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).
Stir up, O Lord, the wills of Your faithful people that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may by You be plenteously rewarded; 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 order? Answer: Petition: "Stir up... the wills of Your faithful people." Address: "O Lord," placed inside the petition. Purpose: "that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may by You be plenteously rewarded." Ending: "through Jesus Christ..." The reason is missing, and the prayer begins with its request.
2. The collect asks God to stir up our wills. What does that admit about us? Answer: Left to ourselves, our wills are sluggish toward good. Even the desire to do good works must come from God (Philippians 2:13).
3. If God stirs up the will and grows the fruit, how can He also "reward" it? Answer: The reward is grace upon grace. God crowns His own gifts in us. No one earns it, yet God is pleased to honor the fruit He grew.
Step 2 · Understand the Gospel
Read the Gospel on your own.
Matthew 9:18-26
18 While he was saying these things to them, behold, a ruler came in and knelt before him, saying, "My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live." 19 And Jesus rose and followed him, with his disciples. 20 And behold, a woman who had suffered from a discharge of blood for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, 21 for she said to herself, "If I only touch his garment, I will be made well." 22 Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, "Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well." And instantly the woman was made well.
23 And when Jesus came to the ruler's house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion, 24 he said, "Go away, for the girl is not dead but sleeping." And they laughed at him. 25 But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl arose. 26 And the report of this went through all that district.
1. Under the Law, touching a bleeding woman or a dead body made a person unclean (Leviticus 15:25-27; Numbers 19:11). What happens instead when Jesus is touched, and when He touches? Answer: His holiness flows out to them. The woman is made clean and the girl is made alive; their uncleanness does not pass to Him.
2. The woman touched Jesus secretly from behind. Why did He turn and speak to her (v. 22)? Answer: To give her a word of peace, not just a healed body. He calls her "daughter" and restores her openly.
3. Why did Jesus say the girl was "not dead but sleeping" when she truly was dead? Answer: For Jesus, death is like sleep, because He is about to wake her. He speaks from His own power over death.
4. Why did the mourners laugh (v. 24)? Answer: They knew she was dead and could not imagine anything else. Unbelief laughs at God's promise, then and now.
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: "Stir up... the wills" matches the ruler, who comes and kneels (v. 18), and the woman, who reaches out to touch (vv. 20-21). "Plenteously rewarded" matches the woman made well "instantly" and called "daughter" (v. 22) and the girl raised (v. 25). "Faithful people" matches "your faith has made you well" (v. 22). Any two, well explained, are enough.
2. Today's Epistle prays that we would be "bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God" (Colossians 1:10). Where does that fruit come from, according to Colossians 1:13-14? Answer: From God's rescue: "He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son." Fruit grows in those whom God has already redeemed and forgiven.
Step 4 · The Small Catechism
The Seventh Petition. But deliver us from evil. What does this mean? We pray in this petition, in summary, that our Father in heaven would rescue us from every evil of body and soul, possessions and reputation, and finally, when our last hour comes, give us a blessed end, and graciously take us from this valley of sorrow to Himself in heaven.
Cross-reference. "But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep." (1 Thessalonians 4:13-14)
1. Luther asks God to rescue us "from every evil of body and soul." Which evils does Jesus rescue from in Matthew 9? Answer: Of the body: sickness and death. Of the soul: shame, fear, and uncleanness.
2. Why does Scripture call a Christian's death "sleep" (1 Thessalonians 4:13-14)? Answer: Jesus died and rose again, and He will raise those who belong to Him. Death is not the end for them.
3. Does calling death "sleep" mean Christians do not grieve? Answer: No. We grieve, but "not as others do who have no hope." Jesus Himself wept at a friend's grave (John 11:35).
Parent note: the question they may ask. "What happens when a Christian dies? Is he just asleep?" The body rests in the grave until the resurrection, but the soul is with Christ at once (Philippians 1:23; Luke 23:43). "Sleep" describes death from God's side: something from which He will surely wake us.
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: "Lord Jesus, You raised the ruler's daughter and healed the woman who touched You. Stir up our faith to come to You, that we may bear good fruit and rest in Your gifts; for You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen."
Pray today's collect together. Then answer:
2. What does Jesus do for you against sin and death? Answer: He forgives my sins and sets me free. When I die, He will take me to Himself, and on the Last Day He will wake me as He woke the girl.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible. Small Catechism quotation from Luther’s Small Catechism with Explanation, © Concordia Publishing House.