1 The next day was Saturday. It was their rest day. When the sun went down, that rest day was finished. Then some women went and bought some perfume to put on Jesus’s body, so they could bury him the right way. They were Mary Magdalene, and Salomi, and Mary the mother of James. 2 Early on Sunday morning, when the sun was just starting to come up, they went to that cave to find Jesus’s body. 3 As they walked along, they said to each other, “Who will roll away that big stone to open up the cave for us? It’s way too big for us.”

4 But when the women got there they looked up and saw that the big stone was not blocking the cave any more. Somebody already came before them and rolled that big stone away.

5 Then they walked into the cave, and they saw a young man sitting there on the right-hand side, wearing really white clothes. They got a big surprise. 6 He said to them, “Don’t be frightened. You are looking for the body of Jesus, the man from Nazareth that they killed on a cross. God made him alive again. He isn’t here. Look, see this place just here. They put his body here, but it isn’t here now.” 7 And he said to them, “Go back to his followers and tell them, ‘You mob have to go back to Galilee country. Jesus will go there ahead of you, and when you go back there you will see him. You remember, he told you about that some time ago.’ Make sure you tell that message to Peter and the other followers.”* Matthew 26:32; Mark 14:28

8 The women didn’t know what to think. They were so frightened they were shaking. They came out of that cave and ran away. Those women were too frightened to talk to anybody. They just ran away.

9 Early on Sunday morning, before those women went to the cave, Jesus came alive again. He let Mary Magdalene see him first. (Some time before this, Jesus forced 7 bad spirits out of her.) 10 After Mary saw Jesus, she went to his friends, the people that used to walk around with him. When she got there, they were all very sad and crying. 11 Mary told them, “Jesus is alive again. I have just seen him.” But they didn’t believe her.

12 A little while after that, 2 of Jesus’s other followers were walking from Jerusalem to another place out in the bush. Jesus came to them, and he let them see him, but he made himself look like a different man, so they didn’t know it was him. 13 Then, after they found out it really was him, they turned around and quickly went back to Jerusalem, and they told Jesus’s other followers that they saw Jesus. But those other followers didn’t believe them.

14 After that, Jesus’s 11 special workers were eating food together, and Jesus came to them, and he let them see him alive. He said to them, “Why didn’t you listen to those people that said they saw me? What they said was true, but you didn’t believe them.”

15 After that, Jesus said to his followers, “You have to go out to everywhere in the world and tell everybody the good news about me. 16 Some people will believe your message. You have to take them through that special washing ceremony, called baptism, and God will save them. But God will not save people that don’t believe that message. He will blame them and say they are guilty. 17 And the people that believe in me will do great things with the power that I will give them, to show everyone that they are God’s people. They will force bad spirits out of people. And they will talk in different languages that they never learned. 18 And if they pick up a cheeky snake, it will not hurt them. And if they drink poison, it will not hurt them. And they will put their hands on sick people, and those sick people will get better.”

19 After Jesus finished telling his followers all those things, God took him up to heaven. And Jesus sat down at the right-hand side of God, the place where only a really important person can sit.

20 After that, his followers went everywhere and told people the good news about Jesus. And our leader, Jesus himself, worked with them. He gave them power to do great things so that everyone knew that he was with them, and that their message about him was true.