Lesson video

Hello and welcome to this RE lesson.

I'm Ms. Marx and I'm going to be your teacher today.

Today's lesson is called Jesus's Teaching About Forgiveness and it's part of a unit called Forgiveness: Is Reconciliation Possible? Are you ready to learn lots of new things? Are you ready to think hard? Remember, if you don't understand something or you need some more time, you can press pause on the video and press play again when you're ready to carry on.

I'm really excited to do this lesson with you.

Are you ready? Let's get started.

By the end of this lesson, the outcome is: Is that you can explain what Jesus taught about forgiveness and why these ideas were challenging.

And here are the key words that you'll hear today: Forgiveness, which means letting go of hurt and choosing kindness instead of anger.

Parable, which is a story told by Jesus with a deeper meaning for the audience.

And interpret, which is looking for a deeper meaning in a text or a story.

Today's lesson will be split into two parts.

The first question we're going to try and answer is, what did Jesus teach about forgiveness? The second question we're going to try and answer is how difficult is forgiveness? So moving on to the first part of the lesson, Aisha explains theology in religious education.

She says, "Theology is about looking at stories and texts and learning about when, why, and for who they were written.

We can better understand people's worldviews by examining how they've been interpreted," there's our first keyword, "both in the past and today." In this lesson, we will be examining Jesus' teachings about forgiveness, there's our next keyword, to help us better understand Christian worldviews.

Here's Lauren and Lenny.

They're best friends and they've trained hard for weeks, eager for the school football final.

On match day, Lenny falsely tells the teacher, Lauren missed practise.

As a result, the teacher chooses someone else to play instead of her.

What should Lauren do? Should she stay angry and never speak to Lenny again, or should she forgive Lenny? Lauren can stay angry and never speak to Lenny again because he hurt her or she can forgive Lenny, not because he deserves it, but because holding onto anger will only make Lauren feel worse.

If Lauren chooses to forgive, it doesn't mean she'll forget what happened.

It just means she can let go of the anger and give Lenny a chance to make things right.

Maybe next time Lenny will be a better friend because he will have learned from his mistake.

Forgiveness is powerful.

It helps you to move forward and teaches others to be better.

Here's Grace.

Grace is a Catholic Christian.

She has a Christian worldview and she says, "In my church we talk about forgiveness a lot.

In the Lord's Prayer, we say, 'Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.

' I believe Jesus wanted us to forgive others." Jesus often taught using parables.

Parables, do you remember our key word, are stories where the deeper or hidden meaning.

Parables are stories.

They did not literally happen.

The people who heard Jesus would've had to interpret the meaning of the parable.

Do you know what parable is being shown here? It's the parable of the Lost Son.

And in this parable, the son leaves his father with his inheritance and he wastes the money.

Eventually he returns.

His father welcomes him back and forgives him.

Many Christians today interpret this parable about forgiveness.

Here's Grace, again.

She says, "The parable of the Lost Son helps me to understand that God will always forgive me no matter what.

I interpret the parable to mean that I should try and forgive others as well, even when I find it hard to forgive." What would the audience who heard a parable do? Would they A, see the story as literally true.

B, listen to the story and interpret it to find a deeper meaning.

Or C, wait for Jesus to explain the meaning to them.

The answer is B.

Your key word should have helped you there, the word interpret.

Jesus challenged the society around him at the time.

His teachings were intended to make his audience think differently about how they should behave.

His disciples were often challenged as well.

In the gospel of Matthew, Peter asks Jesus about forgiveness.

You can see Jesus on the right and Peter on the left.

Jesus and Peter, seventy times seven.

This is from Matthew chapter 18 verses 21 to 22.

And Peter asked, "Jesus, how many times should I forgive someone who does something wrong to me?" And Jesus replied, "Not just seven times Peter, but seventy times seven." "But that's a lot," said Peter.

And Jesus responded, "Forgiveness should never run out.

Just as God forgives us again and again, we must also forgive others from our hearts." What question did Peter ask Jesus? A, How many times should I forgive? B, What is the greatest commandment? Or C, Who is my neighbour? And the answer is, A, How many times should I forgive? Well done if you got that right.

Here's another question to check for understanding.

What does seventy times seven mean in the context of forgiveness? Does it A, mean forgiving exactly 490 times.

B, it means forgiving seven times.

Or C, it signifies limitless forgiveness.

The answer is C, it signifies limitless forgiveness.

Well done if you got that one right.

Here's our task for this first section of the lesson.

Izzy is thinking about what Jesus taught about forgiveness.

Here she is and she says, "In the parable of the Lost Son, Jesus teaches that God will always forgive people like the Father forgave his son." Can you add to Izzy's understanding of what Jesus taught about forgiveness? And can you use the story of Jesus and Peter to help her? Write your answers down or tell a partner.

And here's the sort of things that you may have said.

You may have said: When Peter asked Jesus how many times he should forgive someone, Jesus answers not just seven times, but seventy times seven.

Christians can interpret this as Jesus saying, there should be no limit on forgiveness.

People should forgive like God forgives.

Lots of key words used in that answer.

I wonder whether you use keywords in your answer.

Now we're moving on to the second part of the lesson.

How difficult is forgiveness? Grace has got a friend now called Andrew.

Andrew is an Orthodox Christian.

He and Grace are talking about the parable of the Lost Son and Jesus and Peter and Andrew says, "I don't think Jesus was testing that Peter knew his times tables.

He meant that forgiveness should never run out and we shouldn't stop forgiving after a certain number of times." And grace thinks, "I think Jesus is telling us that holding onto anger feels heavy, but letting go brings peace and joy.

The parable ends with a feast." Drew interprets these teachings that Jesus is asking us to forgive from our hearts, but that doesn't mean we should let people keep hurting us.

He challenges us to forgive anyway just as God forgives us.

And for Grace, Jesus teaches that anger hurts us more than the person we are mad at.

He teaches us to choose love over revenge, which is not always easy.

What do you think the message of the parable is? Here's another check of your understanding.

How do Grace and Andrew interpret these teachings? Do they A, keep track of forgiveness on the list? B, we should be kind of forgiving to others even when it's hard.

Or C, only forgive nice people.

The answer is B, we should be kind of forgiving to others even when it's hard.

I'm so proud of how hard you're working in this lesson.

Well done.

Earlier in the gospel of Matthew, Jesus says, "You have heard it said you shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.

But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who hurt you." And that's from Matthew chapter five, verse 43.

What phrase here would you highlight to show what Jesus is teaching about forgiveness and love? Jesus' teaching on forgiveness went further than many ideas in the society he lived in.

The audience at the time would have interpreted this as challenging to the society they lived in.

At that time, the Jewish people were occupied in their land by Romans, and many Jewish people hated the Romans.

Limitless forgiveness would've been a shocking idea in Jesus' time.

Here's some things people might have said: "Long ago, we were taught an 'eye for an eye.

' Now this teacher, Jesus, says 'love your enemies.

' Could this really be the way of God?" "The Romans have taken our land, taxed us heavily and treated us like slaves.

How can we forgive them when they show us no mercy?" "My son was punished unfairly by the Roman soldiers.

My heart burns with anger.

How can I let go of my pain?" "The law of Moses tells us what is right and wrong.

If we start forgiving sinners too easily, won't we be breaking God's commandments?" "My neighbour stole my very best goat and the law says I can demand it back or take one of his.

If I forgive him, won't I look weak?" In Jesus' time, if someone hurt your family, people believed you had to defend their honour and not let the insult go.

Do you think that is true or false? It's true.

In Jesus' culture, family honour is very important.

Forgiving someone who had wronged your family could be seen as weak.

So now we're starting to see why forgiveness was so difficult in Jesus' times.

What did Jesus teach instead of an eye for an eye? Did he teach A, hate your enemies.

B, love your enemies.

Or C, forgive your enemies once.

Can you remember what he said? He said, "Love your enemies." Well done if you'd remembered that.

Here's Andrew again.

Christians can find interpreting and living with these teachings difficult, even today.

"It's not always easy to forgive people," says Andrew.

"Sometimes I get angry and I don't want to forgive, but the teaching of Jesus helps me to understand that it is not easy, but it is the right thing to do." So Christians today also find forgiveness very difficult.

And Grace says, "Later in the gospels, Jesus forgave even those who nailed him to the cross, he said, 'Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.

' When someone deeply wounds us, forgiveness feels like the hardest thing to do." For many Christians, the fact that Jesus forgave the people who killed him means they interpret forgiveness as one of the most important teachings.

Izzy and Laura are thinking about the idea of forgiveness.

And Izzy says, "I think the teaching of Jesus on forgiveness is too hard.

I can forgive someone if they do something wrong the first few times, but I couldn't keep forgiving them." And Laura responds with, "I think it is hard as well, but anger and rage hurt you as much as the other person.

Letting go of that hurt can make everyone better in the end." Do you agree with Izzy or Laura about the idea of forgiveness? Why do you have this view? Right, we're onto to our last task of the lesson now, Task B: Izzy, Laura, and Jun are discussing Jesus's teaching on forgiveness for each statement, give a reason or a piece of evidence to support it and use everything you've learned in this lesson to help you.

So Izzy says, "Jesus taught that forgiveness should be limitless.

Laura says, "Jesus's teachings on forgiveness were challenging to his society." And Jun says, "Christians today think forgiveness is important." You've got to give some evidence or a supporting statement to support those things said by each of those children.

Off you go.

Did you find some supporting statements and evidence for each of the things that the children said? Here's some things you might have written.

For Izzy's statement, you could have written, Jesus taught you should forgive not seven but seventy times seven times.

For Laura's statement, you could have written: At the time, people were taught to only love their neighbours.

They wanted to defend honour, and the Jewish people were occupied by Romans.

And to support Jun's statement, you might have said, "Grace and Andrew talked about how forgiveness meant a lot to them." You might have written something like this or something different.

You can talk to a partner about what's the same and what you've included.

And here is the summary of this lesson on Jesus' teaching about forgiveness.

These are the key points from the lesson that I really want you to think hard about and try to remember.

Many teachings of Jesus can be found in the gospels.

Some teachings are contained in parables.

Jesus taught about forgiveness.

He told Peter he should forgive seventy times seven times.

Jesus also taught people that they should love their enemies.

The teachings of Jesus were challenging to the society of his time.

Christians today interpret the teachings to reflect on the importance of forgiveness.

Thank you for joining me for today's lesson.

You've really worked hard and you've really thought hard through some really tricky and challenging ideas.

I'm so proud of how hard you've listened and the thought you've put into all the tasks.

Well done.

Thank you, and I'll see you again soon.

Bye.