Pharisees try to trick Jesus

(Matthew 22: 15-22)

The lesson today is about the story of when the Pharisees try to trick Jesus into taking sides. They are upset about the amount of taxes that are forced upon them by Caesar, so they try to get Jesus to join with them and say it is unfair. Jesus knows if he sides with the people, Caesar will put him in jail, but if he sides with Caesar, the people will think he is a traitor. Therefore, he tells them to show him a coin. When they do so, he points out that it is Caesar's picture on the coin, thereby showing that it is Caesar's money. He says to them, "Give therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."

We talked today about what things belong to God. How do we know they are God's? What should we give back to God and how do we do that? Of course, this opened up a wonderful discussion that took many directions. We covered topics such as tithing, charity, neighborly love, kindness, sacrifice, blessings, and personal responsibilities to family and community. We ended up concluding that everything belongs to God! 

Our craft today was to make coins representing what we give back to God. I asked the children to draw pictures of things they possess that they can give back to God.

We made coins once before with The Widow's Mite lesson. This time I wanted the coins to be larger to give the children plenty of room to draw.

Materials needed:

u Wooden circles (I could only find button shapes. They came from Michaels for a few cents per button. I'll show you how to get rid of the button holes below.) 

u Circle stickers

u Candy foil wrappers (also found at Michaels)

u Sharpie or tool of choice to draw picture on foil

Instructions:

1) Give each child one button, two sheets of foil, a pen and two stickers. 

2) Ask the children to put a sticker on each side of the button to cover up the button holes. This will prevent the holes from showing through the finished product.

3) Wrap one sheet of foil around one side of the coin.

4) Wrap the other sheet over the other side. This is the top.

5) Instruct the kids to draw a picture of something they have been blessed with that they can give back to God.

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