theme: forgiveness and reconciliation

Sunday 3rd November 2024

This week, we explore a parable all about forgiveness, Jesus tells it in response to a question from Peter about forgiving others. The story tells of a king who forgives a servant a large debt – the debt is ridiculously huge, more than anything a servant could realistically have racked up. This servant in turn refuses to forgive a small debt owed to him. This story illustrates how much we have been forgiven (a ridiculous amount) and therefore how much we should forgive others.

Try and come to your own conclusions. It will be all the more powerful to explore the story for yourselves and to discover how much God wants to forgive us!

Sunday Kids Work Video

Storytelling - The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant

tHINGS YOU MAY NEED

  • sticky tape

  • scissors

  • pens

  • paper - cut into strips

Questions & Thoughts

Share out some refreshments and enjoy eating and drinking together. Start to talk about the Bible story using these questions:

  • What’s your favourite part of this story?

  • What’s the most important thing about this story?

  • The amount the servant owed was huge – billions of pounds. Why do you think the king forgave his servant this enormous debt?

  • Why do you think the servant did not forgive the money owed to him?

  • If you had seen what the servant had done, what would you have said to the king?

  • What does this story tell you about God and how he forgives?

  • What does this story tell you about how we should treat others? Why should we treat others in this way?

Chat & create

Take a strip of paper with the word ‘Forgiveness’ on. Colour in the letters and decorate the strip. As you do so, carry on chatting about the story. On the back of the strip, write down some words that describe how you feel about the story, what you’ve discovered and what you think about forgiveness and God.

Form the strip into a loop but give one end a half-twist before you stick the ends together: this makes a Möbius strip. This demonstrates a never-ending edge: if you pinch the strip just above the F, then pull it through gently so that your pinched fingers slide along the edge, you will find that your fingers travel above the word ‘Forgiveness’, then below it, then back to the beginning, without once letting go. As you experiment with the Möbius strips, have a chat about how we all mess up, but God is endlessly forgiving. Talk about how we can practise and keep on forgiving other people in the never-ending way that God forgives us.

Worship

These are the worship songs being played in our kids groups this morning, if you wish to listen to the same

Under 5s

  • Give your heart to Jesus – Hokey Kokey

  • Alpha & Omega

  • Jesus I love You

Over 5s

  • This Is Amazing Grace

  • Great Things

Encounter

Gather around the bowl or sink of warm soapy water. Explain that the Bible sometimes describes God’s forgiveness as ‘making us clean’ or ‘washing our sins away’. Think about how often you have washed your hands this week. Why do you keep washing them? Wash your hands as a sign of asking for God’s forgiveness, which he promises to give us however many millions and billions of times we need it.

Growing faith at home

This morning, we have been exploring the idea of forgiveness through the parable of the unforgiving servant. Be careful as you chat about this story, that it doesn’t turn into a moral tale about being good to others. It’s important to remember that the king forgives the servant a ridiculously large amount – far more than would have been realistic. We forgive because we have first been forgiven.  

  • You can watch the parable here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ED3fzkS-bhA or you could read it from the Bible (using a child-friendly translation, such as the CEV) or a children’s Bible storybook.

  • Explore the idea of forgiveness using some of these craft activities: https://flamecreativekids.blogspot.com/search/label/forgiveness. Remember – the craft will be fun, but finishing it is not the main aim. It’s the chat that you have while creating that is the most important thing.

  • When you are in the car, walking to the shops or waiting at the doctor’s – whenever you have some in-between time – chat about times when you have been forgiven. Keep it light to start with, and appropriate to your child(ren)’s developmental stage!

  • When out and about and you see a cross, ask your child(ren) what they think it means. Talk about it means to you (in appropriate language, of course!) and why it can be a symbol of forgiveness.

  • If you like, explore some other parables of Jesus. The Saddleback Kids YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/@SaddlebackKids) has lots to watch, or look them up in a Bible or Bible storybook..

all children

Other resources