Scary Easter, Round 2

With Easter coming up, I figured I should do the responsible thing and teach Simon more about what we celebrate at Easter. Since I am a huge fan of all things chocolate and marshmallow - not to mention baskets and that annoying grass, and those delicious Cadbury Eggs, and jelly beans, and malted milk eggs, I think I've proved my point - there is a real of danger in our house of thinking Easter is about colored eggs and candy.

So, I put my Good Mom hat on and explained why Easter is so special.

"Simon, do you remember how we read about Jesus dying on the cross?"

Of course he remembers. It scarred him for life.

"Well, remember that we also learned that Jesus didn't stay dead. He became alive again." (I thought resurrected might be stretching the vocabulary a bit too much, but my description doesn't stretch it quite enough, does it?)

"That's why we have Easter. We are celebrating that Jesus is alive."

silence. I get nervous in the silence because that means the boy is thinking.

Sure enough:

"Mommy, do we have to die on Easter like Jesus?"
(Is this an appropriate time to crack a joke, "No, but we get to DYE on Easter!" Ha ha ha!)

Then:
"Mommy, when will we die?"

My answer sucked: "When Jesus says it's time." If I could rewrite that one I would in a heartbeat, because Simon's reply was what I should have expected from a three-year-old with an active imagination who has just been told of a death-dispensing talking Jesus: "Mommy, I think Jesus said it's time."

Okay. Here's where it may have been appropriate to pull something out of my theological bag of tricks about death and new life. But, I decided that I just needed to scrap this conversation, whip out the Peeps, and try again in a day or so. Any suggestions?