Youth Lessons

This lesson invites students to explore leadership shaped by mercy and grace rather than punishment and control. The icebreaker gets students moving in a playful, low-pressure way that builds awareness and laughter without requiring conversation or competition. After reading the passages from Exodus and Matthew, students discuss how power, forgiveness, and mercy collide in these stories and why Jesus insists that forgiveness remains the way forward. In the activity, students physically experience what it feels like to be restricted, released, and reconnected, discovering through movement that forgiveness is not abstract but something that changes how bodies, relationships, and communities function.

Needed Resources:

Rubber bands (one per student)
Open space large enough for safe movement

Icebreaker: Mirror Move Mayhem (10 Min.)

Have students spread out around the room. Ask them to find a partner and stand facing each other.

Explain that one person begins as the “leader” and starts making slow, exaggerated movements. The other person must mirror the movements as closely as possible. After about thirty seconds, call out, “Switch,” and the roles reverse.

After another round, call out “Mayhem!” Everyone begins moving on their own in silly, exaggerated ways for ten seconds. Call “switch,” then have students find a new partner and repeat once more.

Scripture (5 Min.)

Read Exodus 14:19–31 and Matthew 18:21–35.

Discussion (15 Min.)

How does the Exodus story describe what happens to those who rely on force and fear?
What question does Peter bring to Jesus about forgiveness?
How do you think Jesus’ answer changed what Peter expected?
What patterns do you notice between power in the Exodus story and power in Jesus’ parable?
Why do you think Jesus uses an exaggerated story to talk about forgiveness?
What makes forgiveness feel risky or unrealistic sometimes?
How does leading with grace challenge the way power is usually used?
What might leadership look like if forgiveness were the starting point instead of the exception?

Activity and Discussion: Bound and Released (20 Min.)

Have students stand in a wide circle. Give each student one rubber band. Explain that this activity uses movement to explore how forgiveness affects community.

Round one:

Ask students to pair up and connect their bands loosely to one another, creating small, linked groups.
Invite them to move together slowly, noticing how cooperation becomes necessary.

Round two:

Ask students to get in a circle and connect their bands to the person next to them until the entire group is bound together.
Invite them to move together slowly, noticing how cooperation becomes even more necessary.

Round three:

Invite students to remove the bands entirely and move freely around the room.
Ask them to notice what feels different in their bodies and pace.

Gather the group back together and explain that forgiveness is not about forgetting harm, but about releasing what binds us so that community can move again.

Reflection Questions

What did you notice about how your movement changed in each round?
When did movement feel hardest or easiest, and why?
How does this experience help you understand forgiveness as something that affects more than just feelings?

Close in a manner that is consistent with your group’s practice.