Helping Hands, a Children’s Sermon based on the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37)

Object Lesson – Helping Hands

Using the printable, retell the story of the Good Samaritan to help children understand what it means to have helping hands.

The Parable of the Good Samaritan is a story that Jesus tells about a man who was travelling alone when he was robbed, beaten and left for dead. A priest travelling along the same road came across the injured man, crossed the road, and continued on his way. After this, a Levite also came across the injured man; he too crossed the road and left.

After this, a Samaritan found the injured man. He took pity on him, bandaged his wounds, placed him on his donkey and took him to an Inn, where he cared for him and asked the innkeeper to do the same.

Lesson Theme – Helping Hands

Jesus uses this story to help us understand the importance of being a good neighbour and friend. The Good Samaritan chose to take a moment to help a man who had been hurt.

Figurative Theme – Helping Hands

Why do you think God gave us hands? (Answers will vary) I’m sure we use our hands for many different things. Like writing, brushing our teeth, making a sandwich or cleaning our bedrooms.

Let’s take a look at our hands. Hold them with your palms facing upward. Now let’s place our hands on our chest. You see, if we keep our hands close to us, there isn’t much we can do for others. However, (encourage the children to stretch out their hands) if we reach out our hands, we can help others.

I believe God gave us hands so we can be helpers, too. We can use our helping hands to serve those around us. Just like the Good Samaritan did.

Life Challenge/Discussion

Each of our hands has five fingers. Why don’t we choose five ways in which we can use our helping hands this coming week?

Helping Hands Activity

  1. Using the images of the characters, children can create their own story puppets and retell the Parable of the Good Samaritan.
  2. Let the children choose five ways to use their helping hands. Colour and cut out the hand image, and children can write down their five choices. This reminder can then be stuck on the fridge or placed in their Bible or daily diary as a helpful reminder.

Prayer

Dear Lord Jesus

Thank you for such a wonderful reminder of how we can use our hands to help others. Even though our hands might seem small, they can still do big things. May we be as kind and gentle to others as the Good Samaritan. In Your name we pray. Amen.

Helping Hands Helping Hands