Valentine’s Day is tomorrow. Children are likely preparing cards and candy to share with their friends at school. They’re thinking about love in glowing terms, as something that is associated with joy and comfort. While the love we experience in the church is joyful and comforting, we’re also called to engage in the hard kind of love, the kind of love that Jesus talks about in the Beatitudes. Jesus talks about the love and blessings that those who are hungry, poor, and suffering will experience in the kin-dom of God. In this lesson, children will explore the Beatitudes as they are presented in Luke’s Gospel. They’ll discover Jesus’ view of the least of these and will consider what poverty, hunger, and suffering look like in their own communities.
Starting off
Begin your time with the children by asking them what love means to them. What does love look like? How do we show love to one another? Encourage them to share all thoughts they have on the topic. You may want to record their ideas of a whiteboard or piece of chart paper so they can see them throughout the lesson.
Prepare to read aloud Luke 6:17-26. Provide some context for the reading. Share that the passage follows last week’s reading where Jesus called his first disciples after a day on the lake where they brought in a monumental number of fish. Jesus and his first disciples travel together. They stop in towns where Jesus teaches and heals. Finally, they come to a mountain. Jesus climbs up it and prays. When he comes down, he calls his twelve disciples. The group comes to a “level place” and Jesus begins preaching to a “multitude of people” who have traveled to hear him speak.
Exploring the passage
Before you begin reading the passage, ask the children to notice what parts of it “jump out” or “speak to” them. Read aloud Luke 6:17-26. If you are working with older children, you can read the text as it is presented in the NRSV Bible. However, if the children are younger or if you have a mixed age group, consider offering a child-friendly version. Children of God Storybook Bible by Archbishop Desmond Tutu includes an accessible retelling of the passage (“Jesus Teaches the Secret of Happiness”). The Message uses language that may be more easily understood by young disciples.
After reading the Scripture, ask the children to recount who Jesus calls “blessed.” Note that Jesus focuses on people who are poor, hungry, and suffering. Have the children explain why Jesus says they are blessed. Then ask the children to share their own thoughts. If they were poor, hungry, and/or suffering, would they feel blessed? Why or why not? Share that we don’t often feel blessed or cared for when we are experiencing hardships. However, Jesus says that we are. Jesus gives preferential treatment to those who have the least in the world. They are the ones who need God’s love and care the most, so they are the ones Jesus focuses on.
Relating the passage to our lives
Continue the discussion asking the children to share the verses from the reading that “jumped out” at them. What about these verses particularly was particularly impactful? Why do they think they were drawn to these specific words?
Choose one or two of the verses that children in your group shared. Discuss how each relates to the children’s community. For instance, if a child chooses the words, “Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh” ask her to talk about the people in her community who are sad. Encourage the children to think not just of their church community, but also the larger communities they live in.
Expand the conversation. Share that Jesus offers these words to the crowd gathered near the mountain (and to us through the Gospels) not only to show love and comfort to those experiencing difficulties, but also to offer a call to the community to provide love and care to those same people. As disciples of Christ, we are called to be Jesus’ hands and feet on earth. We can feed the hungry, comfort those who are sad, etc. Discuss with the children ways that they can make Jesus’ words a reality for people in their communities. Encourage them to focus on individual acts but also larger ministries of the church and the community.
Conclude your time by planning to engage in an action that brings at least one of the Beatitudes to fruition. If you’re living in an area where you’re not able to volunteer right now because of high rates of COVID infections, pray together for those experiencing poverty, sadness, hunger, and hate.
