Resurrection Rolls—A Delicious Way to Share the Easter Story

Written by Nicole O'Meara

When I was a child, a gray-headed lady seated in front of a flannel graph at Sunday School taught me the Easter Story.  As she placed a piece of brown felt on the board, my imagination transformed it into a dark, dank tomb.  The piece of white felt morphed into a brilliant angel. With each new colored piece, the story in mind filled in until I felt I was there with the disciples peering into the empty tomb.

Years later, wanting my son to have a similarly magical experience but with no flannel graph to be found I gathered bits of nature from our backyard.  A glue gun, some grass and sticks and a large stone were all I needed to spark Joshua’s imagination and bring the story alive.

Like everything else He created, God formed our imaginations for his glory.  And aren’t we glad for Sunday School teachers who creatively use God’s Creation to teach his Word for His glory?  

But creatively teaching the Easter story isn’t just for Sunday School teachers.  Parents can do it at home just as easily.  Resurrection Rolls are a delicious way to tell the story from your own kitchen. Sometimes called Easter Rolls or Empty Tomb Rolls, these rolls are a fun way to literally get your hands into the Easter story.

What is a Resurrection Roll?
You only need a few ingredients to make these sugary rolls.  Using a crescent roll as the “tomb” and a marshmallow as the “body,” you and your little ones will roll the marshmallow in butter to represent embalming oils and sugar to represent burial spices.  Then you will cover the marshmallow and pinch it shut just as the stone shut up Christ’s tomb.  It won’t take you three days, just 15 minutes, to heat these rolls up.  When you open them, the marshmallow will be gone and the roll will be empty, just like the tomb.  You’ll be left with a delightfully sticky sweet treat, perhaps less delightful than the Resurrection but still a great analogy.

How do I tell the Resurrection Story with Resurrection Rolls?
Using Luke 23:54-24:12 as your guide, talk to you children as your prepare the rolls.  You might say something like this.

After Jesus died on the cross, a godly man took his body down, wrapped it in clean cloths, and placed it in a brand new tomb cut into a stone.  It might have looked like a cave.  Women helped prepare Christ’s body with ointments (roll the marshmallow in butter) and spices (roll it in the cinnamon sugar).  Then the tomb was sealed up with a huge stone (pinch the dough shut).

Three days later (pull the rolls out of the oven), women went to the tomb and found the stone rolled away.  They looked inside and found the tomb empty!  (Open a roll.)  The body was no where to be found.  They looked around and saw two angels who said, “He is not here, but has risen.”  Then they remembered what Jesus had said about rising on the third day and they ran to tell the disciples what they had seen.

God’s power resurrected Christ’s dead body to live for all eternity with God in Heaven.  God had the power to raise Jesus from the dead, so you can be sure he has the power to raise you from the dead too…just as he promised.

"Come, let us return to the LORD;
for it is he who has torn, and he will heal us;
he has struck down, and he will bind us up.
After two days he will revive us;
on the third day he will raise us up,
that we may live before him." (Hosea 6:1-2)

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”  (John 11:25-26)

You can become a child of God by believing that Jesus was God’s son and really did save you from your sin when he died on the cross.  When you believe in Jesus, you promise to follow his ways all your life and God promises to bring you to Heaven to live with him for all eternity.

For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.... (John 6:40)