Rotation.org Writing Team

Jesus and Zaccheus

Discovering, Growing, and Sharing Your Faith

A Fig Smoothie "Cooking Workshop" Lesson

Summary of Activities

Students will learn the story of Zaccheus climbing the sycamore-fig tree to see Jesus by using a guided and illustrated Bible study. They will learn how they are accepted by God just like Zaccheus was, and after examining figs up close, and tasting them, they'll see that they too are packed with the potential to love, serve, and spread the message of our loving God. To remember the story and its life application, they'll custom blend their own "Zaccheus Fig & Strawberry Smoothie" and have the option to take home the lesson to share it with others.

Scripture

Luke 19:1-10 (NRSV)

Key/Memory Verses: “Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.” (Luke 19:9-10, NRSV)

Lesson Objectives

See the Bible Background at Rotation.org for this set's complete list of objectives and important details about Zaccheus' story, including information about the sycamore-fig tree.

Preparation and Materials

For the Opening Activity:

• Whiteboard or easel and markers
• Baby name book or access to an online "meaning of names" website via a cellphone
• Dried Figs (a few to show)
• Fig Newton Cookies (1 cookie per student)

For the Scripture Study:

• Read the Bible Background and scripture.
• Print the Zaccheus Story Cards with Teacher Talking Points. Cut and paste the individual "talking points" onto the back of their corresponding story illustration.

For the Fig Exploration:

• One or more fresh figs and dried figs to show, share, and taste. Fresh figs are sold in specialty grocery stores in season. Try online if you cannot find them locally. There are several varieties of dried figs including the black "mission" figs.
  
• Magnifying glass (For a larger class, have several handy)
• Sharp knife (for teacher use only)
• Cutting board
• Pictures of fig trees (from the packet of Story Cards with Teacher Talking Points)

For Smoothie-Making Activity

The following easy recipe makes four, half-cup servings of Fig-Strawberry Smoothie

• 8 fresh or dried figs (if using dried figs, be sure to soak them in water for at least 10 minutes prior to use.)
• 16 Fresh Strawberries
• 1 ripe banana
• 16 ounces Greek-style plain yogurt, unflavored & unsweetened (or similar coconut/almond yogurt for dairy allergies)
• 2 tablespoons honey
• Up to 1 cup milk (or almond milk for dairy allergies) Adjust amount based on other ingredients and desired thickness.
• Small plates
• Table knives for children to cut bananas and figs
• Smoothie cups, napkins
• A Blender -- depending on the size of your class and the degree to which you let your students create their own Fig Smoothie Recipe, you may want additional blenders.

For the Take-Home Closing:

• Zipper baggies
• Enough extra figs to share
• Slips of paper & pens or markers (Alternately, ahead of time, write a message on these slips of paper. See the closing activity below.)

Lesson Plan

Opening: What's in a Name?

Welcome each student as they enter your classroom by having them write their name in large letters on the whiteboard. Then, direct them to look up the meaning/definition of their name in one of the "baby name books" or online name resources you have assembled. Have them write the meaning of their name next to their name on the board. (If they would prefer to imagine a word that describes them, allow them to do so.)

Once everyone has gathered, quickly go over the meaning of each student's name. Ask each student if they think the meaning/definition of their name describes them well or not. Note that some meanings might be something they want to "live up to" or "aspire to."

Introduce the character of Zaccheus—a man accused by others of being a "sinner," and the ironic and fascinating meaning of HIS name in his Hebrew language. Zaccheus (or "Zakay" his mother may have pronounced it), means "pure, clean, sinless." Note that "pure, clean, and sinless" refer to whether or not a person was "ACCEPTABLE" to GOD, in other words: worthy of God's forgiveness and of being a part of God's family. As you do this, write Zaccheus's name on the board, along with the meaning of his name, and the words "ACCEPTED/LOVED by God."

Tell your students that today they will discover how a sinner was found by Jesus up in a FIG TREE! and welcomed into Jesus' family.  Ask them if they know what a fig is.

Pull out some dried figs and Fig Newton cookies to pique their interest in the Scripture Study you are about to undertake. Allow them to taste the Fig Newton cookies. Let them know that at the END of the study, they'll be making a sweet Smoothie to remember the lesson of God's love for sinners like us.

Scripture Study

For this scripture reading and discussion, you will use the Story Cards that you prepared ahead of time. They will help you walk-through and discuss the story while keeping student interest. On the back of each illustration, you have pasted a copy of the scripture (NRSV) with several talking points and questions. Substitute another version of scripture if desired.

1) Distribute Bibles to your readers. Use the demonstration of "How to Find Luke in Your Bible" found at the end of this lesson.

2) Either read the story from the Bible or use the Story Cards, showing each illustration while reading the passage printed on the back. (If students are familiar with the story, show each illustration and ask students to tell you the story.)

3) Go back through the Story Cards and share the Teacher Talking Points and Questions. Adjust how much time you spend on each illustration depending on how much time you need to do the Fig and Smoothie-Making activities coming up after this study.

Fig and Figs Trees: Discovering, Growing, and Sharing Your Faith

Return to the photos of the figs and fig tree found in your Story Cards packet. Tell your students that the word "sycamore" in Luke is the Greek word for a common fig tree found throughout Israel, the Middle East, and Africa. That means Zaccheus was climbing a fig tree.

Display various figs and ask "Who likes figs?" (If you like Fig Newton cookies, you like figs!)

Share Some Fig Facts:

Say:  There are many types of figs, some are purple, others are green. Sometimes they are eaten fresh from the tree, but most often they are dried like this one, becoming shriveled. In the grocery store, you can find light brown dried figs and darker "mission" figs. Drying figs makes them very sweet and allows people to store them for a long time or carry them on a journey. In fact, Jesus probably carried and ate dried figs on his journeys.

Ask:  Does the outside of a dried fig look like something that's going to be sweet and tasty? (No, and you can't judge people by how they look either!)

Ask:  Remember how the people grumbled against Zaccheus? They did not like him because they had decided he was a sinner, unworthy of being part of God's family. But inside Zaccheus was someone searching for God and wanting to be loved.

Take a Closer Look at the Inside of a Fig:

Say:  The inside of a fig is packed with sugar, fiber, vitamins, and up to 700 seeds just waiting to grow more fig trees and figs!

Cut open a few figs. Allow students to use a magnifying glass to see the seeds up close.

Say:  That's how Jesus sees us! Not as shriveled up "sinful" people who aren't worth anything, but as beloved sweet children of God PACKED WITH POTENTIAL. Children can love others and spread the message that God has named them "clean and acceptable."


Note: This image is included in the Story Cards packet.

Optional Info to share: Most fruit trees blossom with flowers we can see, but fig trees are very different. Their flowers are on the INSIDE of the fig and are one of the reasons why a fig tastes so sweet. The only way for common or ancient fig trees to get pollinated is for a special "fig wasp" to go inside the unripened fruit to leave fig pollen from other figs. (Many modern cultivated fig trees pollinate in other ways.)

Let's Celebrate and Share

Say:  Let's celebrate our amazing, accepting, and saving God with a Fig Smoothie!

Cutting and preparing the ingredients:

If you are using dried figs, soak them in water for approximately 10 minutes to make them a bit softer. Some students may "balk" at putting seeds in a smoothie. Remind them that they eat the seeds of many fruits, including strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and bananas.

Wash hands and give each student a small plate and a table knife so that they can help prepare the fruit and create custom-fruit smoothies if you'd like.

Depending on whether or not there are students who won't eat certain fruits or have food allergies, start by blending a basic smoothie recipe with strawberries so that you can pour off some of that for those who need a simpler smoothie, then you can add more ingredients to the remainder in the blender. Make a second batch as students get a little more courageous or inventive.

Cut all of the fruit into small pieces and put them in the blender with your liquids so that they will blend well. Then add other thicker ingredients like yogurt and honey. Add milk or extra fruit to adjust consistency.

When ready, share the smoothies using this three blessing-toast format—offer a toast, take a sip. Offer another toast, take another sip, etc.)

(1) Offer a "first toast of blessing" thanking God for choosing us to be part of his family.

(2) Offer a "second toast of blessing" thanking God for seeing us looking for Jesus and for coming into our lives.

(3) Offer a "third toast of blessing" thanking God for the sweet energy to follow his son and practice acceptance of others in Jesus' name.

As you continue to enjoy your smoothies and perhaps blend more, begin to suggest that part of our duty as God's children is to spread God's message of salvation and acceptance, to others.  One way we can do that is to share FIGS with our friends and families and tell them the story of Zaccheus who climbed a fig tree to find Jesus.

Take-Home Closing:   

Distribute baggies and have students add a few figs to share at home. Include a simple written message, such as, "Jesus accepted Zaccheus, Jesus accepts you." Or, "Jesus accepts you. He invites you to come down from your tree." Include the Bible story passage: "Luke 19:1-10."

Close with a prayer that we would be GOOD FRUIT in Christ's Kingdom, bringing sweetness and showing God's accepting love to everyone we meet.

Adaptations

For Younger Students:

Simplify the questions found in the Story Cards. Eliminate the "How to Find Luke" exercise.
Use the Story Cards to tell the Bible story.

Consider tasting Fig Newton cookies instead of dried figs and using fig jam in the smoothie if "real" figs will be off-putting to some younger eyes and tongues.

For those with more time:

Compare the location of the seeds inside a fig, to the location of seeds on the outside of a strawberry. Use the magnifying glass to examine strawberry seeds. Look for seeds in a banana.

Have students work at writing messages to go home in the zipper baggies with figs to share.

Consider setting up a "Fig Smoothie Stations" for your congregation offering both smoothies and dried figs, or even fig jam on crackers. Display some of the images from the Story Cards packet, especially the one with the two kids in the fig! Have students share the story with the adults. Consider making a poster of the lesson's meaning.

For those who have less time or need a simpler lesson plan:

Consider eliminating the opening "name game" activity. Or, if you know the names of students likely to visit your class, look up their name meaning ahead of time and write their names/meanings on the whiteboard.
Skip the "How to Find Luke" exercise. Pick fewer questions to ask in the Story Cards packet.
Write messages ahead of time to be sent home with the students.

How to Find Luke In Your Bible ~ a Bible Skill

• Have children place Bibles, spine down on the table.
• Have them open the Bible to the middle. They will most likely open to Psalms or Proverbs. If they didn't get there, help them split it again. Explain that they are now in the middle of the Old Testament books. To the "left" of middle, they will find mostly stories and histories, like those of Creation, Exodus, and King David,
• Now have the children hold only the right half of the pages of their Bible and have them split that right half in the middle. Ask what book they are in. In most Bible splits they will either be either in Malachi the last book of the New Testament, or in Matthew the first book of the New Testament. Explain that the left half of what remains of the Old Testament—mostly the Books of the Prophets and that the right half is the New Testament beginning with the Gospels.
• Have them repeat the names of the four Gospels, then go find chapter 19 in the third Gospel.

Written by Dawn Parr and the Rotation.org Writing Team
Copyright Rotation.org Inc.

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