Ten Lepers Sunday

Image © Henry Martin.
Free use for ministry purposes.
Not to be used for publication or profit.
www.sermons4kids.com/ten-leper-ppt-slides.htm

My kids love stories. I've been telling them stories for about two years now. Fairy stories, stories of my childhood, their childhood, other people's childhoods, bible stories, stories I've read. If you listen carefully, people are always telling stories. I collect them all up to tell. My kids are turning into very good listeners.

I told this story to the girls a few days before Sunday so they'd remember it when they heard it in church. I told it to my big boy on Sunday night.
As soon as I mentioned 'the spot,' he said he'd already heard it, in church that morning. Hooray! He is listening.

When I mentioned the word, "temple," the penny dropped for the girls. "This is a Jesus story."

There once was a man who had moved with his family to a new town. He left his home and his friends and his job and he moved to a new town to build a better life for his family. It was hard at first. There were so many new things to learn, new people to meet, a new way of life to learn, but they did it, and they were very happy.
One morning while the man was eating his breakfast he looked down and saw a white spot on his hand.
"What's that?" he thought. He tried to brush it off, but it didn't go. He tried not to worry about it too much, and off he went to work.
At lunch time, one of his co-workers saw the spot and stared at it. "What's that?" he asked slowly.
"Oh, nothing," said the man.
But his co-worker looked at him suspiciously. He said nothing more, and didn't go near him for the rest of the day.
That night at dinner, the man's wife asked, "What's that white spot under your chin?"
"What white spot?" the man asked, and he bought his hand up to wipe it away.
"There's another one on your hand," she said.
"No there's not," said the man. His wife said no more about it, but she put the children to bed herself refusing his help. She stayed away from him all night, and after her husband had gone to bed, she slept near the children.
In the morning, there was another spot and the man could no longer deny them. "You'll have to go to the temple," said his wife, and she didn't kiss him goodbye.

"You are unclean," said the priest. You will have to call out, "unclean, unclean," everywhere you go so people know to stay away from you."
The man left the temple and walked down the street. Every time he came near people, he quietly said, "Unclean." Everyone moved away from him, and women gathered their children and pulled them close, and then over to the other side of the street. He went home, but his family stayed away from him also. He couldn't bear it, so he left, but everywhere he went people ran away. He walked out of the city without looking at anyone, calling "unclean," without even looking if there were any people to move away from him.
Out in the desert he saw a group of people gathered around a fire cooking. The food smelt so good. He hadn't eaten all day. He approached, hoping the people would leave him a piece of bread to take. He called out, "unclean," but the people just laughed.
"We are unclean too," they called. The man relaxed and joined them.
They all tried to look after each other, but sometimes it was hard if someone was very sick, or when someone was sick themselves. They missed their families, and their jobs, and their homes, and being able to walk down the street without people running away.
They had heard about Jesus. He was the man who healed people, and forgave sins. And they saw him, walking into the town. They called out, keeping their distance, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us."
Jesus told them to go and show themselves to the priests."
As they went, they were healed. Their skin was clean and smooth and soft, better than before. One of the men, seeing that he was healed, turned back while the others ran on to the priests and to their families. He praised God in a loud voice, and fell down at the feet of Jesus thanking him for making him well.
Jesus said, "Where are the others? Didn't I make ten people well again? Only you who comes from another land came back to praise God and thank me."
"Come," he said, "stand up and go on your way. Your faith has made you well."
So the man ran into the city, back to the temple, and his friends, and his home, and his family because Jesus had made him well.