Bible Point: Jesus reverses the curse of death.
Set Up: Establish a large playing area.
Before Playing: Explain that leprosy is a terrible,
crippling, skin
disease. During Bible times there was no cure for it. People with
leprosy had to stay far away from other people so they wouldn't infect
them with the disease. When they walked
around public places they would have to yell out, "Unclean! Unclean!"
in order to warn others of their condition.
How To Play: Have all the players line up on one side of the
playing area. Designate one player to have leprosy and place him or
her into the center of the playing area. At the go, have the players
run across to the other side of the playing area. The player with leprosy must yell out, "Unclean! Unclean!" and try to tag
as many players as possible. The players that make it across to
the other side are safe for that round of play. The players that are
tagged become leprous and help to tag players in the next round. Play
continues as such until all players are tagged and become
leprous.
Once all the players have been tagged and are leprous,
sit down and read Mark 1:40-45.
Object Lesson: Today there is a cure for leprosy. But in
those days, if you had leprosy, you were under a curse of
death. In this Bible story, the man with leprosy begged for healing.
Jesus saw him, was filled with compassion, and healed him. The man was
no longer under the curse of death. He had been redeemed, saved from
death! But did he keep this good news to himself? No, he ran and told
everyone what Jesus had done for him.
None of us have leprosy. But we are all under a curse of death from a disease that is much
worse. This disease infects you and me and everything on the planet!
It is responsible for harming and killing more people than all other
terrible diseases combined. It affects our relationships with our
friends, our families, and our relationship to God. There is no
man-made cure for our disease. It is one hundred percent fatal all of
the time. The earth decays because of it and every living thing will
die from it. Do you know what this disease is called? The Bible calls our disease "sin". Because sin makes us
unclean, we cannot be in God's holy
presence. Therefore, we will die and be separated from God for all of
eternity. Unless we are healed by Jesus, we
will remain unclean and under this terrible curse.
But God did not want this for us. The Bible says, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
John 3:16-17.
Jesus died on the cross to heal us and to forgive us of our sins. The Bible
says, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."
1 John 1:9. (To confess means to admit or to agree with God that you are
a sinner.)
Jesus cleanses us from sin and redeems us from eternal death. Jesus reversed the curse
of death by dying on the cross for us.
And just like the man that couldn't keep the good news of his healing
to himself, we too need to tell others what Jesus has done for us.
Now we will finish playing our game. Only this time we will reverse
the curse. The last player to be tagged from our game will now
become the "redeemed" player. Rather than yelling,
"Unclean! Unclean!" that player must yell, "I'm
redeemed! I'm redeemed!" Play proceeds as before until all of the players are redeemed!
Finish with prayer: Dear Jesus, we admit that we are sinners
and need your forgiveness. Thank you for dying on the cross to reverse
the curse of sin and eternal death. Thank you for healing us from our terrible disease.
If there is anyone here that has never received you as their Savior
and Forever Friend, then we ask that you would help that person to
trust and follow you.
Help all of us to obey and follow you this week. Amen.
Copyright 2003 Sarah A. Keith
*The name of this game was inspired by Pastor Lucky Arnold's sermon on
the man with leprosy.
Your
financial and prayerful support makes this site possible.
Won't you
help? Click here.
Tell your friends about
this game.
Return to the Games page.
