.
Instead, the Bible says that he loved the world so much that He came to earth to die for the sins of the world.
John 3:16 says
“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”
The people in Jerusalem didn’t understand that. They wanted Jesus to be their king right then.
They knew Jesus was God and that He should be praised and honored. So that is what they did!
There were some people who did not like that Jesus was being praised. These men were called Pharisees.
They told Jesus to tell the people to be quiet. But Jesus said, “If they are quiet, the rocks will cry out.”
That means, Jesus will always be given the praise He deserves. Even if people don’t praise God, His creation will praise Him!
The people did not stop praising Him that day. They continued to sing and shout praises to God. We should do the same thing.
We should give Jesus praise too!
Click here to print this story for free.
Also, check out this summary of the Easter Sunday story for kids here!
Other Resources in My Etsy Store:
Palm Sunday Lesson with Pictures
Check out this post for a printable version of the Christmas Story of Jesus.