Childrens Sermon Service

Object: For this role-play activity, use a piece of poster board or paper to create a sign that says, “LEPER”, punch holes in the top two corners, and use string or yarn to create a strap to wear the sign around your neck. If you have enough children, create enough signs for ten children to wear. If you have fewer than then, create enough signs for all but two children to wear. The remaining children will play the role of the priest and Jesus in the story. If you do have fewer than ten lepers, just change that number as you go through the script.

Note: While this is a serious message, you can make it even more meaningful if you take a few moments to add some action. When the children are “lepers”, have them briefly walk around the sanctuary following the rules of being a “leper” that are explained in the message. Even two or three minutes adds a lot.

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Hello, everyone! (Let them respond.) Are you ready for our story today? (Let them respond.) Excellent!

(Select the ten children to be lepers and the one to be the priest. Have the men stand in a group by the priest.)

One day, ten men went to see the priest of their temple. The priest looked at them and saw the sores on their hands and arms and faces. (Have the priest do the things you say next.) Then the priest stepped back, raised his hands in the air, and said, “In the name of God, I declare that you are a leper!” (Have the priest put a sign around the neck of each leper.)

The ten men were sick with a disease called leprosy. It was a really bad disease, and everyone was afraid of it. The priest told the men that since they were now lepers, they had to follow some special rules for the rest of their lives. Everywhere they went, they had to walk all bent over, with their face pointed down to the ground. (Have the lepers do that.) They could never look up, and they could never, ever, look at anyone in the eyes again. And the priest said that from now on they were unclean, and they could never, ever, touch anyone again or let anyone touch them. When people saw them, the people would shout, “Leper!”, and move away from them to make sure they didn’t touch them. (Have the rest of the children, and even the congregation, shout “Leper” and lean away from the lepers.)

When the men left the temple, they followed the rules. (Take a few minutes and have the lepers walk around a bit, bent over, staring at the ground. Have the people around them shout “Leper” and try to stay away from them.)

The men were going to have to follow the rules for the rest of their lives. They could not go home. They could never see their families again. How do you think they felt? (Let them respond.) Probably really bad, huh? But then something happened.

One day they were walking down the road and saw Jesus standing with his friends. (Pick your child to be Jesus and have him stand in front of the lepers. As you continue, have the children repeat the things their characters say in the story.) The men had heard about Jesus, and they shouted at him, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!” They broke the rules, didn’t they? (Let them respond.) But Jesus did not call the priest to punish them. And Jesus did not shout, “Leper!”. He didn’t try to get away from them.Jesus just looked at the men and said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.”

When the men got back to the priest, they were all excited. And, when the priest looked at them and saw that the sores on their hands and arms and faces were gone, he was REALLY surprised. They didn’t have leprosy anymore. Jesus had cured them. The priest raised his hands in the air and said, “In the name of God, I declare that you are clean!” (Have the priest take the signs off the men.)

When the men left the temple, they didn’t have to follow the leper rules any longer. Now they could live again! How do you think they felt, now? (Let them respond.) Some of the men ran to the marketplace to get something to eat. (Have some of the ex-lepers go sit down.) Some of the men ran back home to see their families. (Have all but one of the remaining ex-lepers go sit down.) But one of the men did something different. Do you know what he did? (Let them respond.) He walked back to see Jesus and said, “Thank you!” (Have the one ex-leper do that.)

Jesus looked at him and said, “Weren’t there more of you?” And, this man wasn’t even from here, like the rest of the men were. He was from a place called Samaria. He didn’t wear the same clothes or talk the same way as the others. He was a foreigner. But Jesus saw how thankful the man was for the way God healed him that he told the man, “Your faith has made you well!” and told him to go and have a good life!

I hope this story will remind us to remember to be like the one man who said, “Thank You!” to God for taking care of him, and not be like the other nine who didn’t say, “Thank you!”.

And I think I know a great way we can show God just how thankful we are. Why don’t we just do what Jesus said God wants us to do and take care of each other? Can anyone think of ways we might show people we care about them? (Let them respond.) Maybe we can just say, “Hi!”, to them, or be nice to them, or not bully them or fight with them, or just help them when we see they need some help.

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.