This week is Holy Week for Christians. We remember and celebrate Jesus’ Triumphal Entry, Last Supper, trial, death, and resurrection.
All the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) have accounts of the resurrection, but none of the accounts are written in first person.
Point of View
First-person point of view is when the narrator is telling the story, like this: “I saw the angels,” “I walked up to the tomb,” or “When we saw that it was empty, he went in and I backed away.”
The disciple John, when mentioning himself, writes of himself in third person as “the other disciple,” like this: “So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first” (John 20: 3-4). What would his story be like if he had written it in first person?
Many people are mentioned in the accounts of the resurrection: Mary Magdalene and other women, guards, angels, disciples such as Peter and John, chief priests, Cleopas and the other man walking to Emmaus, and Doubting Thomas. What story could they tell?
Now it’s your turn: Who was at the resurrection? Write his or her story. Use first-person point of view. Your narrator can be any of the people who really were there that morning, or it can be someone you make up (like a gardener, a bird, a stray lamb, a Roman soldier, and so forth). You won’t be changing the facts of the resurrection; you simply will be letting readers see it through someone else’s eyes.
You can find accounts of the resurrection in Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 24, and John 20. Read these accounts before you write your story.
Find another Easter prompt here.
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