Family Sunday School

This summer I have been helping host a family Sunday School at Yale Avenue Christian Church. I have been writing the children’s story every week in a format inspired by the Children’s Worship and Wonder curriculum.  I have written eight lessons so far.  I wrote this one about a month ago and I am incredibly proud of it.

It will probably reveal my leftist leanings, but then again I think it also reveals Jesus’ leftist leanings.

Materials:
Tan square of cloth
Jesus figure
Pharisee figure
Picture of bowl of water
cup that is clean outside and dirty inside
Lists of “Rules” and “Sabbath Rules”
Sharing bread picture
Heart picture
Key
Envelope to seal key in
Red pipe cleaner cut in 1/2

Luke 11:37-53 & 13:10-17 Jesus Doesn’t Like Bullies

Spread out the tan cloth, slowly and deliberately.  Then begin.

Once there was someone who said such amazing things and did such wonderful things that people began to follow him.  Crowds followed to hear the amazing things he said and see the wonderful things he did.

But there were some very important people who thought he had bad ideas. One of these very important people, who were called Pharisees, invited Jesus to his house for dinner. Jesus went straight to the table to eat and he didn’t wash his hands.

Place a small rectangle of fabric representing the table in the middle of the cloth.  Place the picture of the bowl of water to one side of the table. Place the Pharisee next to the table. Have the Jesus figure walk past the bowl of water straight to the table.

The Pharisee man was surprised that Jesus didn’t wash his hands.  In the time when Jesus lived, the Pharisees had made many rules about eating and working and sleeping that the Pharisees said were from God.  Washing your hands before you eat was one of these rules.  In fact, they said that if you didn’t wash your hands exactly right before you ate your food, God was very very angry with you.

Place a list of “rules” in the middle of the tan cloth. Point to “The rules” as you continue to speak.

Jesus knew that these rules were not the real rules.  He knew that acting Loving to God and Loving to everyone around you were the only rules God wants us to follow.

Place the heart over the top of the List of Rules.

Jesus didn’t like bullies, so it made him very angry that all these people who thought they were the most important had made up hard rules that caused other people to think that God didn’t love them.  Jesus was angry that these Pharisees used their made up rules to bully everyone else.

Wrap a red pipe cleaner around the Jesus figure.

So Jesus said angry things to this Pharisee man and all his Pharisee friends.  He said, “You keep everything clean outside of you according to your rules, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness!”

Show the outside of the cup and then the dirty inside.  Set it next to the Pharisee figure.

Jesus said, “How can you not see that the outside of a dish of food doesn’t matter? Or how clean your hands are at the table? God doesn’t care how you washed your hands or the outside of a dish of food, my Father cares whether or not you look around you and use your hands to give the food inside the dish to feed someone who was hungrier than you!”

Place pictures of hands sharing bread next to the rules and the heart.

Jesus was very angry now.  He said, “You load people down with rules that are almost impossible for them to follow and you don’t help them one single bit! You have hidden the key to loving and serving God from everyone – you don’t use it and, even worse, you won’t let anyone else use it!”

Show the cut out key and then seal it in an envelope and place it next to the dirty cup.

This made the Pharisees very angry. They knew if everyone started believing Jesus then they wouldn’t get to boss anyone around anymore.

Wrap the red pipe cleaner around the Pharisee figure. Move everything off the tan cloth.

But Jesus knew the truth about God’s love and was going to share it no matter what.

Unwrap the red pipe cleaner from Jesus.

In fact, the next time Jesus was worshiping at God’s house on the Sabbath, God’s special day, a woman came to him who had been crippled for 18 years and he healed her.  Of course, this made the Pharisees angry because they had more rules about what you could and couldn’t do on the Sabbath day than just about anything else.  They thought healing someone on that day broke those rules.

Place a list of “the Sabbath Rules” in the center of the cloth.

Jesus said to them, “Even by your rules you can untie your thirsty horse and set him free to take a drink on the Sabbath. So how is it against your rules to untie this woman from her pain and set her free from her brokenness on the Sabbath?”

Take the Sabbath Rules and tear them up. Put the heart back in the middle of the cloth.

When Jesus said this, all the Pharisees were angry and embarrassed at how silly their rules sounded, but the rest of the people were delighted with the wonderful things he was doing.

Suggestions for Wonder Questions:

I wonder how often Jesus got mad.…

I wonder if that Pharisee regretted inviting Jesus to dinner…

I wonder if anyone was actually able to follow all those rules perfectly…

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And that, my friends, is why I never blog; I am writing Sunday School curriculum!