*bunch of grapes still on the vine, crayons and paper (possibly a pic of vineyards from Wikipedia)
Matthew 21:33-46
set out a bunch of grapes. ask kids where grapes come from. Have them take it off the stem/vine. Now ask them to get out a crayon and to draw what they think the vine that connects to grapes looks like (you may want to Wiki grape vineyard, for them to get an image in their heads).
Now, listen to this story that Jesus tells a crowd on the street about growing grapes. Parents, read the following story ahead of time and retell it from memory (of course you can take out some of the PG13 things as needed). To help kids track the story, ask them to draw these five characters first:
An owner of a grape vineyard (farmer).
The renters of the farm
his messengers
The farmer’s son
the new renters
There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watch-tower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, “They will respect my son.” But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, “This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.” So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?’ They said to him, ‘He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.’…
Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom.
Talk about how grapes grow. Review who took care of the grapes in the story. At the end of the story, who gets to taste the good things that the farmer grows? What kind of farmer makes a “good harvest?”
Grapes grow big and strong because they stay connected to their vine, and the farmers help God by making the connections strong. We get to grow big and strong like these grapes because we are connected to the vine. God connects us and makes us grow.