Childrens Sermon Service

Object: Two small containers or boxes and several pieces of paper. I used two shoe boxes with lids and about fifty pieces of used printer paper. Label one box “Judge” and the other box “Not Judge.”

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Hello, everyone! (Let them respond.) Are you ready for our story today? (Let them respond.) Excellent! This story is about a day when Jesus was talking with a bunch of people who came to see him. One of the people told Jesus that he was upset because someone called him names and hit him when he was walking down the road to get there. Another person said someone stopped him and took his jacket away from him. The first person said, “I’ll get even with him one of these days. You just watch me!” The second person said, “Yeah, me too. I’ll show them you can’t treat me like that. That’s for sure!”

So, let me ask you a question. Do you have any enemies? (Let them respond). I think most of us feel like we have enemies sometimes, don’t we? Just what is an enemy, anyway? (Let them respond.) Maybe someone who said something mean to you or did something to you, and now you don’t like them. And how do we treat enemies? (Let them respond.) If we have an enemy, sometimes we say we don’t like them or that we even hate them, don’t we? (Let them respond.) Or maybe we say mean things to them or about them or even do bad things to them. Those are some of the things we might do to someone if we think they are our enemy. We say that they hurt us, so we do something that will hurt them. If we have an enemy, we do things to get even with them and show them that we are right and they are wrong.

When Jesus heard the people talking about their enemies, he told them a story about two boxes. (Show the two boxes.) One of the boxes was called “Judge” (show the “Judge” box) and the other box was called “Not Judge” (show the “Not Judge” box). Jesus told them that every time we do something mean to someone because we decided they are our enemy, it is like we are putting something in the “Judge” box. (Wad up a piece of paper and drop it in the “Judge” box.) And every time we decide that, even though someone did something to us, they are not our enemy, and we don’t do something mean to them, it’s like we are putting something in the “Not Judge” box. (Wad up a piece of paper and drop it in the “Not Judge” box.)

So, if someone pushes us or bullies us, which box should we use? Should we say or do something to get even with them? (Let them respond as you wad up a piece of paper and drop it in the “Judge” box.)

Which box do we use if someone takes our jacket away from us? Should we say or do something to get even with them? (Let them respond as you wad up a piece of paper and drop it in the “Judge” box.)

(Show the “Judge” box.) Sometimes it does feel kind of good to get even with someone who was mean to us, doesn’t it? (Let them respond.) And it can feel really good if other people agree with us and we all get together to be mean to our enemy, can’t it? (Let them respond as you hold up both boxes.) But Jesus didn’t just tell them they should be nice to their enemies, did he? What else did Jesus tell them? (Let them respond.) Jesus told them they should not judge other people and shouldn’t treat anyone like they were enemies. Jesus said that if someone hates us, instead of treating them like our enemy, we should be nice to them. (Wad up a piece of paper and drop it in the “Not Judge” box.) And if someone says mean things to us or about us, we should be nice to them. (Wad up a piece of paper and drop it in the “Not Judge” box.) He said that we should treat everyone we meet the same way we would like them to treat us. (Wad up a piece of paper and drop it in the “Not Judge” box.)

Jesus even said that if someone treats us really badly, instead of being angry with them, we should pray for them. (Start stuffing more papers into both boxes.) He said we should pray for them because, one of these days, God is going to look at our two boxes and see how much we have put inside of them. Then God is going to take the box that is most full, the one we used the most, and stuff it completely to the top with the same things. (Make a show out of stuffing the “Not Judge” box as full as you can stuff it.) And then Jesus said that God is going to dump it all right in our lap. (Dump the “Not Judge” box into someone’s lap.) Jesus said that God was going to treat us exactly the same way we treated other people.

Now, Jesus does not mean that if someone is hurting us we need to let them keep hurting us. Or, if someone is being mean to us, it does not mean that we need to let them keep being mean to us. If those things are happening, we should ask someone to help us and go someplace where we can be safe from that person. (Show the “Not Judge” box.) Jesus meant that we should feel sorry for that person and pray for them because, one of these days, God is going to dump all of their bad behavior right on them, just like they dumped it on other people.

(Show both boxes.) Our story reminds us that the next time someone treats us like we are their enemy, we can choose which box we will use and how we are going to treat them.

(Toss the “Judge” box over your shoulder and show everyone the “Not Judge” box.) I hope we can remember to use the box God wants us to use and take care of everyone the same way we would like everyone to take care of us.

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.