Hello, my name is Mr. Robertson and I love RE.

I'm really excited to be learning with you today.

We have a fantastic lesson ready.

We're going to be continuing with our unit, big question, Jesus: how does his treatment of outcasts speak to Christians today? And in this lesson, we are going to look at Jesus and the lepers and think a little bit about what they say about outcasts.

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to explain how Jesus treated outcasts.

We have four keywords for you today.

Our first word is leper, and I'd like you to say it back.

Excellent.

Our second keyword is society.

Amazing.

Our third keyword is gospel.

Fabulous.

And our final set of words is kingdom of God.

Amazing.

Brilliant.

So what do all these words mean? Well, a leper is someone with leprosy.

Society is people living in the same place who share laws and traditions.

Gospel is a book in the Bible about the life and teachings of Jesus.

And the kingdom of God is a society where God rules.

All of these words will come up through the lesson and you'll be really confident with them by the end of it.

So our lesson on Jesus and the lepers is in two parts.

In the first part of the lesson, we're going to be asking this question, What happened when Jesus met the lepers? Are you ready to go? This lesson is a theology lesson.

So Sofia is going to explain what we mean by theology in religious education.

She says: "Theologians are interested in stories, texts, and traditions.

We can better understand people's worldviews by examining the deeper meaning of these stories, texts, and traditions.

We can also look at the difference they make to people today." So we're going to be using the tools of theology in this lesson, but what are we going to be doing? Well, in this lesson, we're going to be using texts and stories from the Gospel of Luke.

And that's gonna help us better understand how Jesus treated outcasts like lepers.

And from that, we're going to look at how Christians interpret these stories, what they say they mean.

Sofia and Lucas are talking about belonging.

Sofia says, "I like to feel that I'm part of a group.

No one likes being left out.

I wear my Brownie uniform to show that I belong to my Brownie pack." Lucas says, "I'm a member of my school debating society.

We talk about what's going on in our world and share our opinions about it.

We take care to listen to everyone's ideas." I wonder if you have things in your life that you belong to.

And I wonder how you show that you belong to them.

Do you wear a uniform like Sofia? Do you take part in a club like Lucas? We're going to be looking at a particular story from the Bible today, and we've got our Bible bookcase here, which helps us kind of locate where the story is.

The word gospel means good news.

And there are four gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

We can see the gospel of Luke highlighted there.

We're going to be looking at the gospel of Luke today, which he wrote 'cause he wanted people to read the good news about Jesus.

And in the story we're going to be looking at, we're going to be thinking about Jesus' treatment of lepers and other outcasts from society.

Now, at the time of Jesus, there were people with infectious diseases such as leprosy.

Leprosy is a really nasty disease, that thankfully we have almost eradicated in the world today.

But at the time of Jesus, it was a disease which could affect people.

Infectious means that it could be spread.

At that time, people didn't really understand how diseases were caused.

Medicine wasn't very advanced, and so people with diseases like leprosy were seen as unclean, and that means they were forced to live away from society.

They couldn't live in houses with other people.

They couldn't spend any time with people.

They had to stay really far away so the disease couldn't spread.

You can see there in the illustration the sort of clothing that people with leprosy had to wear because it would affect their skin.

And this seems really unfair, but this was the law at the time.

Let's meet Louise.

She has a Christian worldview and she attends a Methodist church.

She's going to help us understand a little bit more about what it was like in Jesus' time.

Louise says, "Jesus was Jewish.

He would've been expected to follow the Jewish laws, such as the rules about keeping away from lepers.

The stories in Luke's gospel show that Jesus often looked out for people who were left out, such as lepers and other outcasts." So this is something really important we're learning from Louise, that Jesus was particularly interested in people on the outside of society.

Let's just check our understanding so far.

What's the meaning of the word gospel? Is it A: God's kingdom, B: good news, C: old tradition, or D: sad story? Pause the video, theologians, and have a think.

Excellent work.

It's B, good news, isn't it? Well done if you've got that right.

Now, Luke's gospel has a story about a leper.

You can see an illustration there of the leper.

You can see he's wearing bandages because his skin disease was very nasty.

A leper in a small town saw Jesus as he was travelling and teaching.

The leper bowed before Jesus and begged him, "Lord, I know you could heal me if you want to." And we can see Jesus reaching out and touching the leper.

Jesus said, "I do want to," and he reached out to touch the leper.

"Be healed," said Jesus.

Immediately, the skin disease disappeared and the man was well.

And we can see in our illustration there, can't we? Of the man looking better and cured from his disease.

Jesus told the man to go straight to the priest to make offerings and prayers at the temple.

Once the priest saw that the man was well, he would no longer need to live away from the rest of society and so he could come back to the town where he once lived and live with people again.

Let's just think about what we've learned so far.

True or false? At the time of Jesus, lepers had to live separately from the rest of society.

Is that true, theologians, or false? Pause the video and have a think.

Excellent.

You are right.

It's true, isn't it? How do we know it's true? Because at the time of Jesus, lepers were forced to live outside of society because they had an infectious disease.

Now, let's think about what this story might mean.

How might a Christian interpret this story? Louise says, "Lepers were outcasts.

People would've been afraid and chased them out of towns and villages.

Jesus does something extraordinary.

He touches a leper.

He's not afraid of disease because he cares deeply about individuals.

Luke thought Jesus' treatment of lepers was so important that he tells another story about 10 lepers." So what have we learned here? Well, Jesus does something really unusual.

He doesn't just talk to the leper.

He touches him.

And remember, at the time of Jesus, lepers were seen as people who could spread disease so no one would have touched them.

They would've been far too scared to do that.

Let's look at another story from the gospel of Luke.

This one's a little bit longer.

Jesus was making his way towards the great city of Jerusalem, along the border between Samaria and Galilee.

It was an area of dusty roads and tiny villages.

As he walked into a small village, Jesus saw 10 men standing at the edge of the road.

These men were very sick.

They had leprosy, a disease that made their skin sore.

Because of their illness, lepers had to stay away from everyone else and live far from their families.

It was a lonely life.

People were afraid of catching the disease, so they stayed far away.

The 10 lepers saw Jesus from a distance.

They were desperate, but they knew that Jesus could help them.

They called out, "Jesus, master, have pity on us." Their voices were full of hope, and they called out as loudly as they could, hoping Jesus would hear.

When Jesus saw them, he did not turn away from them.

Instead, he looked at them with kindness and said, "Go now and show yourselves to the priests." And we can see in the illustration, the 10 lepers calling out to Jesus.

The lepers obeyed Jesus' instruction and went to the synagogue to see the priests.

Then something amazing happened.

As they walked, their sores and spots began to disappear and their skin turned healthy again.

One by one, they were all healed from the disease.

And we can see the joy on their faces in the illustration as they know that they've been healed.

But one man, just one, when he saw that he was healed, turned around and ran back to Jesus, shouting praises to God with a loud voice.

This man's heart was so full of joy and thankfulness.

He fell to his knees before Jesus and thanked him.

The man was a Samaritan.

People from Samaria were not always friends with the people from Galilee.

But this man knew that Jesus had done something truly wonderful for him.

He said, "Thank you Jesus.

You have made me well." Jesus looked at the man and asked, "Weren't there 10 lepers who were healed? Where are the others? You are a Samaritan.

And yet you are the only one who came back to thank me." The man looked around, but the other nine were nowhere to be seen.

Jesus shook his head and smiled at the Samaritan man, "Get up and go.

Live your life to the full.

Your faith has saved you and made you well." And we can see in the illustration, the Samaritan thanking Jesus for healing him.

Let's just check our understanding here.

I want you to find two reasons why Jesus was surprised by the leper who said, thank you.

A: only one leper thanked Jesus, B: he was a Samaritan, C: he was a priest.

Pause the video and have a think.

Great thinking, theologians, isn't it? It's A and B, because only one leper, thanked Jesus out of the 10.

And the one that did was a Samaritan.

Brilliant work, if you got that right.

Let's look at our task now.

Sofia and Lucas are thinking about this story.

Sofia says, "I wonder why Luke tells two stories about Jesus and lepers in his gospel?" And Lucas says, "I think Luke tells two stories because he wants to make sure his readers understand how Jesus treats lepers and outcasts." Can you help Lucas to summarise the main points from the two stories about Jesus and the lepers? I want you to think a little bit about these things.

I want you to think about what happens in both stories.

You might want to say something about how lepers were treated.

You might want to think about what Jesus does when he sees the lepers.

How does he treat them? Is there anything he actually does? And finally, you might want to think about what happened after Jesus had spoken to the lepers.

What happened next? What happened to the lepers and how did they react? See if you could summarise this in some really quick and sensible points.

Off you go, theologians, I look forward to seeing what you've come up with.

I can see some great work here.

So you may have made some points like this.

You might have said Jesus didn't ignore the lepers, did he? He could have carried on walking.

That's what most people would've done.

He spoke to the lepers.

So he treated them with respect and as human beings.

He touched some lepers.

And remember we said that would've been really unusual at the time because people were very frightened of the disease of leprosy and becoming infected themselves.

He sent the lepers to show the priest they'd been healed.

And he did this because he wanted to restore them back to their society so they were no longer outcast.

And Jesus was pleased that the Samaritan said thank you, because the other lepers had just gone, hadn't they? If you made some or all of those points, that's some really brilliant thinking, theologians.

And you've shown that you can listen to a story from the Bible and you can summarise some of the main things that happened in it.

So, brilliantly well done.

In our next part of the lesson, we're going to be asking this question, why did Jesus treat outcasts differently? So we know that Jesus was Jewish, it's a really important point to keep remembering.

And as Jesus grew up, he would've learned to read from Jewish books of the law and the prophet.

He'd have learned about God by reading the Torah scrolls, you could see an image of the Torah scroll there, and talking about the meaning of the words.

So he would've had a Jewish childhood, learning about the law, learning and reading the Torah scrolls and learning all about what it means to be Jewish.

Luke's gospel tells the time when Jesus went to the Jewish synagogue and read out some words from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah, who was a really important prophet.

The prophet says, "God's spirit is on me.

He has chosen me to bring good news to the poor, to free prisoners and give sight to the blind." So this is part of the Torah, part of the Jewish scriptures, but it's also in the gospel of Luke as well, remembering when Jesus read this.

Let's just check our understanding here.

True or false? Jesus was a Christian.

Is that true or false, theologians? Pause the video and have a think.

Excellent.

It's false, isn't it? Why is it false? Well, because we said that Jesus was Jewish, he learned about God by reading the Torah.

And we can read in the Bible about times he goes to the synagogue to read the Torah and learn.

Louise explains her ideas about outcasts.

She says, "When Jesus read from the prophet Isaiah in the synagogue, he showed that God had always cared about outcasts from society." Because if you remember in that quote, it talked about bringing sight to the blind and caring about those.

"So maybe that's why Jesus spent so much time with people who were overlooked by the rest of society." It wasn't that Jesus was doing something new.

Maybe he was trying to read the Jewish scriptures and fulfil them properly.

After Jesus read from the scroll, he told the people that the words from the stroll were coming true and that the kingdom of God was coming.

Jesus himself would bring good news, forgive people and help people to see.

So when Jesus talks in the Bible, he talks about this idea of the kingdom of God, a time where everything will be run in the right way and there will be equality and justice.

And Jesus talked about himself doing these things.

Let's meet David.

David has a Christian worldview as well, but he goes to an Anglican church.

David said "Jesus showed people that the kingdom of God is a society where everyone can live a good life, including poor people and outcasts.

It's not surprising that crowds of people followed Jesus.

Their lives were hard and they wanted to hear some good news.

So whenever Jesus talked about God and what society should be like, he included everyone in it, including poor people and outcasts.

And that was really important at the time because there were lots of poor people and life was really difficult.

The religious leaders were shocked when Jesus challenged Jewish society by eating with tax collectors and touching lepers.

I think Jesus showed that the kingdom of God includes people that society ignores and pushes to the edges.

Jesus chose to find those people and show them that God loves them.

Jewish people followed their religious laws because it was important to do the right thing and please God.

When Jesus broke the religious law by touching and healing lepers, I think he was showing that people are more important than laws." So that's a really interesting idea by David, isn't it? That Jesus is more worried about making sure that people are happy and including everybody than he was about some of the laws and what they said.

Let's just check our understanding there.

Which answer explains why Jesus sometimes broke religious laws? A: he did not think the law was important, B: he believed people were more important than laws, C: he did not know about religious laws? Theologians, which do you think makes the most sense? Pause the video and have a think.

Excellent.

It's B, isn't it? That he believed that people were more important than laws.

We know he knew the religious laws because we heard earlier, didn't we, about him growing up reading the Torah and going to the synagogue.

Okay, I want us to look at our final task for today.

Sofia, Lucas and Jun are discussing how Jesus treated outcasts.

For each of their statements, I'd like you to give an example from the stories in the gospel of Luke that we've been looking at.

So Sofia says, "Jesus knew that Jewish holy texts mentioned outcasts." Hmm, where did we learn about today where Jesus had some knowledge of Jewish holy texts? Lucas says, "Jesus sometimes broke religious laws." Can you think of an example of a law that Jesus broke that we've learned about today? And Jun says, "Jesus noticed people who were outcasts from society." Thinking about the stories we've looked at today, can you see where Jesus has noticed people who were outcasts, who weren't allowed to be part of normal society? So theologians, I'd like you to do this.

You might want to reread those stories.

You might want to look some of those texts that we've looked at in a bit more detail.

But can you act like theologians and make some matching statements here? Can you find an example that fits what these three children are saying? I know you can.

You are brilliant.

So pause the video and off you go.

Oh, some excellent work.

So I've done this too, and I've got some examples here.

You may have some slightly different examples.

So Sofia says that "Jesus knew that holy text mentioned outcasts," and we heard, didn't we, that Jesus read about good news for the poor from the scroll of Isaiah.

So he's already done some thinking.

Jesus knew already about the fact that the text mentioned outcasts before.

Lucas says "Jesus sometimes broke religious laws," where if you remember, he touches a leper even though that was against the Jewish law of the time because lepers were seen as unclean.

And thirdly, Jun says, "Jesus noticed people who were outcast in society." And we heard two stories, didn't we, where Jesus spoke to and healed lepers.

So he didn't ignore them, he touched them, he healed them.

He included them in his ideas of what the kingdom of God should be like.

If you've managed to find some examples like that, fantastic work, theologians, you are really using the tools of theology and thinking really deeply.

So let's summarise what we've learned today.

We've learned that leprosy is an infectious disease and that at the time of Jesus, lepers were forced to live outside of society and were seen as unclean.

We've learned that in Luke's gospel there are stories where Jesus touched lepers and healed them.

We've learned that people at the time would've been shocked that Jesus spoke with or touched people with leprosy.

We've learned that for Jesus, the kingdom of God meant helping people is more important than a religious law.

And finally, many Christians draw attention to the fact that Jesus was always drawn to those on the very edges of society.

You've done brilliantly today.

We've heard some stories about Jesus, we've interpreted them, and we've thought about how Christians today think about them.

Really impressed with all of your work and I'm looking forward to seeing another lesson with you soon.

Thank you very much.