Daniel in the Lion's Den
Learn about tax collectors and why Jesus hung out with them. Also learn how Judaism relates to the story.
What is Judaism?
Judaism is a religion that worships the one God just like Christians. Judaism has many rules that you have to follow to be religious. The rules are found in older parts of the Bible. Jesus would have been raised in a family that all practiced Judaism.
Feeding the pigs
The prodigal son's family also practiced Judaism. One the rules of Judaism, is that certain animals, like pigs, are not clean and you shouldn't eat them or touch them. For the son to be asked to feed pigs would have been very hard for him because you're not supposed to be around pigs in Judaism. It's one of the worst jobs he could have imagined.
What is a tax?
Everyone knows you have to work to make money. A silver coin, like the one on the right, would have been they pay you got for working one day in the Roman Empire. Well, at least for most people.
A tax is when the government takes some of your money. All countries have taxes. In your country, they probably use this money to make roads and schools for example
Ancientcointraders, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
What is a tax collector?
Back in the time of Jesus, there were also taxes. The tax collectors would collect the tax from everyone. However, often they took more than they should and would keep the extra money for themselves. Not fair, right? So during Jesus' time, people really didn't like tax collectors. They thought they were like thieves and robbers.
By Distant Shores Media/Sweet Publishing, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18884231
Discussion Questions
Some of the religious leaders were criticizing Jesus for hanging out with tax collectors. If Jesus was good, why would he hang out with bad people? Jesus is telling the story of the prodigal son story to answer that question.
So, what's the answer? Why was Jesus hanging out with the tax collectors?
Game #1 - Tax Collecting
For this activity, you will need 50-100 coins and a six-sided die. If you don't have coins, use something else--be creative. This game needs at least three people. More is better.
SETUP: Choose one person to be the king or queen. Choose one person to be the tax collector. Everyone else is a worker.
The king or queen starts with 5 coins. The tax collector starts with 3 coins. The workers start with 2 coins.
PLAY: Each turn represents a day of work. Every worker earns one coin. Then the tax collector rolls the die and does what it says:
Roll a 1: It's time for the king or queen to have their money. The tax collector gives the queen or king half their money (rounded down).
Roll a 2: It's a religious holiday. Every worker gets to take another coin.
Roll a 3: The tax collector taxes everyone. Every worker must give the tax collector a coin.
Roll a 4: The tax collector taxes everyone. Every worker must give the tax collector two coins.
Roll a 5: The king or queen needs to give food to the army. The king or queen rolls a die. They must return that many coins back to the pile of coins.
Roll a 6: The king or queen must build a road. They must return two coins back to the pile of coins.
If you can't pay everything, don't worry. Just pay as much as you can.
WINNER: Play until you run out of coins to take or ten minutes has gone by, whichever happens first. Whoever has the most coins is the winner!
Discussion Question: What did you learn from this game?