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Ideas, Activities, and Resources for Jesus Heals Blind Bartimaeus

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Jesus Heals the Blindman - Blind Bartimaeus, Mark 10:46-52 (also in Matthew 20:29-34 and Luke 18:35-43). The man by the pool of Bethesda (John 15), the man told to go wash in the Pool of Siloam (John 9).

Last edited by Rotation.org Lesson Forma-teer
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Puppets

"Blind, Kind Bartimaeus" Marionette/Puppet Script
http://www.huntermarionettes.com/rotation-bartimaeus/


Computer

Healing of Blind Bartimaeus

  • Use Let’s Talk software program to imagine/recreate the dialog in the crowd. What were all the different reactions to this miracle from the bystanders?
    "Let's Talk" software program is now free to the supporting members of Rotation.org! Learn more!

  • * iLumina Bible has a short animation on the “healing of the blind man.”
  • * Disciple’s Diary - The secret to making Disciple's Diary easy to use: go to the STEPS under the Archway in the Archive menu screen. The Archway is labelled "Periods in the Life of Jesus", the archway left of the bible. The archway Steps or Periods organize this vast archive into ten neat and tidy units. Step 8: Final Ministry is where you will find the narration of Blind Bartimaeus.

    * NOTE: These two programs are out of print, but many Rotation churches have them so why we've left them here.

 

Last edited by Luanne Payne

Activities based on the metaphor of "sight" (Spiritual Sight) for Teens

(very applicable to children as well)

 

The story of Jesus healing the blind man came up in a teen class taught by my daughter at our church. Here is the basic "activity" she and I came up with, and I have no doubt it is very applicable to children's classes as well.

 

After the Bible Study...  We explained to the kids that we were going to do a series of activities that work on the metaphor of "sight".  We also reminded them that the first sermon Jesus every preached was Isaiah's proclamation of sight to the blind.  Jesus healed several 'blind' people, but did not make the curing of physical blindness his main work. Like many miracles, they were "signs" ...teaching devices. Yes, he was sometimes moved by compassion, but most healings were occasions for teaching. Jesus frequently said, let those with ears hear, and eyes, see. Spiritual sight was what he was driving at.  Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Etc etc.

 

This is a sketch of what took place. Plenty of teacher patter and presentation to be filled in by you.

  1. Tell the story of the blind men trying to describe an elephant. (If you're unfamiliar, here it is in brief: One grabs the trunk, another grabs a leg, another the tail, and each describes what they think an elephant is -based on their limited grasp of the elephant.).  The point: trying to describe God or figure out life is a lot like the blind men trying to describe the elephant. Ask: How could they have come up with a better description?  Answer: By sharing what they knew.  This is what church does. This is also what Jesus did, helping "the blind" (metaphor for all of us) "see" God and the things of his Kingdom.
  2. Continuing with this metaphor, students take turns being blindfolded and being given various objects to examine. The last object is a Bible. Now the blindfolded student will probably figure out that it is a book, and probably the Bible given where they are!   But push them to tell you what's in it, or to find something in it. The point: we need "eyes that see" to read the Bible. To some people it is just words, but here at church we develop spiritual eyesight.
  3. Pass around a pair of glasses that have been heavily fogged. You can use goggles or a cheap pair of sunglasses which you have sprayed with hairspray. Pass around scripture, pass around a picture of Jesus, pass around a picture of Jesus on the cross....   making observations as you do about how we all need our eyesight 'corrected' to understand Christ, scripture.  Who gives us this correction?  Church can help, but it is God who gives "sight to the blind".
  4. What clouds our vision?   At this point in the discussion, we gave each student HEIR OWN strip of white cloth to make their own blindfold. Put them on and pass around some more objects, asking the question, "what kinds of things "cloud" a person's eyesight? "Gets in the way of seeing what's really there?"     Quickly we had them lay their blindfolds on the table and use permanent pens to WRITE on their blindfolds some of the things we were talking about:  lazyness, coldness, uncaring attitudes, thinking its not important, being selfish.  We came up with examples for each thing that contributed to our spiritual blindness, WITH real life examples, then had them write them on their blindfold. 

With the older kids, we also interjected the idea of the "blind leading the blind"....which is a good concept for how a child's peers can try to steer them away from proper behavior, or from believing in God.

 

These blindfolds went home, and we told the kids that we didn't expect them to wear them, but hang in their room, or perhaps stick it in their sock drawer to become an occasional surprise reminder.

 

<>< Neil

Last edited by Rotation.org Lesson Forma-teer

Lego - Story Table Workshop Idea

Check out the our rotation.org forum on STORY TABLE & LEGO WORKSHOPS for more details on having this type of workshop.

Check YouTube for current video's of the story of Blind Bartimaeus using Lego which you might want to use for your opening, then have the kids create their own Lego scene(s) of Bartimaeus and Jesus.

Last edited by Luanne Payne

Videos (and/or Clips)

 Jesus Heals Blind Bartimaeus (Mark 10:46-52)

  1. "Treasures in Heaven" (Nest Learning Series)
    Includes story of Zacchaeus, Rich Man, Jesus with Children and Blind Bartimaeus.  30 Minutes
  2. "Ready Aim Fire" (#4 Story Keepers Series)
    2nd bible story retold – Helena tells Ben & his friends the story to encourage them (clip).  
  3. "Read and Share Bible" DVD Vol. 3, by Gwen Ellis, Nelson, 2009, 9781400313051.
    Story #10:  Jesus’ Life – A Coin in a Fish; A Blind Man Sees, Lazarus is Alive (length 3 mins. total??).  Ages 3-7.
  4. "Rome Alone" (Friends & Hero’s Series).
    (Clip - clips are done in 3D animation of the bible story)
Last edited by Luanne Payne

Blind Bartimaeus


Science Idea

We are currently teaching the story of Blind Bartimaeus  and I had to share some of the ideas our science team did.  

First the teachers  discussed all our 5 senses:  touch, seeing hearing, smelling and tasting .  

For the younger children they made booklets for the5 senses. On one side of the card was  a picture of the senses like an ear, nose,  finger/hand, mouth and eye, on the other side was  the item that they used to identify the sense they used.  For the hearing sense there was a rubber band wrapped around the card and the kids wrote  down what they heard ..snapping , plucking sound, for smelling there was a double faced piece of tape with cinnamon on it for the kids to smell, for touch there was a piece of foam attached to the card, or you could use sandpaper. for vision there was a piece of reflective foil, and for taste there was a mint choc.. kiss wrapper glued on the card after they ate the candy.  We have a  child who is diabetic and so for this child she used another sense, smelling, to tell what she smelled, (choc. mint ) before she glued the wrapper to the card.   The teachers talked about someone who can't see must use their other senses.  Some of these exercises were done with their eyes closed to reinforce how a blind person uses all their senses. 

For the older kids they talked about the sense of taste and how there is sweet, sour, bitter, and salty sensors on our tongues,  With 4 mystery solutions, Salt water, sugar water, lemon juice, onion juice or tonic water and Q-tips dipped in the mystery solutions the kids had to guess what was salty, sweet,  sour, and bitter.  Then they mixed some of the flavors together.  The 2nd teacher recorded their impressions. 

The 2nd part to this lesson for the older kids  they used different flavored jelly beans (Ike and Mike) and you had to close your eyes. All the students were given the same colored Jelly bean and they  had to identify the flavor.  A recorder (2nd teacher) wrote down our impressions  and what flavor we thought it was.  We found that color and smell (once the jelly beans was opened) was another way to identify the Jelly bean without actually tasting it.  When our guesses were recorded we were told what the correct flavor was and we were given a 2nd jelly bean of the same flavor and this time we were allowed to see, smell and taste it.  It was a fun exercise in tasting.  


Music Idea

Our song that we are singing is "The Blind Man"  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFaRT9K2KkY


Cooking Idea

In the kitchen we are using the sugar cookie idea and decorating eye cookies,  but I ran across another idea, of using M&Ms to write a letter from the Braille  alphabet  on the cookie.

Also from the science room came a braille demonstration with nail heads pounded into wood.


Visit from a Blind Person and/or Guide Dog

This week we have a blind woman  coming to talk to the children about what life is like as a blind person.  We happened to have a a vet in our congregation  and I asked her if she took care of any guide dogs  and she DID!  

Last edited by Luanne Payne

DVD - “Jesus Heals the Blind” (Superbook Series)jesusheals

Joy and Chris go to see a Christmas pageant that Chris' dad is running lights for. Chris recognizes the church as the one his grandfather took him to. This causes him to wonder why they no longer go to church as a family.

Superbook arrives to take Joy, Chris, and Gizmo back in time to watch Jesus heal three blind men.

Note: video clips I previewed showed the healing of:
Bartimaeus, as well as, One Blind Man outside the village of Bethsaida (Mark 8:22-26) and Man Blind Since Birth/Pool of Siloam.

They discover that some people are too blind to see Jesus as the Messiah. John 2:11

Lesson:

Some people are too blind to see the gift Jesus is to us. Those who can truly see become His followers.

See Rotation.org reviews of the "Superbook" DVD Series for more details on this series link.

Attachments

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Last edited by Luanne Payne

Family at-home/response page for Jesus heals blind Bartimaeus

I have attached a page that I created for parents and families that has at-home activities and discussion starters, to help continue the conversation about the stories we studied in VBS. (There are two related pages for other healings of blind men here.)

You may share these with your congregation or adapt as necessary for your community.

Attachments

The Healing of "Blind Bartimaeus" is one of the terrific presentations found in the SunScool Bible App for Kids.

It can be found in the "Miracles" section of the app's menu for all four age levels.

The App is free, ecumenical, and can be downloaded for use on tablets, smartphones, Windows, and Mac!    Get the download link and look up the story you need in our Outline of all 170+ stories in SunScool. That page also includes app helps.

SunScool Bible App for Kids

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