Day
5
1
of 10 Lepers Came Back to Thank Jesus
As
He was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met Him. They stood at a
distance and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”
When He saw them, He said, “Go, show
yourselves to the priests.” And they went, they were cleansed. One of them,
when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw
himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked Him-and he was a Samaritan. Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the
other nine? Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?”
Then He said to him, “Rise and go; your
faith has made you well.” Luke 17:12-19 NIV®
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Memory
Verse: “In the same way, I tell you,
there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who
repents.” Luke 15:10 NIV®
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Discussion
Example:
Explain:
“Leprosy was a very serious disease in Jesus’ time that left big sores all over
the body of the person that had it. Those with Leprosy were looked down upon and were not to associate with
other people. They usually had to live in camps outside of the city. Some could never
see their families or friends again, because they didn’t want their family
members to catch this terrible disease.
“The
ten men had to be extremely excited when they asked Jesus to heal them and He
did. Nine of the lepers ran to see the priests who could pronounce that
they were healed and could return to their families and friends. Their whole
lives would change. They could finally have the respect of others, something they
longed for. How amazing it must have been to be healed of such a terrible disease
that has no cure!
“They
were so excited that they forgot to thank Jesus who healed them, except for the
one. What's even more amazing is that the man who threw himself at
Jesus’ feet to thank Him for healing him was a foreigner and may not have known
that Jesus was His Savior. After being healed, there was no
mistaking that Jesus was not just some ordinary man. He is the Son of God!
“The
thing is, Jesus has done so much for us. Do we thank Him or do we get busy
doing other things and forget? I know that I have forgotten to thank Jesus more
times than I’d like to admit, but after reading this Bible passage, I want to
do a better job of thanking Jesus. We can all do this and try to remember to
thank Christ when good things happen in our lives.”
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Arts
and Crafts Example:
Kids
will need scissors, glue, paper, and a pencil or marker and copies of the
letters. Say, “You’re going to play The Name Game. We know our Savior as
Jesus and also Christ. He is called lots of
different names in the Bible like The Son of Man, The Son of God, The Word,
The Truth, The Good Shepherd, etc. You are going to take these name strips cut
and glue them to show some of Jesus’ many names.
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Science
Example:
Each
person or group will have a blown up and tied balloon. (It would allow you more
time if you had these done ahead of time.) Explain: They are supposed to rub
the balloon on their hair and set it on the table. Ask, “What is your
Hypothesis about what will happen if you put your hand in front of the
balloon?” Listen to all of these before letting them try it.
After
they have done this experiment ask, “Why do you think the balloon followed your
hand?” After they give their ideas, explain that when things have static
electricity, they work like a magnet, like the balloon that followed your hand. This is like the
nine lepers who followed the others instead of coming back to thank Jesus for
healing them. We want to be like the one leper who did come back to thank Jesus.
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Game
Example:
Explain
that they are going to play: Follow the Leper (similar to Follow the
Leader). Tell them, “You are to all line up in a row and will be the Lepers
(people with Leprosy). You are to follow the leader of the line and do what
they do, but the last person in the line is going to leave the line and come
back to me and thank me, representing the one leper who came back to thank
Jesus for healing him. Sooner or later, the whole class will be back with me
and we’ll see if we can play it again with a new leader, if there’s enough
time. I only let people play the games who don’t complain if they’re not able
to be the leader. If it’s going to be hard for you not to be the leader, you
may sit over there and watch the rest of them play the game.”
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