YEAR 4, Term 1 PARABLES OF JESUS
Key Question: Why did Jesus communicate through parables? Key Concept: Christians believe God wants to talk to us
Lesson 1 Jesus and Parables
Key question: Why did Jesus use parables to communicate important messages?
· Ask for volunteers to describe someone they know really well to the class.
· If we wanted to describe God to the class, how would we do it? People often asked Jesus what God is like. To answer them, Jesus told stories or parables.
· Ask for a volunteer for someone to look up the word parable in the dictionary. Explain what a parable is.
· Class Drama: In groups, dramatise one of the following parables, with a narrator for each. Beforehand, explain that they can include some ‘physical theatre’ and have group members be things such as ‘trees’ or a ‘door’ if necessary to the drama.
The Rich Fool (Luke 12: v 13 – 21)
Wise and Foolish Builders (Matthew 7: v 24 – 27)
The Good Samaritan (Luke 10: v 25 – 37)
Friend at midnight (Luke 11: v 5 – 8)
The Lost Sheep (Luke 15: v3 – 7))
· Give each child an A4 piece of paper and demonstrate how to fold it into a little ‘book’ , or simply into 8 panels. Invite them to choose one of the parables explored in the lesson and record it using simple drawings (and short, written captions if they’d like to). As an extended activity, children can write a paragraph or two about its meaning.
Lesson 2: The Lost Son
Key question: What do Christians learn about God’s through the parable of the Lost Son?
· Mind map the different ways we may express our love to our family.
· Recap last week’s lesson and the meaning of parables
· Ask for volunteers to dramatise the story of the Lost Son (Luke chapter 15) as you read it or tell it. You may want to ask beforehand how you might be able to use the following objects to help you tell the story if you were performing it in a theatre: a letter, a pound coin, an apple
· Ask who is like God in the story? In what ways? Is this what Jesus meant us to think?
· As human beings we can find it very hard to show love and acceptance to people who have wronged us. Give some examples of times when you have found it difficult to show love
· Either, ask the children to write an imaginary letter from the dad to his boy while he away in the ‘far country’ or write an imaginary letter from God to someone who has messed up and run away.
Lesson 3: The Unforgiving Servant
Key question: How does forgiveness help us?
· Play the game ‘Sit Down If’ with the following scenarios: (these are based on the Ten Commandments with the aim of showing that we all forgiveness)
You’ve ever hated someone
You’ve ever hit someone
You’ve ever called someone a horrible name
You’ve ever used “God”/”Jesus” as a swear word
You’ve ever got really angry with your Mum or Dad
You’ve ever taken something that didn’t belong to you
You’ve ever told a lie about something
You’ve ever felt angry or upset because you wanted something that someone else had.
· Discuss with the class times when you have needed to be forgiven. Invite volunteers to share their stories of forgiveness.
· Dramatise the story of the unforgiving servant (from Matthew chapter 18:21-35) using props:
§ Crown
§ Robe
§ 2x caps
§
· Explore what Jesus may have been hoping to communicate in telling this parable.
· Invite some volunteers to mime ‘carrying’ different invisible object around the room as the class try to work out what they are (a feather, a smelly sock, shopping bags, a big box, a log and finally a heavy rucksack).
· Explain that in the Bible, one of the words used when talking about forgiveness literally means ‘lifting a burden’. Just as it feels good to have a heavy rucksack lifted from our shoulders, Christian people believe that’s what it’s like when a person is forgiven. Christians experience the great relief and joy of being forgiven by God.
· Jesus said that not forgiving is like spending time in prison. Why do you think he said this?
· Pupils design a poster encouraging forgiveness with some of the steps we can take to make it happen like saying sorry, writing it down, saying how we feel, thinking differently about the person etc.
Lesson 4 The Great Banquet
Key question: What does the parable of The Great Banquet tell us about the Kingdom of God?
· Discuss parties. What was the best party you have been to and why was it so good?
· Talk about miming as a technique. Ask for volunteers and tell the story (with prompt cards for the mime actors) about the Great Banquet (from Luke chapter 14:15-24 or Matthew chapter 22:1-4).
· What is the parable about do you think? Who is the king or ‘boss’ like? (God invites all to come to his party or banquet).
· Jesus wants people to think about God’s Kingdom as being like going to a party. What do Christians believe God has done for them? How much did it cost? Who’s invited? Why do people not want to come? Who is most likely to respond?
· Talk about party invitations. What information do we need to put on the party invites?
· Design a Party Invite from God.
Who is it to? What kind of party is it? When and where will it take place? What response does God want? What does that mean to Christians?
Lesson 5: Parables about Prayer
Key question: Why is prayer so important to Christians?
· Invite the class to find out what they know about prayer. Who has ever done it? Did it work? What do people in the class believe about prayer?
· Invite volunteers to dramatise the following parables:
The Friend at Midnight (Luke chapter 11:5-8)
The Persistent Widow (Luke chapter 18:1-8)
The Pharisee and Tax Collector (Luke chapter 18:9-14)
· Explore what can be learnt about prayer through each of these parables. Some possible learning points could be that God is generous and ready to give when people ask, people should not give up praying for something and that God looks at each person’s motives and attitudes more than their sentiments.
· You may like to challenge the class to find Christians they may know (or use the internet) to find out what prayer means to them.
Lesson 6 The Wise and Foolish Builders
Key Question: In what ways do actions speak louder than words?
You will locate this story in Matthew chapter 7 verses 24 – 27
· Discuss the house construction process: foundations > walls > roof > decoration etc.
· Tell the story. Invite volunteers to dramatise the story as you re-tell it.
· Explore Jesus’ application at the end of the parable. What do you think he meant? What would it mean to build on a rock?
· Pupils think of examples from their own experiences of ‘building on sand and rock’ or doing/not doing the right thing.
· Pupils create a diagram of the parable and explain the lesson behind it.