The Prodigal Son on Trial

During our Learning Focus 3 this week, we have been looking at the parable of the Prodigal Son from Luke 15:11-32.  Did you know that a parable is a story with a hidden, special message, which Jesus used when preaching to his followers? 

This parable continues with our theme of unconditional love, and explains how the father in the story welcomes back his son with loving arms and forgiveness even though the son has squandered all of his money and lived an extravagant lifestyle for a long time.  We deduced that the father figure represented God, who is always willing to show us unconditional love and forgiveness when we are lost from following His path or have done something wrong.

During our lesson, we considered word prodigal - it means reckless or extravagant; using this, we wondered if only the son in the story could be called prodigal or whether the father and older son could be too.  Next, we acted out key scenes from the parable and then put the parable's characters on trial during freeze frames to explain how they have failed to love unconditionally.