(5-8 minutes, easy setup)
Learners will participate in a role-play that illustrates how society’s outcasts are frequently treated.
Enlist a volunteer to be the "Outcast" for this activity. Explain that the Outcast cannot speak to or touch anyone and the rest of the learners should do their best to ignore the Outcast. Have the Outcast give you 3 or 4 personal items (such as a phone, purse, Bible) and redistribute each of those items to other learners.
Explain that the Outcast should attempt to get each of the items back from the people who hold them and that each learner who has an item must decide upon specific action that the Outcast must do to retrieve the item (such as kneeling down and begging). Remind everyone that the Outcast cannot speak to or touch anyone. Have the Outcast begin to try to retrieve their items.
After a few minutes of this frustration, ask the Outcast: How did it feel to be ignored or overlooked as if you were unimportant or invisible? How did it feel to be unable to get what you needed because of your “outcast” status? Explain that in today's study, learners will be looking at how Jesus responded to an outcast who had two strikes against him, and how the man expressed his true gratitude to Jesus.