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
A collect is a short prayer the pastor prays for the whole church. Here is today's collect:
Almighty and merciful God, of Your bountiful goodness keep from us all things that may hurt us that we, being ready in both body and soul, may cheerfully accomplish whatever You would have us do; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Words to know. Merciful: kind to those who do not deserve it. Bountiful: overflowing and generous. Cheerfully: gladly. Accomplish: do and finish. Paralytic (in the Gospel): a man who could not move his body. Blaspheming: speaking against God.
1. We ask God to keep from us all things that may ______________ us. Answer: Hurt.
2. We ask to be ready in both body and ______________. Answer: Soul.
3. We want to do God's will ______________. Answer: Cheerfully.
Step 2 · Understand the Gospel
Matthew 9:1-8
1 And getting into a boat he crossed over and came to his own city. 2 And behold, some people brought to him a paralytic, lying on a bed. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven." 3 And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, "This man is blaspheming." 4 But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, "Why do you think evil in your hearts? 5 For which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Rise and walk'? 6 But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins"—he then said to the paralytic—"Rise, pick up your bed and go home." 7 And he rose and went home. 8 When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men.
1. Whom did people bring to Jesus? Answer: A paralyzed man lying on a bed (verse 2).
2. What did Jesus say to him first? Answer: "Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven" (verse 2).
3. What did the scribes think? Answer: That Jesus was blaspheming (verse 3).
4. What did the crowds do at the end? Answer: They were afraid, and they glorified God (verse 8).
Step 3 · Find the Collect in the Gospel
Say to your child: Our prayer asks God to keep from us everything that hurts, so that we are ready in body and soul to do His will. In the Gospel, Jesus heals a man's soul and his body, and the man gets up and does what Jesus says. Let's find our prayer in the story.
1. The collect speaks of our soul. What did Jesus do for the man's soul first? Answer: He forgave his sins (verse 2).
2. The collect speaks of our body. What did Jesus do for the man's body? Answer: He healed him so that he could get up and walk (verse 6).
3. The collect asks that we may cheerfully accomplish whatever God would have us do. What did the man do when Jesus told him to rise? Answer: He got up and went home, just as Jesus said (verse 7).
Parent note. Jesus cared for the whole man, body and soul, and He started with the soul. He still forgives sins on earth through the pastor He has called, and that forgiveness is what makes us ready to serve Him gladly.
Step 4 · The Small Catechism
The Office of the Keys. What is the Office of the Keys? The Office of the Keys is that special authority which Christ has given to His church on earth to forgive the sins of repentant sinners, but to withhold forgiveness from the unrepentant as long as they do not repent. Where is this written? This is what St. John the Evangelist writes in chapter twenty: The Lord Jesus breathed on His disciples and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven." (John 20:22-23) What do you believe according to these words? I believe that when the called ministers of Christ deal with us by His divine command, in particular when they exclude openly unrepentant sinners from the Christian congregation and absolve those who repent of their sins and want to do better, this is just as valid and certain, in heaven also, as if Christ our dear Lord dealt with us Himself.
1. What authority has Christ given, according to the catechism? Answer: To forgive the sins of those who repent.
2. When the pastor forgives your sins, how sure can you be? Answer: As sure as if Jesus Himself had said it to me.
Step 5 · Wrap It All Up
Pray today's collect together one more time. Then ask:
1. What does Jesus do for you when the pastor says, "I forgive you all your sins"? Answer: Jesus Himself forgives me. My sins are gone, as surely as the paralyzed man's were.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible. Small Catechism quotation from Luther’s Small Catechism with Explanation, © Concordia Publishing House.