The Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) Sunday School Lesson and Activities for Kids

Use this Good Samaritan Sunday school lesson from Luke 10:25-37 with elementary kids, kindergarten through 6th grade, in Sunday school or children’s church. It has opening games, the parable to read and talk through, a children’s sermon object lesson, coloring pages and crafts. Who does God call us to love? What does it mean to be a “neighbor”? The parable of the Good Samaritan shows that we are to love and care for others. As a natural outpouring of our gratitude to Christ, we pass along His love to the people He created. It’s easy to be kind to those who are nice back to us, but “loving our neighbor” means all people, even those who are tougher to get along with!

Lesson focus: In this lesson, students will experience the Parable of the Good Samaritan and contemplate what it means to us. In the story, Jesus is the Samaritan, giving His life for us and caring for all of our needs. Out of gratitude for His sacrifice, we can care for one another. The “neighbor” God wants us to love is not just the person next door, but everyone who is made in the Lord’s image…that’s all people!

Love Your Neighbor: Sunday School Lesson and Bible Activities for Kids from the Parable of the Good Samaritan from Luke 10:25-37

Scripture Passage: Luke 10:25-37

Target Students: Elementary School, adaptable for K-6^th Grades

Teaching Materials Needed: Construction paper, decorative materials, paper bags, glue, band-aids, snacks, scissors, Bible (all optional, depending which activities you choose to use—except for the Bible, you need that for sure).

Additional Bible Teaching Activities on the Parable of the Good Samaritan

• Watch the video for this children’s sermon lesson, and Bible craft activities based on Luke 10:25-37
• Compare our Good Samaritan Sunday school Lesson with Love Your Neighbor Biblical Lesson for Children
• Our Children’s Sermon On the Parable of the Good Samaritan
• All children’s ministry activities are available on Luke 10:25-37
• More Bible Verses about the Parable of the Good Samaritan
• Check out the Mission Bible Class free teaching activities on The Good Samaritan
• See the new Bible Bites Curriculum on the Parables of Jesus

Game Activities to Introduce the Bible Lesson

Lesson Opening: This lesson features an element of caretaking and healing, as well as love and how to demonstrate it. Open with some components from the parable.

Here are some activities to get kids thinking…(select the best ones for your audience and age group): 

• Discuss what people around us need. For older students, look at articles or elements of poverty and need in the world. Are there ways that we can help people who don’t have enough?
• Care-taker relay: line students up in groups. Designate one child from each team to be the “hurt” person, and have other students run back and forth relay-style, taking turns to place band-aids on the “hurt” player. Race to see which team finishes first.
• “Heart repair”…draw a large heart on a white board or paper. Have students take turns running to the heart and writing ideas to help people. This could also turn into a relay race, if desired.
• Helper charades: have students come before the group and act out given items, demonstrating methods of helping people. Have other students guess the actions or jobs that are being mimed. This could also be done with illustrations, Pictionary style.
• What’s the message? Travel a phrase or word, playing the game of Telephone around the room to practice helpful communication.

Explain that today’s story is about loving people, and who God calls us to love. The most important thing we can do in life is love and serve the Lord and His people. 

Ask: How do you show love for others? Who do you love most? Who is it harder to love and care for?

Children’s Sermon Object Lesson: Jesus’ Parable of the Good Samaritan

This children’s sermon object lesson can be used in your kids church to teach about the Parable of the Good Samaritan. This powerful moral lesson is presented by Jesus in a story that both children and adults can understand. God calls us to love our neighbor and to do good to all who need our help. Get your object lesson props and prepare to preach this sermon to children in your congregation.

Lesson Objective The parable of Good Samaritan reminds that Christ wants us all to love and care about others. This message will remind students about the importance of caring for others. To illustrate why we should be kind to everyone, not just those we love the most, use the example of a balanced meal.

Get the supplies and steps for this object lesson on the Parable of the Good Samaritan children’s sermon object lesson (Luke 10:25-37).

Bible Coloring Page Worksheet: Jesus’ Parable of Good Samaritan

Sunday School Lesson for Kids (Luke 10:25-37)
The Parable of the Good Samaritan

Bible Lesson:  As always, how you choose to experience the passages will vary according to the ages and abilities of your children (and how many are participating). This story is a fun one to act out, either with puppets or with students taking on roles. It can even be fun to enlist a teacher as a “donkey” to carry the hurt man!

Open up with the exposition of the parable. Someone came to Jesus to try tricking Him, asking what was required to go to Heaven. The answer Jesus gave surprised the people…

25 One day an expert in the law stood up to test Him. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

26 “What is written in the Law?” Jesus replied. “How do you read it?”

27 He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’ and ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus said. “Do this and you will live.” -Luke 10:25-28 (BSB)

This might sound simple, but it wasn’t enough for the questioners. The people had heard Jesus tell them before how important it was to love God and love others. But how far should that go, they wondered…

Explore: You can cross reference this with the “Great Commandment” in Matthew 22.

29 But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

30 Jesus took up this question and said, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a priest was going down the same road, but when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, when a Levite came to that spot and saw him, he passed by on the other side. -Luke 10:29-32 (BSB)

In the opening to this parable, Jesus set up a story of a man traveling, who was beaten and left for dead. That ought to arouse the sympathy of anyone, but not the first two men in the story! The church workers (explain, if helpful, what a priest and a Levite were) should have been the most likely to help someone in need, but they didn’t even get close to the hurt man. They passed by on the other side of the road!

Ask: What do you do when you see someone who is asking for help or needs help? If you see a person begging on the street, how does it make you feel?

Continue the story… 

33 But a Samaritan on a journey came upon him, and when he saw him, he had compassion. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Take care of him,’ he said, ‘and on my return I will repay you for any additional expense.’ -Luke 10:33-35 (BSB)

Explain that a Samaritan would not have been well-liked by the Jews. Samaritans were seen as outsiders, not believing all the same things as the Jews, and in a sense heretics or cult-like. The Samaritan would have been the least likely to help. Instead, he stopped, bandaged the man, and took him to be taken care of. 
Jesus was actually our Samaritan. He was not liked by the church leaders, but He gave His life for us, sacrificing all of Himself so that we could live. He wants us to love and serve others, and used this parable to explain to people what it means to have mercy.

36 Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

37 “The one who showed him mercy,” replied the expert in the law.

Then Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.” -Luke 10:36-37 (BSB)

This doesn’t leave much room for debate from the original question the people had asked. “Neighbor” doesn’t just apply to those close to us, but to all of God’s people. The least likely need love and attention. We demonstrate our love and gratitude to the Lord by caring for His people.

Ask: How can we show people we care about them? Why is this important to God? 

Close with a prayer thanking God for loving and saving us. Ask for His help in demonstrating care and in being kind to others, even those who are harder to love. Ask for opportunities to serve and patience to genuinely love all people.  

What Does the Good Samaritan Teach Kids? (Luke 10:25-37)

The parable teaches that your neighbor is anyone in need, and that loving a neighbor means helping with what you have. Jesus ends it with, “Go and do likewise” (Luke 10:37, BSB).

1. A neighbor is the person who needs help. The priest and the Levite passed by on the other side. The Samaritan stopped (Luke 10:31-33).
2. Love takes action. He bandaged the man’s wounds, took him to an inn, and paid the innkeeper two denarii (Luke 10:34-35).
3. Love reaches across dividing lines. Jesus made a Samaritan the hero of the story. “Jews do not associate with Samaritans” (John 4:9, BSB).

No child loves this well every day, and neither do adults. Jesus did what we cannot do: “God proves His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8, BSB). Kids can trust Him, and they can love others because He first loved us (1 John 4:19).

Sunday School Craft Activities: Luke 10:25-37

Crafts: Crafts accompanying the parable of the Good Samaritan can focus on ways that we love and serve others, and can also be small cards or gifts to be given. Consider one of these options:

• Make a series of puppet (popsicle stick puppets, paper bag or paper plate, etc.) to re-tell the story in an interactive way.
• Create a “goodie bag” of special items in a decorative bag, to be given to someone who might need encouragement or love.
• Make a decoration reminder of how to love and serve others, tracing a hand inside a heart and adorning with captions and notes of ways to love people.