Heidelbergian Children's Catechism (age 8- 10 years)
Lord's Day 6
We are speaking about Jesus Christ. What did he come to do? It is recess, and the grade six students go outside to play. Pete stays behind to look for the pen he lost. When he has found it, he, too, goes outside. When c1ass resumes, a dirty word is written on the blackboard. Who did that? Peter, of course, for he had stayed behind. The teacher calls him to come forward: “Peter, wipe out that stuff you wrote!” Only then does Pete notice that something is written on the blackboard. He says:”But I did not write that, sir:’ “You said you were looking for your pen;’ the teacher says. “Good try! Wipe that out!” Children’s Catechism
Then Keith raises his hand. “Sir, I know for sure that Pete did not do that. Someone else did. But I’d rather not say.” The teacher believes Keith, and Pete does not come forward to clean the blackboard. Why not? Because Keith mediated between the teacher and Pete. You could say: Keith came between the teacher and Pete to make peace. He was a mediator. Mediators come between two parties who disagree, and make peace. Jesus Christ is a Mediator. For he came to bring about peace between God and us. How do we know that? From the Bibie, of course. The Bible tells us what God did for us.rou can see the work of Christ in the sacrifices brought in the temple of Israel. And you can read what the prophets said about his work. That is sometimes somewhat hard to understand. That is why we should always read the Bible, all our lives. I’ll tell you a story. The neighbours have rats coming into the house. Something must be wrong with the sewer; otherwise they would not be there.You can hear them, and droppings are all over the place. But the neighbour is scared of rats. She is going crazy! Her friend tells her to call the rat catcher. While she is calling him, she sees a rat scurrying through the kitchen. She panics and cries out to the rat catcher: “Please help me. Save me from the rats!” The rat catcher comes, and rids the house of the rats. Our neighbour is no longer in misery. She feels she has been saved. The Catechism uses the same words: being in misery, being saved. Misery means that we are stuck with our sins. And salvation means that we do not suffer the punishment we deserve because of our sins. Just as our neighbour was saved from the rats, so God’s children are saved from the punishment we deserve. You too! But that does not happen easily. More about that next time.