Childrens Talk Matthew 18:21-35 The unforgiving Servant

Today I am doing the children's talk.  Some time ago, I was given the bible readings and they included Matthew 18:21-35  and psalm 23.  Now Psalm 23 is all about sheep lying down in green pastures and since our Church has a red dais, I could not really see how to leverage off it.  So I went with the Matthew reading.  Having read the reading and not noted any explosions or opportunities for things to catch fire, my inclination was that this was a good reading to make into a sort of "off the cuff" drama.  where I narrate and just grab the kids and get them to act it out and repeat their lines.  I had thought of modernising it.  maybe have a kid lend some toys to another kid who on lends one to each of several kids.  The first kid then demands the second kid return them but of course he cant because he forgot who he lent them to and there is too many. So the toy owner forgives him but later finds him demanding just one toy back from some hapless individual.  Problem there I thought was possibly too close to reality and we may have preschoolers all over the suburb throwing their little mates in the sin bin until they find that piece of Lego they loaned them 6 months ago.  So I went for more of a period piece.  A much easier way to facilitate gratuitous violence in the church.

Children's Skit on Matthew 18:21-35 The parable of the unforgiving Servant

PREPARATION - 
Gather props
    King - Crown
    Servants x 2 -  2 Aprons.

Invite kids down the front.
Explain:  One of the bible readings for today comes from the book of Matthew and it starts with a person called Peter asking Jesus a question.  Peter said

" Lord if my brother keeps doing wrong to me do I forgive him 7 times".  Jesus answered "not seven times but 70 times 7".
[cut away]  Who can multiply that - whats the answer   (hopefully some 10yo will answer 490).  
Jesus told a story to show this and I thought we would reenact the story.

I am going to narrate and we will get people to be actors as the story unfolds.



Narrator: Once there was a king.  Ah we need a king.  Who is going to volunteer to be the king.
Get king.  Put crown on king.

Narrator: Once there was a king who loaned his servants lots of money.  One day he decided he wanted the money back.  He called in his servant

Organise a volunteer to be a servant:

We need a servant.  who wants to be a servant.....

OK where were we.....

Narrator:
He called in his servant “Hay servant come here”
Instruct king you repeat the Hey servant come here bit
King:  “Hey servant come here”
servant walks over


Narrator:
The king said “You owe me a million dollars”
King: “You owe me a million dollars”

Narrator: “Give it to me now”
King:....


Narrator: The servant replied I don’t have it.
Servant: "I don’t have it."
Narrator: The servant said "I need time to save up so I can pay it back".
Servant:  "I need time to save up so I can pay it back"

Narrator:  The king got out his calculator and punched in some numbers.  Then the king said “ You will take 400 years to save up enough money".

King:  "You will take 400 years to save up enough money".


Narrator:  Now the king knew that the servant could never ever save up enough money to pay him back so the king decided to forgive the servants debt.  So the king said “I will set the amount to zero"
king: “I will set the amount to zero”


Narrator:
The servant was really quite happy and left with a little skip.

As he was skipping along happily, the servant came across a person who owed him a small amount of money

Organsie second person.  Another apron.


Narrator:  The servant said to the person.  “You owe me $1 I want it back now”
Servant: “You owe me $1 I want it back now”


The second person dug in their pocket and said “I don’t have a dollar on me right now”
Second person:I don’t have a dollar on me right now"
Narrator: The second servant said "I need time to save up"
Second: "I need time to save up"


The servant got really angry and jumped up and down saying give it back now.  The second person begged the servant
How do you beg  (On knees)

Ok so we have the servant being angry and having a tantrum and the other person begging.


The servant then organised the police to throw that person in jail.

Organise the police.

Narrator:  So the police dragged the second person off to jail.  Is the pulpit a suitably symbolic place to use as a jail?  :)


Narrator:  Now the king heard about this and he was not happy 
Why?
Hopefully some kid will volunteer that it is because the king had forgiven the first servant.


So the King sent the police to throw the first servant in jail and let the second person out of jail.

Let us pray:  "Jesus help us to follow your example and to be fair to the people who owe us and to forgive people who do wrong to us"

Go back to your seats and sit quietly and then jump up and dance in the hymns.
:) 

Here we see me (Frank) holding the mic so that the chief servant can say his lines before being lead away to prison by the police in blue hats with swords and bicycle pumps masquerading as truncheons.  Queen Jemma with her crown of feathers stands to the left and Michael the second servant in jail in the pulpit.