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PREPARATION
The puzzle of God by Peter Vardy is worth reading to get an overview of the topics discussed in a school setting.
You will need: Bibles, A4 and A1 pieces of paper, coloured pens and post-it notes.
This lesson is planned around the average lesson length being one hour. This lesson is aimed at year nine, although would work well with some adaptation with KS3 or sixth form.
The learning objectives are for students to be able to explain what a miracle is, to know some examples of Jesus’ miracles in the New Testament and to develop debate, discussion, group work and presentation skills.
MYTH, MIRACLE OR MYSTERY?
10 mins
Outline the following examples, and ask students to discuss and decide whether it’s a myth, miracle or mystery.
• Eating carrots will help you to see in the dark.
• A man with a terminal illness visited Lourdes in France. He drank some of the holy water and prayed to Mary. A few weeks later he was cured of his illness which has never returned.
• A local farmer reported to the police that strange shapes had appeared in his corn field. Upon closer inspection it appeared that there were no tracks leading into the field or leaving it.
• If you break a mirror you will get seven years bad luck.
• A ship sailed through the waters of the Bermuda triangle. A crew member of a neighbouring ship tried to contact the captain but there was no response. Fearing the worst the crew member contacted the mainland and reported the ship missing. The ship and its crew were never found. Divers searched the area and there was no ship to be seen.
• An elderly man is sitting in his armchair watching television in his living room. Suddenly he hears a noise at the back door so he gets up to investigate. Seconds later a lorry crashes into his living room where the elderly man was sitting moments before.
THE IMPOSSIBLE CHALLENGE
5 mins
Ask the young people to try and fit themselves into or on to a single piece of A4 paper – a seemingly impossible task. Some may know how to do it, some may not, allow a few minutes for them to experiment. For an explanation of how to do this head to the Link pages. Draw the link between an impossible task and miracles.
WHAT IS A MIRACLE?
5 mins
Ask the young people to define what a miracle is. Provide them with 12 definitions, and allow them to come up with their own as well. This activity could lead to a class discussion depending on the group size and ability. Ask your students to put each of the 12 definitions into one of two columns – ‘mainly truth’ or ‘partly truth’ in their books. The 12 definitions are: an event due to a supernatural agency, a remarkable event or object, a supernatural event, a wonder, a phenomenon, the activity in nature and history of God, a distinctive and wonderful act, a mighty and powerful act of God, a meaningful and significant spiritual moment, something you didn’t ever expect, an answer to prayer, a sign.
From this give the definition of a miracle for students to copy down: an extraordinary and welcome event that is not explainable by natural or scientific laws and is therefore attributed to a divine agency.
WHAT SORT OF MIRACLES DID JESUS PERFORM?
5 mins
Explain to the class that there are four kinds of miracles recorded in the Gospels and examples of all four types appear in Luke: healing the sick, raising people from the dead, casting out demons, and power over nature. During the next task, students will have a chance to research one of these miracles.
PRESENTATION PREPARATION
10 mins
Give each group a Bible, an A1 piece of paper and assign them a miracle of your choosing from the book of Luke (it would be wise to differentiate here and give the advanced groups a more detailed miracle to look at - the miracles for selection can be downloaded from the Link page and set the groups the task of researching and working through the following questions:
• What happens in your miracle?
• What part did Jesus play?
• What was the result / reaction?
• Do they think that the story is real or false?
PRESENTATIONS
15 mins
Get students to feed back their findings on their miracle to the class. Before each presentation assign one student in the class the role of providing the group with some positive feedback about their presentation, one student the role of providing constructive feedback and one student to ask a question.
WHAT DO JESUS’ MIRACLES MEAN?
15 mins
After the presentations, explain to the class that Jesus’ miracles weren’t just impressive events, but that the Bible talks about them being something more. Write up on the board (or on a slide) and get students to copy this key information into their books.
Explain how the word used for miracle in Luke is ‘dunameis’ (act of power) and in John it’s ‘semia’ (sign). To the Gospel writers the miracles have a meaning beyond what can be seen with the eyes. For the synoptic writers (Matthew, Mark and Luke) in particular, Jesus’ miracles show:
• The power of God. Jesus tells the paralysed man that his sins are forgiven - something only God can do. The healing that has taken place is not just the physical healing but that of his relationship with God.
• The power of faith in God. When the centurion’s servant was healed it was vital that the centurion believed that Jesus was the son of God and so had the power to heal. Jesus’ miracles helped people to have faith and to believe in the kingdom of God.
• The depth of God’s love. When Jesus brought the widow’s son back to life it was a show of God’s love. The miracles showed people something of the power of God’s love for them.
To finish, and to check progress, hand a post-it note to each student and ask them to spend two minutes writing down three things that they’ve learnt in the lesson. Ask each row to come forward and stick their post-it notes on the board. Read some out to the class.
