A Spiritual Lesson in Toon Language: Lesson 6a
Topic: Love and Friendship Part I - What Love And Friendship Isn't
Series: Tiny Toon Adventures
Episode: "Rent-A-Friend"
Lesson PDF link: 6a.pdf
Introduction
Fun Fact: This lesson set is the first original multipart lesson.
I use the Tiny Toon Adventures episode "Rent A Friend". This covers some of the scriptures on Judas Iscariot. We are comparing the cartoon villain who is Montana Max to Judas. We are discussing the similarities of their stories' end (cartoon to Bible).
Scriptures used include Mathew 26: 14-16, 47-68 and 27: 1-10.
Think of your best friend in the whole wide world. How did you meet this friend? Was this friendship forged on lies, anger, or plain being mean? Or, was this friendship built on same interests and hobbies, liking each other's company, and being able to be oneself? Pay special attention to this cartoon because we will refer to it in the future sections of this series.
I am going to show a Tiny Toon Adventures episode called "Rent-A-Friend".
Tiny Toon Adventures: "Rent-A-Friend"
Was Montana a friend? What did he do to his 'friends'? What did he do to try to keep these friends? Do you think that he would change his mind about being mean?
Bible Study I: Read Mathew 26: 14-16, 47-68 (The Story of Judas Iscariot)
Was Judas and the soldiers he brought being friends of Jesus? In our cartoon, Montana had to rent his friends.
Can you see why? This should be a clue that there is something wrong here. Eventually even his money couldn't stop Montana from being lonely. Without a friend to talk to, all of us would be downright lonely. Money does not buy friendship. Some people may think it does. Nothing can buy true friendship.
Judas agreed to betray Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. Do you think Judas had many friends after his greed caused him to sell Jesus out to the soldiers? Now, do you think that being mean makes or keeps many friends? I bet Judas was real lonely at this time. Unfortunately Judas's story ends badly.
Bible Study II: Read Matthew 27: 1-10
Judas hanged himself out of remorse. He perhaps felt like he did something unforgivable. He probably thought the other disciples would never forgive him, nor maybe even God. Do you see the correlation between Montana and Judas? Montana because he was mean became lonely, hurt, and friendless. Judas, because of his betrayal, very well perhaps lost all of his friends as well (except our Lord Jesus Christ) because of the lack of fellowship it perhaps or even likely caused (based on general scriptures in the four Gospels of the New Testament, Jesus's disciples usually weren't very good at receiving and putting into practice Jesus's teachings because of discipline or faith issues until they were more seasoned disciples). Judas might not have even been able to 'Rent-A-Friend' if unforgiving people knew what he had done.
What have you learned from our story? Have you been mean or nasty to someone? What was the person's reaction when you did it?
Next time, we are going to look more into what friendship is, not what it isn't.