Scripture: Luke 10:25-37
Memory Verse/Key
Verse: "Love your enemies, and be good to everyone who hates
you. Ask God to bless anyone who curses you, and pray for everyone who is
cruel to you." Luke 6:27-28 (CEV)
Concepts:
· God wants us to
love God, love our neighbors, and love ourselves.
· Disciples of
Jesus Christ must listen to his teachings and then go out and live them.
Objectives:
1. Older children
will locate the story of The Good Samaritan in their Bibles. Younger children
will learn that the story is in Luke.
2. The children
will play a quiz game to reinforce their knowledge of the details of the story.
3. The class will
consider how this story applies to their lives and how they can emulate the
Good Samaritan.
Procedure:
Welcome
and Introductions:
1.
As the children come in the door, count them off by color -- Red,
Orange, Green and Purple -- and have them go to the area of the room that is
designated with their color.
2. Greet the
children and introduce yourself. Wear
your nametag.
3.
Open with a brief prayer
4. Explain the
purpose of this workshop: Today we’re going to play a game to see how well you
know the story of the Good Samaritan.
Scripture/Bible
Story:
1.
Grades 1-2 will not use Bibles, but do open yours to show them
where the story is. For grades 3-5, make sure everybody has a Bible.
Help the students to find the book of Luke. (Get the shepherds to go around the
room and help with this.) Many of the kids will already know the four Gospels.
If necessary, remind them that the Bible is divided into the Old and New
Testaments. Each part is made up of books, which are divided into chapters and
verses. Ask whether Luke is in the Old or New Testament (It tells about Jesus so it’s in the New Testament). Make sure
everyone knows that Luke is the third book in the New Testament.
After they’ve found Luke, help them find chapter 10, verse 25. Some of the
children will confuse chapters and verses. Show them that chapter numbers are
the big ones, and also are at top of every page.
2.
With younger children, tell the story using the summary below as a
guide and being sure to cover the points that are in italics. With older
children, you can tell the story or have them read it from the Bible, but cover
the italic points. Remind them to listen carefully because they will need to
remember the details of the story in order to play the game.
Suggestions for reviewing the story in later weeks of the rotation:
·
Begin the story and let each person in the circle add one line to
the story until it is complete. Help them tell the COMPLETE story.
·
Tell the story back to them with inaccuracies and let them correct
you. (e.g., have the man ask Jesus,
“What must I do to get rich?” have the man on the road have a broken wagon, have
the first person to come along be a farmer, have the priest help the man, etc.)
This is especially fun for the younger ones -- but don’t do it unless you’re
sure they know the story fairly well.
·
Photocopy the passage (remove verse numbers), cut it up and see if
they can put it back together correctly. This works well with older kids.
·
Hand out key words (parable, neighbor, etc.) and ask the kids what
they have to do with the story. Or have the kids find the key word in the Bible
passage and then read it.
Story Summary
One day Jesus
was teaching a crowd of his followers. A man who was an expert in the Jewish
law wanted to test Jesus (maybe he was
hoping Jesus would say something to get himself in trouble), so he asked
Jesus, “Teacher, what must I do to have eternal life?”
Jesus answered
by asking the man a question: “What is written in the Scriptures?”
The man replied,
“The Scriptures say, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul,
strength, and mind, and love your neighbor as much as you love yourself.” (This is called the Great Commandment.)
Jesus said,
That’s the right answer!
But the man
didn’t quit. He asked Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?”
Jesus answered
by telling a story. (A story that teaches
a lesson is called a parable.) This is the parable that Jesus told:
A man was going
down the road from Jerusalem to Jericho. (Show
Jerusalem and Jericho on a map. Jerusalem is up on a hill and the road to
Jericho was steep and dangerous, going downhill for 17 miles with a lot of
canyons and crevices for criminals to hide in.) Robbers attacked the man
and grabbed everything he had. They beat him up and ran off, leaving him half
dead.
A priest
happened to be going down the same road. But when he saw the man, he walked by
on the other side. (Priests were very
important people, leaders in the Temple in Jerusalem. Because of their
religious duties they were required to follow a lot of rules about cleanliness.
The Jewish laws had very strict rules about touching blood or dead bodies, so
if the priest touched the man he might be considered unclean and be unable to
perform his duties in the Temple. )
Later a Levite,
a special temple helper, came by. But when he saw the man who had been hurt, he
also went by on the other side. (He might
also have thought he was doing the right thing to stay clean. Plus, the priest
and Levite might have been afraid that if they stopped, the robbers would
attack them too.)
Then, a man from
Samaria came along the road. (Show them
Samaria on a map. The Samaritans were people with Jewish origins who had
intermarried with foreigners and had some different religious beliefs and
practices. Jews despised the Samaritans and thought of them as inferior and
unclean, and wouldn’t have anything to do with them).
When the
Samaritan saw the hurt man, he went to him, treated his wounds with olive oil
and wine, and bandaged them. (This was a
common treatment. The wine cleaned the wound and the oil soothed it.) Then
the Samaritan put the man on his own donkey (the Samaritan must have walked)
and took him to an inn, where he took care of him overnight. The next
morning he gave the innkeeper two silver coins and said, “Please take care of
the man. If you spend more than this on him, I will pay you when I return.” (He promised to pay without knowing what it
would cost!)
After Jesus told
this story he asked, “Which one of the three people was a real neighbor to the
man who was hurt?
The man, who had
questioned Jesus, answered, “The one who helped him.” (He didn’t directly say the word ‘Samaritan.’ It must have been hard for
him to admit that a Samaritan could be a better neighbor than a priest.)
Jesus said, “Go
and do the same.” (Imagine the look on
the man’s face when told to be like a Samaritan!)
Application:
1.
The children are already divided into four
teams, named for the four colors on the buzzer box – Red, Orange, Green,
Purple. Have either four (one from each team) or eight players (two from each
team) gather around a table with the buzzer box in the middle (One of the round
tables from the main room is good for this). Each player holds a buzzer (the
buzzer wires are color-coded; players on the same team hold the same color
wire).
2.
Explain that you will call out a question and
players who think they know the answer should press their buzzer. The first to
buzz gets to give the answer. (If you don’t know who buzzed first, look for the
color with both lights on. See details of how to work buzzer system at end of
lesson plan.) After several questions, switch to the next group of players. Make
sure everybody gets to play.
3.
Scoring: Ask the shepherd keep score on the
white board. Award 5 points for a correct answer. No points for a wrong answer;
let anyone who knows the correct answer tell it. (You can use a different
scoring system if you prefer, but keep it simple.)
Tips: Try not to let one knowledgeable or fast-fingered child dominate the
game. Rotating the players partially takes care of the problem, but you might
run into a team that doesn’t want to rotate, wants to let the sharpest member
play the whole time. You can ward this off by announcing that anybody who
answers three questions correctly will be retired as permanent champion (with a
big round of applause) to give everybody else a chance to compete. Also, don’t
let non-playing team members help the players; this in effect lets the fast kid
answer by proxy.
Be sure they know the answer before
buzzing. If they are buzzing and then taking too long to think of the answer,
use the timer in the supply bin and give 5 seconds to answer after buzzing
(this has not been a problem in the past).
You might have to adjust the game as you go along. If it turns out that eight
players make the game chaotic, try letting just four play at a time.
Note: First-graders sometimes have difficulty with the mechanics of operating
the buzzers – they especially get
confused about turning off the sound. You can turn the sound off entirely if
you prefer. If you’d rather not tackle using buzzers with first-graders, you can
just divide them into two teams and alternate asking questions of each team.
Let children take turns answering. (Or you might have a better idea! Feel free
to devise your own game for them.)
4.
At the end of the lesson plan you’ll find a
list of questions with a choice of answers; the correct answers are in
boldface. Ask the question, then if no one can answer it unassisted, offer a
choice of answers. In general, the list begins with questions on the facts of
the story and ends with background and interpretive questions. With younger
children, you might not finish the list.
Reflection
Time:
1. Recite
the Bible memory verse learned in the Great Hall. "Love your enemies, and be good to everyone who hates you.
Ask God to bless anyone who curses you, and pray for everyone who is cruel to
you.” -- Luke 6:27-28 (CEV)
2. Discuss:
Our Bible verse tells us to love our enemies. In the story Jesus told, who were
the Samaritan’s enemies? The hurt man,
the priest and the Levite would all have been enemies of the Samaritan.
What reasons did the priest and Levite have for
not helping the man? They might have been
afraid of breaking the Jewish cleanliness law, or of getting hurt themselves.
Were the priest and
the Levite bad people? No, they probably
thought they were doing the right thing.
Do we ever make excuses for not helping people?
Can
you think of a time when you could have helped somebody but you didn’t? Accept all answers and examples. Emphasize that they should not put themselves in danger in
order to help someone else but should let their parents or other adults decide
what to do in dangerous situations.
Do you have any enemies? Are there outcasts in
your school? Can you think of groups in your school, in our town, in our
country, in the world that dislike each other? Examples might be mean kids at school, kids who dress differently, kids
playing against your team in sports, people of other races, immigrants from
other countries, people of other religions, Democrats if you’re a Republican
and vice versa, criminals, terrorists, people in countries that are unfriendly
to the U.S.
In the story Jesus told, who was the real
neighbor to the hurt man? His enemy, the
Samaritan.
After he tells the story, what does
Jesus say to do? Go and do the same. To
be Jesus’ disciples, we must be like the Samaritan and love and help our
neighbors, even if they are different from us.
3.
Pass out the journal pages and ask the shepherds to pass out
pencils/markers. (TIP: Fill in the “workshop” blanks ahead of time; otherwise,
the children will spend the entire journal time spelling out “Antioch Arcade.”)
Optional: Give the children a sticker or some other memento to paste in their
journal as a reminder of the workshop.
Younger Children: Tell them to write or draw a picture of
how they can help someone this week.
Older children: Tell them to write something they could do
to help someone else, but normally would make an excuse not to.
Ask the students to close their
journals and sit quietly. Encourage them to bring an offering next week and
remind them that their offering for this rotation will benefit Alliance Medical
Ministry. This organization is building a medical and dental clinic in Raleigh
to serve working poor people who don’t have medical insurance. It’s a way to be
like the Good Samaritan and be a loving neighbor to people who need care.
Prayer: Close with a prayer. Suggestion: “Help us to love our
enemies and be a neighbor to other people, even people who are different from
us. When we have a chance to help somebody, help us not to make excuses.”
Tidy
and Dismissal: Ask the children to collect journal pages, pencils, Bibles,
etc. After the room is tidy, dismiss the class.
Extra
Activity: With older children, if you have time, play the “Excuses, Excuses”
matching game. Hand out the worksheets (or cut apart one sheet and give one
Bible verse to each child). Read each excuse for not getting involved and let
the kids match it with the verse that counters the excuse. As an alternative,
you can give them copies of the worksheet to take home. (Source: Outline to Good Sam the Samaritan CD)
Teacher
preparation in advance:
1.
Read the scripture passages
and attend the Faith Quest Leaders Bible Study.
2.
Prepare opening and closing
prayers.
3.
Make four small signs saying Red, Green, Purple, Orange. Have
questions for the game ready.
4.
Practice
using the buzzer box and be sure you understand how it works. You’ll find it in
the supply bin along with a bag of wires. The wires are color-coded. Plug each
wire into a hole of the same color. There’s also a plug for turning the sound
on/off.
5.
Optional: Bring a CD or taped music for background music while you
are gathering, meditative music for Reflection time.
6.
Display the scripture memory verse on the wall (you’ll need to
take it down and store it during the week.)
Hang the four team color signs in different corners of the room.
Supply
List
Pencils (in supply bin; the shepherds also have pencils)
Dry-erase marker (in supply bin)
Map
Buzzer system
Questions for game
Signs designating four team colors
Copies of “Excuses, Excuses” sheet (optional)
References
Richard J. Henderson. Parables: Stories for Life in God’s World. Resource
Book, The Kerygma Program. (The Kerygma Program, Suite 205, 300 Mt. Lebanon
Boulevard, Pittsburgh, PA 15234, phone 1-800-537-9462).
George Drew. The Parables in Depth. 1982, Educational Ministries, Inc.
(Educational Ministries, Inc., 765 Penarth Avenue, Walnut, Ca, 91789)
Neil MacQueen, Good Samaritan lesson
set from Hilliard Presbyterian Church. (www.rotation.org) http://rotation.infopop.cc/6/ubb.x?a=tpc&s=1206067121&f=1026088121&m=3026088121
Outline
to Good Sam the Samaritan CD. Sunday
School Software. (www.sundaysoftware.com)
http://www.sundaysoftware.com/samout.htm.
Questions for game
Who asked Jesus a question?
A disciple.
An expert in the
Jewish law.
Why did he ask Jesus a question?
He wanted to
test Jesus.
He wanted to learn from Jesus.
What was the FIRST question the
man asked Jesus?
What must I do
to have eternal life?
Who is my neighbor?
Jesus asked the man what was
written in the Scriptures. What did the man reply?
You shall not kill.
Love the Lord
your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind, and love your neighbor
as much as you love yourself.
What was the SECOND question the
man asked Jesus?
Who is my
neighbor?
What must I do to have eternal life?
To answer the question “Who is my
neighbor?” Jesus told a story. What is the name for a story that teaches a
lesson?
A parable.
A biography.
Where did the story that Jesus
told take place?
On the road from Samaria to Bethlehem.
On the road from
Jerusalem to Jericho.
In the story Jesus told, what
happened to the man on the road?
Robbers attacked
him, took everything he had, beat him up and left him half dead.
His donkey ran away and he was stranded.
In the story Jesus told, who was
the FIRST person to see the hurt man?
A priest.
Jesus.
In the story Jesus told, what did
the priest do?
He helped the hurt man.
He walked by on
the other side of the road.
In the story Jesus told, who was
the SECOND person to see the hurt man?
A Levite, or
temple helper.
One of Jesus’ disciples.
In the story Jesus told, what did
the Levite do?
He went by on
the other side of the road.
He helped the hurt man.
In the story Jesus told, who was
the THIRD person to see the hurt man?
A priest.
A man from
Samaria.
In the story Jesus told, how did
the Samaritan treat the hurt man’s wounds?
He put olive oil
and wine on the wounds and bandaged them.
He cleaned them with peroxide and an antibiotic ointment.
In the story Jesus told, what did
the Samaritan do after he bandaged the hurt man’s wounds?
He found a donkey and took the man to an inn.
He put him on
his own donkey and took him to an inn.
In the story Jesus told, how long
did the Samaritan stay with the man at the inn?
One night.
A week.
In the story Jesus told, when the
Samaritan left the inn, what did he give the innkeeper?
His credit card.
Two silver
coins.
In the story Jesus told, what did
the Samaritan tell the innkeeper?
Please take care
of this man. If you spend more than the money I’ve given you, I’ll pay you when
I return.
Please take care of this man. I’m sure the money I’ve given
you will cover his expenses.
After Jesus finished telling the
story, what did he ask the man who had questioned him?
Which one of
these three people was the real neighbor to the man who was beaten up by
robbers?
What else do you want to know?
Who did the man, who had
questioned Jesus, say was the real neighbor in the story?
The one who
helped the hurt man.
The priest.
At the end, what did Jesus tell
the man who had questioned him?
Don’t be like the Samaritan.
Go and do the
same (as the Samaritan who was the real neighbor).
What is the Great Commandment?
Love the Lord
your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind, and love your neighbor
as much as you love yourself.
Go and do the same.
In which Gospel can you find the
story of the Good Samaritan?
Luke
Matthew
In which chapter of Luke can you
find the story of the Good Samaritan?
2
10.
Who was listening when Jesus told
the story of the Good Samaritan?
A crowd of his
followers (or a man who wanted to test him; accept either answer)
King Herod.
What is a likely reason the
priest and the Levite would have given for not helping the hurt man?
They didn’t know anything about first aid.
They might break
the Jewish laws regarding touching blood or a dead body. (Also accept: the road
was dangerous and they were afraid of being attacked)
Why didn’t the Jews like the
Samaritans?
The Samaritans
had foreign ancestry and had some different religious beliefs. The Jews thought
the Samaritans were inferior and unclean.
The Samaritans were murderers and
thieves.
Excuses, Excuses
Here are some excuses people use
for not getting involved. Match each excuse with the Bible verse that counters
it. Which excuses do you use the most?
Go to the following website:
Outline
to Good Sam the Samaritan CD. Sunday
School Software. http://www.sundaysoftware.com/samout.htm .