Dear Parents, Jesus had just fed more than 5,000 people on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. After sending away the people and directing His disciples to go back across the sea, Jesus went to a mountain to pray. It was late, and He sought to be alone with His Father. Jesus was preparing to fulfill His Father’s plan. Before long, He would die on the cross and rescue people from their sin. While Jesus prayed, the disciples struggled to cross the sea. A storm came and tossed their boat up and down. They didn’t make any progress against the waves. Then, in the early ...

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Dear Parents, Jesus’ disciples had been working hard, teaching people and healing them. Jesus called them to go away with Him to a desolate place so they could rest. By now, Jesus’ popularity was so great that finding a place to be alone was difficult. When Jesus and His disciples crossed the Sea of Galilee, the crowd of people were already waiting for them on the other side. Jesus saw the crowds. He wasn’t frustrated or angry. He didn’t tell them to go away. Instead, He had compassion on them because they were lost—like sheep without a shepherd. Jesus is ...

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Dear Parents, Jesus’ ministry had begun. He called disciples and traveled to the region of Galilee. Jesus spent His time on earth teaching and performing miracles, preparing for His ultimate mission: to die on the cross for the salvation of sinners. Jesus’ miracles were signs that pointed to greater truths about who Jesus is and why He had come. John 2 records Jesus’ first miracle at a wedding in Cana. Jesus’ mother told Jesus that the wine had run out. Culturally, running out of wine was a big deal. Weddings were important events, and the celebration could ...

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Dear Parents, A couple of days after Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem and the day after He cleansed the temple, Jesus returned to the temple complex and began teaching. The chief priests and elders questioned Jesus. “Who gave You this authority?” they asked. These religious leaders did not want to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. So Jesus told them parables to get them thinking and to teach them about Himself. The parable of the wicked tenants illustrates the story of Israel’s history. As you teach kids, help them connect the story to ...

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Dear Parents, Jesus was making His way to Jerusalem—the place where everything written about the Son of Man would be accomplished. (See Luke 18:31-33.) Jesus moved between towns and villages, teaching Pharisees and scribes, tax collectors and sinners, and His own disciples along the way. Luke 18:9-14 describes a parable Jesus told to a specific group: “to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and looked down on everyone else” (Luke 18:9). The parable presents two men who went up to the temple complex to pray. The first, a Pharisee, was proud ...

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Dear Parents, In Luke 19, Jesus went after Zacchaeus, a chief tax collector. Zacchaeus was not well liked, but his interaction with Jesus led him to repent of his wrongdoing. Jesus said to him, “The Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10). Who is “the lost”? What does it mean to be lost? In Luke 15, Jesus told three parables to the crowd of tax collectors, sinners, Pharisees, and scribes. Jesus’ teaching brought gospel truth to the tax collectors and sinners—those whose unrighteousness separated them from God—and to the Pharisees ...

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Dear Parents, Jesus was meeting with His followers when an expert in the Law of Moses stood up and asked Him a question. “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus pointed Him to the Scriptures, which say, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” (See Deut. 6:5; Lev. 19:18.) Then the lawyer asked, “Who is my neighbor?” Rather than give a list of whom the man should love, Jesus responded with a parable about a man in need. The priest and Levite—...

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