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Object: A dollar bill, or any bill with a president’s image on it.

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Hello, everyone! (Let them respond.) Are you ready for our story today? (Let them respond.) Excellent! This is a story about bullies. Who can tell us what a bully is? (Let them respond.) A bully is someone who tries to make you do things you don’t want to do. Bullies are usually bigger, or more powerful than you are, aren’t they? And they threaten you and say that if you don’t do what they want you to do, they will do something to you, don’t they? (Let them respond.) Well, our story today is about two bullies who were threatening Jesus and his friends.

One of the bullies was a group of people called the Pharisees. We’ve heard about the Pharisees, haven’t we? (Let them respond.) They were in charge of making sure everyone obeyed all of their religious laws. If you didn’t follow their laws, they could do things to punish you. The Pharisees didn’t like Jesus, because he was going around telling people they didn’t have to follow all of the Pharisee’s laws. They were always trying to trick Jesus, and threatening to do something to him if he didn’t stop telling people that.

One day when Jesus was with his friends at the temple, some Pharisees came to talk to him and try to trick him with a really sneaky question. They said, “Jesus, we know that you are a really good man and do what God wants us to do.” They didn’t really believe he was a good man, but sometimes bullies try to treat you nice like that to trick you? Then they asked Jesus, “You know the law that says we should all pay taxes to Caesar. Do you think we should pay those taxes or not?”

Does anyone know who Caesar was? (Let them respond.) Caesar Augustus was the leader of the Roman Empire, which was the great big country that ruled over Israel. And Rome had their own laws they said everyone had to follow. Rome had big armies they could send to punish you if you did not obey their laws. The people in Israel didn’t like Caesar, and they didn’t like anyone who supported him.

One of the Roman laws was that everyone had to pay taxes to Caesar every year to support the Roman government. So, when the Pharisees asked Jesus the question about paying those taxes, they thought they finally had him trapped. If he said that people should pay the taxes, the people who followed him would hate him because he was helping Caesar. But if he said they should not pay the taxes, he would be breaking the Roman law, and the soldiers would come and take him away. I think the Pharisees had a little grin on their face when they asked the question, don’t you? (Let them respond.) Do you know that little smirky grin a bully has when they think they really have you trapped? Can you show what a bully’s smirk looks like? (Have everyone show their smirky grin.) The Pharisees knew that no matter what Jesus answered, he was going to be in trouble.

But let me show you what Jesus did. He asked the Pharisees if they had any money with them. Jesus looked at them and said, “You are trying to trap me, aren’t you? Do you have any money with you?” One of the Pharisees got a coin out of their pocket. (Show your dollar bill.) Jesus said, “Who’s picture is on the coin?” Let’s look at our money. Whose picture is on it? (Show the bill and let them respond.) It’s one of our presidents, isn’t it? (Let them respond.) The Pharisees looked at the coin and said, “Caesar’s.” Then Jesus said, “Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God.”

The smirk on the Pharisees’ faces went away. It changed from a smirk to a look that said, “Huh?” They were really confused. Can you make your bully smirk turn into something like this? (Show your bully-smirk turn into silly confusion and have everyone try it.)

The Pharisees just stood there and didn’t know what to say. The bullies wanted Jesus to argue with them, so they had an excuse to do more to hurt him. But Jesus told the Pharisees that he wasn’t going to argue about laws because that wasn’t what was important. The Pharisees believed that the laws were the most important thing, but Jesus believed the most important thing was to take care of people the way God wanted them to. To take care of people and teach them to take care of each other.

The story says, “They were amazed and walked away.” The Pharisees knew how to argue about laws, but they didn’t know how to take care of people.

Sometimes we see religious people arguing about laws, don’t we? (Let them respond.) We see them protest, threaten people, and argue about changing the laws to make them be the way they think they ought to be. They are kind of like the Pharisees who believed that the most important thing in the world is to make everyone follow their laws, aren’t they? (Let them respond.) Our story reminds us there is something more important than a bunch of religious laws. To God, the most important thing is for us to care about each other. Are we all safe? Do we all have a place to stay? Do we all have enough food to eat? Do we all have clothes to wear?

God does not want us to be bullies. God wants us to take care of each other.

Let’s pray and ask God to remind us that Jesus loves every one of us and wants us to follow him and take care of each other the way God takes care of us.

Prayer
Dear God, thank you for reminding us how much you love us and for forgiving us when we forget that. And please help us remember that you love all of the people you have created and help us let the people around us know that we love them just like Jesus loves us. Amen.