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Misc Bible Chats (no 4)
Resolutions - A chat for New Year
(4) Zacchaeus the Tax Collector
Luke 19. 1-10
Well I hope you all had a great Christmas and are looking forward to the New Year 20_ _? Lots of people and children when the New Year starts, make what’s called a New Year Resolution. You may have heard someone in your family talk about their New Year Resolution. Can anyone tell me what a New Year Resolution is? Yes, it’s when someone wants to change something in their life to improve it and make it better.
I have here in my suitcase various things and I wonder if you can guess from each item, what the New Year Resolution might be that relates to them.
Items: You could ask a child to pick out an item one at a time.
Item 6 - Untidy room.
See downloads at bottom of this page for pictures of items 4, 5 and 6.
(There is also PowerPoint with images of all 6 items on it. More interesting and varied to take a suitcase and actual items and pictures but PowerPoint included, just in case)
1. Skipping rope – do more exercise to become fit and healthy.
2. Clock – be on time for things and stop being late.
3. Box of chocolates – stop eating too much chocolate and biscuits - eat fruit instead.
4. Please and thank you (sign) – be more polite.
5. Picture of a TV, iPad… – watch less TV...
6. Picture of an untidy room – keep your bedroom tidy (mum’s love this one!)
We all have good intentions when we make a New Year Resolution but by the end of January, so many of us fail to keep the changes we want to make.
That reminds me of a little man called Zacchaeus that we read about in the Bible. He needed to make quite a few resolutions because he really needed to make some serious changes in his life (take out of the story case the items listed when needed).
Zacchaeus’ job was a tax collector, his employer was the Roman government. He would go out and tell people what they owed the government, collect the money and hand it in, (item – money bag) but he was a swindler and a cheat, he would collect more money than he needed to and kept it for himself. This way he grew rich but no one liked him. As time went on I’m sure Zach started to not like himself.
One day he heard that a man called Jesus was passing through the town he lived in. He’d heard amazing things about this man called Jesus. He’d heard that He performed miracles and made sick people well. He decided that day that he would go and see for himself what Jesus was like and hopefully see Him perform a miracle with his own eyes. He ran down the road following the crowd but he couldn’t see a thing because he wasn’t very tall, so he had an idea to run ahead and climb a tree (item 2 tree twigs) then he would have a bird’s eye view of Jesus. He sat in the branch of the tree and waited. Sure enough Jesus and the crowd came passing by, but something so unexpected happened. Jesus stopped at the tree where Zac was perched and looked up and said, ‘‘Zacchaeus come down I’m coming to your house for tea today!’’ (Item 3 – plate, cup.) Well, Zac almost fell off his branch in astonishment. How did Jesus know his name and how did He know he was in the tree? No doubt Zac must have thought that if Jesus knew his name He must know what he was like as a person, a liar, a cheat and lonely. Out of all the people in his town, many good kind people, why would Jesus ask to have a meal with him?
Sure enough Jesus went to Zac’s house and had tea with him. He talked about life and His father God and Zac realised that he needed to make some big changes in his life, but he knew he couldn’t do it on his own, he needed help from Jesus. With God’s help Zac put things right with the poor people he had cheated and taken money from, he gave them back far more than he had taken. After meeting Jesus Zacchaeus was never the same again, the changes he made was for good not just the New Year.
Let’s pray:
Dear God, we thank you for a New Year, please help us to make the most of every day and make a difference for good to those around us. Amen
Downloads & Resources
Leaders’ Notes
TV Image
Please and Thank You Sign
Untidy Room Picture
(If required PowerPoint of all pictures)
Other Resources:
In addition to the New Year Zacchaeus chat given above, there is another page for Zacchaeus material, which includes Zacchaeus’ story illustrated on PowerPoint.
[CLICK HERE to go to Zacchaeus web page and PowerPoint]