Childrens Sermon Service

Hello, everyone! (Let them respond.) I have another story for you today. Are you ready? (Let them respond.) Great!

One day there were some men walking down the road. There were ten 10 men, and they were all very sick. The doctor had told them they had a disease called leprosy and told them they needed to go see the priest at the temple. But they didn’t all walk together. One of the men walked all by himself, because he was from the land of Samaria, and the other men were from the land of Galilee. Galileans did not like Samaritans, and they believed that God hated Samaritans because they didn’t follow all of the temple laws. So, the nine other men would not walk with him or even talk with him.

When they got to the temple, they rolled up their sleeves to show the priest the sores on their arms. (Roll up your sleeves to show how it looked.) When the priest saw the sores, he stepped back, raised his hands to the sky, and said to each one of them, “I declare that you are a leper!”

When then the men left the temple, they did not go back home. They could never go home again and never see their families again, because they are sick with leprosy, and no one wanted them around anymore. They could not touch anyone else ever again, and could not eat with anyone ever again, and could not even look someone else in the eyes ever again. In fact, since they were lepers, everyone around them pretended they were dead and gone. Their families back home would even have funerals for them, just like they were really dead. I wonder how the men felt as they walked out of the temple? (Let them respond.) Probably really sad, right? The only thing they could do now was to go and live by the garbage dump where all the other lepers lived. No one would talk to them, and no one would help them. That had to be sad, didn’t it? (Let them respond.)

While they were walking to the garbage dump, they saw a group of people coming down the road. Since they were lepers, they were supposed to go stand in the ditch by the side of the road and stay away from the other people as they walked by, but when the people got closer, the men saw that Jesus was in the group and they got all excited. The religious laws said the men were supposed to stay in the ditch and not even look at the people going by, but instead the ten men ran out of the ditch and fell on the ground in front of Jesus, and said, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”

Does anyone know what Jesus did when they ran to him? (Let them respond.) He didn’t yell at them for breaking the law and running out of the ditch. Instead, he cared about them, even though they were lepers. He looked at them and told them to go back to the priest and show him their arms again. They were confused but got up and started walking back to see the priest again. While they were walking, one of them noticed that the sores on his arm didn’t hurt as much as they used to, so he rolled up his sleeve to look. What do you think he saw? (Let them respond.) The sores on his arms were all gone. The leprosy was gone. The others rolled up their sleeves and got all excited because their leprosy was gone too. Jesus had healed them. And when they got back to the priest, I’ll bet he was excited about it too, don’t you? (Let them respond.)

The priest told them they were all clean again and said they could go back home to their families and do everything else they wanted to do. How do you think they all felt now? (Let them respond.)

But do you know what happened next? (Let them respond.) Jesus and his friends were still walking down the road when one of the men who had been sick ran back to him and said, “Thank you, Lord! Thank you for making me well again!” Jesus looked at him and said, “Weren’t there ten men who were sick and were healed? And only this one has come back to say, ‘Thank you?’” And do you know which man came back? (Let them respond.) It was the Samaritan that everyone thought was not a good person.

Jesus looked at the Samaritan and told him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well!” How do you think the man felt now as he walked away and headed back home? (Let them respond.) Probably really great, huh?

We don’t know what happened to the other nine men, but we just know they did not come back to say “Thank you” for what God had done for them. I wonder if we sometimes forget to say “Thank you” to God too? (Let them respond.) We can’t just run up to Jesus on the road and say, “Thank you!” today, can we? (Let them respond.) But does anyone have any ideas about how we can say “Thank you!” to God for taking care of us? (Let them respond.) Maybe make a “Thank You” card? (Show the card and let them respond.) We could do that, but I think there is a better way we can show God how thankful we are. What if, instead of making a card, we all tried really hard to take care of each other the way God has asked us to do? What if, when we see someone who needs help or who is alone, even if they are someone nobody else likes, what if we stopped and tried to help take care of them, the way Jesus helped the ten lepers? I think that would be about the greatest way to say “Thank you!” — don’t you? (Let them respond.)

Let’s all pray together and ask God to help us remember how much God loves every one of us no matter who we are and ask God to help us remember to take care of other people the way God takes care of us.

Prayer:
Dear God, thank you for reminding us how much you love us. Please help us understand what you are trying to teach us in your stories. And help us to 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.