First Thoughts: This story packs quite a punch, doesn't it? It's only found in the gospel of Luke, often described as the "social justice" gospel. The gospel-writer of Luke is very concerned with the ethics of how Christians should respond to the poverty around them, and his storytelling highlights this perspective. Here we know only two things about the rich man: He lived lavishly while poor Lazarus suffered just feet away from him, and so the rich man is sent to Hades in the afterlife. From this story then we can extrapolate that 1) simply being rich is evil, or 2) having means to help someone and not doing so is evil. For the purpose of working with the children today, we will focus on the second lesson, lifting up as the greatest sin the rich man's blindness to the plight of Lazarus in front of him. Studies show that not seeing someone, simply ignoring them, is actually more damaging than expressing open hostility. At least hostility acknowledges a person is THERE. Ignoring someone renders them invisible, nonexistent. Jesus always SAW the people around him, the ones others simply overlooked. It is our job as Christians to truly see the people around us and to recognize in them a child of God. Just doing that can lift a great deal of spiritual poverty in our world. As you prepare this morning, ask God to give you eyes to really see the children you minister to, granting them the greatest gift of all: your sacred attention.
Teaching On Your Own: Hey everybody, I'm having a hard time with my best friend. We had a fight. Have you ever had a fight with your friends? It's bad, right? But this is even worse than usual. See, we got into an argument about who is better at playing basketball. First we started yelling at each other, and then we started pushing each other around. But that's not the worst part. After we were done yelling and fighting, guess what he did? He just turned away and started ignoring me. He gave me the silent treatment. That's the worst. Have you ever had anybody ignore you? Isn't it terrible? No matter what I said, he looked past me and turned away like he couldn't even hear me. He treated me like I was invisible, and it's just the worse feeling ever. I think it's better to be yelled at than to be treated like you're not even there. It reminds me of our story today.
Jesus wanted to teach his disciples how important it is to really see other people, especially people in need. He told a story about a rich man who had everything he wanted. Every day he would pass by a poor man named Lazarus. Lazarus was sick and weak and so hungry, but the rich man ignored him every day. The silent treatment, right? Jesus said that when the rich man and Lazarus died, Lazarus was taken to a place where he was finally healed and had enough to eat, and he had all the comforts he'd missed in his life on earth. But the rich man was sent to a place where he had nothing, and where he was constantly thirsty but had no water. Jesus said that now the rich man would be punished because he had ignored Lazarus for so long. Jesus was pretty serious about how important it is to see people, huh? Not just to see people, but to realize that each person we see really is important in God's eyes. God loves them and wants us to love them too. How much better would the world be if we really looked at each other and saw that we are all God's children? It would be a lot better than the silent treatment, trust me!
Teaching As A Team:
(Leader 2 looks sad)
Leader 1: Hey (name), is something wrong? You look a little sad.
Leader 2: I AM sad. My best friend and I had a fight.
Leader 1: Oh no. What happened?
Leader 2: We got into an argument about who is better at playing basketball. First we started yelling at each other, and then we started pushing each other around.
Leader 1: That does sound bad.
Leader 2: That's not the worst part. After we were done yelling and fighting, guess what he did? He just turned away and started ignoring me.
Leader 1: Ew, the silent treatment. That's the worst.
Leader 2: It really is. No matter what I said, he just looked past me and turned away, like he couldn't even hear me. He treated me like I was invisible, and it's just the worse feeling ever.
Leader 1: Yeah, it's almost better to be yelled at than to be treated like you're not even there. It reminds me of our story today. Jesus wanted to teach his disciples how important it is to really see other people, especially people in need. He told a story about a rich man who had everything he needed and wanted. Every day he would pass by a poor man named Lazarus. Lazarus was sick and weak and so hungry, but the rich man ignored him.
Leader 2: Yep, the silent treatment.
Leader 1: Jesus said that when the rich man and Lazarus died, Lazarus was taken to a place where he was finally healed and had enough to eat, and he had all the comforts he'd missed in his life. But the rich man was sent to a place where he had nothing, and where he was constantly thirsty but had no water. Jesus said that now the rich man would be punished because he had ignored Lazarus for so long.
Leader 2: Wow. I guess Jesus was pretty serious about how important it is to see people.
Leader 1: And not just to see people, but to realize that each person we see really is important in God's eyes. God loves them and wants us to love them too. Think of how much better the world would be if we really saw each other and saw that we're all God's children.
Leader 2: Well, it would be a lot better than the silent treatment. I'm sure of that!
Closing Prayer: God, help us never to ignore the people we see every day, especially those who need help. Give us eyes that see with your wisdom, and hearts that feel with your love. In Christ's name we pray, Amen.
Follow-Up Lesson: To reinforce this message in a home or classroom environment, talk to the children more about what it feels like to be ignored. What about when you have a big problem and no one seems to care? Ask the children to share if they've ever had that experience. All of us go through hard times, but it's even worse when we feel we're all alone. Jesus wanted his disciples to know how important it is for them to pay attention to the needs of people around them.
As an activity, bring in a "hidden object" worksheet or an "I Spy" book. Encourage the children to either work independently (if you have worksheets for each one) or together (with the book) to find all the objects. When they're done, ask the children if it was hard or easy to find the objects. It might have been difficult, but they kept looking because they knew the objects were there. We need to look for people the same way. We know there are people out there who need someone to care for them, and we know that God will bring them to us. We just need to be watching carefully, ready to carry God's love to them. Close with a time of prayer, asking God to make our eyes sharp and our hearts kind.
