For the parent: Read each part aloud and work through the questions together. Your answers are printed in blue italics, so no preparation is needed. Your child uses the Student Edition.
Step 1 · Understand the Collect
Most collects follow a five-part pattern: the address (the One to whom we pray), the reason (what God has done or promised), the petition (what we ask), the purpose (what we hope will result), and the ending (the closing that names the Trinity).
Almighty God, our Father, Your blessed Son called Luke the physician to be an evangelist and physician of the soul. Grant that the healing medicine of the Gospel and the Sacraments may put to flight the diseases of our souls that with willing hearts we may ever love and serve You; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
1. Mark each part of the collect. What is unusual about the purpose? Answer: Address: "Almighty God, our Father." Reason: "Your blessed Son called Luke the physician to be an evangelist and physician of the soul." Petition: "Grant." Purpose: "that the healing medicine of the Gospel and the Sacraments may put to flight the diseases of our souls that with willing hearts we may ever love and serve You." Ending: "through Jesus Christ..." All five are present, and the purpose comes in two layers: first healing, then willing service.
2. What are "the diseases of our souls," and what is the medicine? Answer: Sin and what it does to us: guilt, unbelief, fear, and hard hearts. The medicine is the Gospel and the Sacraments.
3. Why does healing come before "willing hearts... love and serve" in the collect? Answer: Service flows from healing. God does not heal us because we serve Him; He heals us, and forgiven people are made willing to serve.
Step 2 · Understand the Gospel
Read the Gospel on your own.
Luke 10:1-9
1 After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go. 2 And he said to them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. 3 Go your way; behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. 4 Carry no moneybag, no knapsack, no sandals, and greet no one on the road.
5 Whatever house you enter, first say, 'Peace be to this house!' 6 And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him. But if not, it will return to you. 7 And remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for the laborer deserves his wages. Do not go from house to house. 8 Whenever you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you. 9 Heal the sick in it and say to them, 'The kingdom of God has come near to you.'"
1. Why did Jesus send them "two by two" (v. 1)? Answer: For support, and so that their testimony would be confirmed by two witnesses (Deuteronomy 19:15).
2. "Lambs in the midst of wolves" (v. 3). What does Jesus warn them about? Answer: They will be defenseless and will meet hostility. They must depend on the Lord who sends them.
3. Why were they to carry no moneybag or knapsack (v. 4)? Answer: To depend on God and on the hospitality of those who received them. The work was urgent, and the message was not for profit.
4. Why does Jesus say, "The laborer deserves his wages" (v. 7)? Answer: Those who preach the Gospel should be supported by those they serve. Paul quotes these words in 1 Timothy 5:18, and they appear in the Small Catechism's Table of Duties.
Step 3 · Find the Collect in the Gospel
1. Find at least two places where the collect's words appear in the Gospel. Explain each one. Answer: "Physician of the soul" matches "Heal the sick" (v. 9). "The healing medicine of the Gospel" matches "The kingdom of God has come near to you" (v. 9) and "Peace be to this house" (v. 5). "Your blessed Son called Luke" matches the Lord appointing and sending the seventy-two (v. 1). "Willing hearts... serve" matches the laborers in the harvest (v. 2). Any two, well explained, are enough.
2. In today's Epistle, Paul writes from prison, "Luke alone is with me" (2 Timothy 4:11). How did Luke live out Jesus' words in Luke 10? Answer: Luke was a faithful laborer who stayed when others left. Like a lamb among wolves, he stood by Paul and the Gospel at great risk.
Step 4 · The Small Catechism
The Second Petition. Thy kingdom come. What does this mean? The kingdom of God certainly comes by itself without our prayer, but we pray in this petition that it may come to us also. How does God's kingdom come? God's kingdom comes when our heavenly Father gives us His Holy Spirit, so that by His grace we believe His holy Word and lead godly lives here in time and there in eternity.
Cross-reference. "Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy." (Isaiah 35:5-6)
1. Luther says the kingdom "comes by itself without our prayer." Yet Jesus tells His workers to pray for more laborers (v. 2). Why pray? Answer: God works through means, and He has commanded us to pray. We pray that the kingdom would come to us and to others, and God answers by sending laborers.
2. According to Luther, how does the kingdom come? Where do you see that in Luke 10? Answer: The Father gives His Holy Spirit so that we believe His Word. The seventy-two carry that Word from town to town, and those who receive it receive peace.
3. Isaiah promised healing when God came. What did the healings in Luke 10 announce? Answer: That the King had come. They were signs of His kingdom, pointing ahead to the full healing of the resurrection.
Parent note: the question they may ask. "Why doesn't God heal everybody today, like in the Bible?" God still heals, through medicine (Luke was a doctor) and in answer to prayer, but not always the way we ask. The healings Jesus gave were signs that His kingdom had come near; they were not yet the end of all sickness. That comes at the resurrection, when Isaiah's promise is complete. Until then the Gospel and the Sacraments heal the deepest disease, which is sin.
Step 5 · Wrap It All Up
1. Write a short collect of your own for this day. Use all five parts. Answer: Answers will vary. Example: "Almighty God, You made Luke a physician of souls. Send faithful laborers into Your harvest, that many may hear that Your kingdom has come near and be healed; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen."
Pray today's collect together. Then answer:
2. What does Jesus do for you through His Word and Sacraments? Answer: He heals my soul. He forgives my sins, brings His kingdom to me, and makes me willing to love and serve Him.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible. Small Catechism quotation from Luther’s Small Catechism with Explanation, © Concordia Publishing House.