THE LESSON was on the crucifixion. The teacher asked the seven- and eight-year-olds to write down a list of their “most troublesome sins”. She had brought an example of a whip to show them how Jesus was tortured before his death. “There would have been no skin left on Jesus’s back. His ribs would have been exposed because once it takes your skin off, when they keep going it’s digging into your organs,” she said. After the beating his raw body rubbed against the cross. “Think of the splinters!” she exclaimed. The children sat mostly quietly as she told them that God could not look at Jesus because he was covered in sins. Soon time was up. Jesus would be resurrected, she reassured them, but that was for next class.