Jesus Heals 10 Lepers

Games Workshop

Summary of Lesson Activities:

Uses 3 games to tell the story.

Scripture Reference:

17: 11-19

Workshop-specific Goals

• Be able to retell the story
• Tell the memory verse in their own words.
• Learn what it meant to have leprosy in Bible times
• Know that the thankful leper also received spiritual healing and salvation.

Leader Preparation:

• Review Background notes.
• Gather the materials.

Materials List:

• Bibles (supplied in teaching box)
• Copy of memory verse written large (take from Bible Background)
• Strips of cloth marked all over with big spots
• Piece of rope about 10 feet long
• Pieces of paper for signs. Label the signs as follows: The Temple, The Town Well, Food Market, My Family’s House, My Friend’s House, Leather-maker’s House, Clothing Market, Carpenter’s Shop, Heaven
• Large six-sided dice to use for the Story Cube and the Memory Cube—see advance preparation

Advance Preparation:

• Refer to schedule and decide how you will make adjustments for the different ages.
• Print out the memory verse
• Prepare the Story Cube. Tape the following 6 questions to the 6 sides of the large dice: What happens in the story?; Where is this story found in the Bible?; Name the people in the story; What is your favorite part of the story?; What lesson is God teaching us with this story?; What does this Bible story mean to you?
• Prepare the Memory Verse Cube (if you only have one cube, then tape these questions on with a different color paper so that you can tell the difference when using the cube). Tape the following 6 questions to the 6 sides of the large dice: Where is this verse found in the Bible?; Act out the verse; Put this verse in your own words; When can you use this verse in your life?; Say any part of the verse; What does this verse tell you about the Lord?

Presentation

Opening-Welcome and Lesson Introduction:
Introduce yourself to the students.

Open with a prayer .

We would like to have a consistent opening and closing to each class, especially since the teacher and station changes each week. Please start the class by having everyone make the sign of the cross and say: “We make our beginning in the name of God the Father—and God the Son—and God the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Dig-Main Content and Reflection:

Introduction & Bible Story:
Please make sure that the students hear and “get” the Bible story as well as the application of that story to their lives. The Bible story is the MOST important part of the lesson—it is much more important than the activity associated with this station!
(For the first part of the month, go ahead and read the story from the Bible. For the latter part of the month—when the children should be familiar with the story—have them tell you the story)

Have you ever been sick before? What happened when you were sick? (variety of answers) Did you have to stay home from school so that you didn’t make the other kids sick? Did you stay in your bedroom or the living room while your mom or dad took care of you?

Well, that is NOT how it worked when the men in our Bible story got sick with leprosy. There is a specific illness of the skin called leprosy—we hardly ever see it here in America. Leprosy is an infection of the skin. It can cause sores and bumps and swelling, which can really change how a person looks (and not for the better). Leprosy can also affect the person’s nerves, so that part of their body may be weak or crippled—they might even go blind. Nowadays, we could give someone antibiotic pills to make the leprosy go away—they didn’t have these pills way back then. In Bible times, a variety of skin diseases were called leprosy. These diseases could have been as simple as a rash, or it could have been open sores that were draining yucky stuff. Sometimes they would get better (and not have leprosy any more), and a lot of times they would not get better.

In Bible times, when someone had leprosy, they were not allowed to be in contact with other people in their family or their town. They couldn’t stay at their house or even in town because people did not want the disease to spread. They had to stay a certain number of feet away from healthy people, so they couldn’t even get close to their family and friends. Many times, they would live in caves or cemeteries outside the town. They couldn’t go in to town to get food and clothes, so they would have to rely on the charity of others—or go digging through the garbage dump. The only people that they could be with were other people with leprosy.

If they were healed, which didn’t always happen, they would have to go to the priest to be inspected. If the priest said that they were healed, then they would go through a cleaning ceremony. And then they could go back to their families and live as a part of society again.

Have the students open their Bible to Luke 17: 11-19. Read the story. Ask the following questions:

• Where were the lepers in our story—were they in town? (outside the village)
• Why do you think they asked Jesus to have pity on them? (variety of answers about how miserable it was to have leprosy)
• Being healed by Jesus really changed their lives for the better. How did they respond to Jesus after they were healed? (9 of them never came back to say thanks—only 1 said thank you and praised Jesus)

These men had a nasty physical illness that needed to be treated—and it was. They also had a nasty spiritual sickness—called sin. Sin affects the whole person, just like leprosy did. Sin caused people to be separated from God, just like leprosy caused them to be separated from other people. Sin can spread and grow, just like leprosy did. All ten men received healing for their leprosy. Only one man received healing for his spiritual sickness. When Jesus said “your faith had made you well”, He is not talking about the physical healing—that had already happened. He is talking about the man’s spiritual healing—this man now has salvation and is a part of God’s family. Only this one man received the most important healing.

We are going to play a variety to games now to explore what it was like to have leprosy and to understand the story a little more.

Activities:

Leper Tag
Appoint one or two people to be “it” and give each of them a handful of the “spotted” strips of cloth. These cloths stand for the disease of leprosy. The people who are “it”/ have leprosy then chase after the other students—if they tag them, then the person who is “it” gives them several spotted cloths—so that person now has leprosy. That person also become “it” and chases after other people. By the end, most people will have received a spotted cloth/have leprosy.

The spotted cloths stand for the disease of leprosy. What happened when the person who was “it” (and had leprosy) got close to another person? (that person became “it” and got leprosy as well). In Bible times, people were afraid of catching leprosy, so they made lepers stay far away. They wanted to make sure the disease didn’t spread.

Stay Away!
Assign 2 or 3 people to be lepers—they will hold the strips of spotted cloth. Have them stand on one side of the room. Assign 2 people to hold the rope (if the class is small, you could tie one end of the rope to something so that only 1 person is needed to hold the other end of the rope). The remainder of the other children are on the other side of the room—in the “town”. Give them the various signs to hold. DO NOT GIVE ANYONE THE HEAVEN SIGN—the teacher holds on to that sign.

Tell the children that the rope signifies the only entrance to the town. It is the job of the rope person to guard the town—to raise the rope whenever someone tries to enter who should not (like the lepers). Read a number of scenarios to the lepers. The townsperson with the sign that applies should wave their sign around. The lepers try to enter town and go to the location relating to the scenario, but the rope person should raise the rope to keep them away. Remind the lepers that they can not go around the rope as it is the only entrance to town and that they can not break through the rope. Read the follow-up question(s) that goes with each scenario. You may want to change the roles around after every few scenarios.

Scenarios to read to the lepers:

• You are feeling kind of lonely and want to go talk to your friend. [Lepers try to go to Friend’s house and are turned away] Ask: Would you ever be able to see your friends again?
• Your sandals are falling apart. You want to go to the leather-maker’s shop and get your sandals repaired. Ask: What could you do if your sandals needed fixing and you couldn’t go in to town to the shop?
• You are really thirsty and would really like a cool clean cup of water from the well. Ask: Where would you get your water if you couldn’t go to the well?
• You have just heard that your grandmother is very ill and might die. You want to see her before this happens. Ask: How would you feel if you couldn’t see your family members when something bad like this was happening?
• One of the big religious festivals is coming up. You would really like to go to the temple and celebrate this festival. Ask: Do you think it would help or hurt your faith if you could never go to church and worship with other people? Why?
• You are hungry. You would really like to buy some fresh food. Ask: Where would you get your food if you couldn’t go into town to buy it?
• The weather is getting colder and you need a new outer robe to keep warm. Ask: How would you get new clothes when your old clothes wear out?
• It has been raining a lot and you are tired of being wet. You just want to go home and sleep in your bed in your nice comfortable house. Ask: Where would you live if you could not go to your house?
• You had a job as a carpenter before you became sick. You are bored and would really like to do something—like work at your old job. Plus, you don’t have any money anymore. Ask: Is there any job that a leper could do, if he or she couldn’t be close to people? How would you support yourself without a job?

After you have done this, read a new scenario to the class, after assigning one of the “lepers” to be the “thankful leper”: The lepers meet Jesus. Jesus tells them to go to the priests. The lepers realize that they have been healed. They rush off [have them throw their spotted leprosy cloths down]. Where do 9 of the lepers go? [lepers should head to the temple—the keeper of the rope should not raise the rope] Where do you think these 9 lepers went after the priests said they were healed [lepers head to a variety of the places with signs].

Where did the thankful leper go, even before going to the priest? (He went to Jesus—have that “leper” come and stand by you) What did this leper do? (praised Jesus and gave thanks). Jesus had already healed the man of his leprosy. What else did Jesus say was going to happen to this man who came back? (also healed of his sins—part of God’s family). SHOW THE HEAVEN SIGN. This man won’t just be going to his house or the market or the well, he will also be going to heaven one day.

Story Cube
Have the students take turns rolling the story cube and answering the question that comes up.

Reflect/Closure:
Read the memory verse together. Have the children take turns rolling the memory verse cube and answering the question that comes up.

Closing:

We would like to have a consistent opening and closing to each class, especially since the teacher and station changes each week. Please end the class with this benediction from Numbers 6: 24-26 (CEV). Make the sign of the cross and say:
I pray that the LORD will bless and protect you, and that He will show you mercy and kindness. May the LORD be good to you and give you peace. Amen.

A lesson from: St. John Lutheran Church

A representative of Rotation.org reformatted this post to improve readability.