The Lord’s Supper (also called Communion) is a special remembrance celebration often conducted in church meetings. We want kids to have a biblical (rather than an institutional) understanding of the Lord’s Supper so they might partake in it with a proper and growing understanding of it.
The OT Passover celebration was used by Jesus on the night before his death to introduce a new celebration so it is helpful to start here.
What is the Lord’s Supper?
The OT Passover Celebration was an appointed (Lev 23:4-8, Num 9) Israelite festival (also known as the Festival of Unleavened Bread) commemorating the night God rescued Israel from oppression and slavery in Egypt. During this first Passover (Ex 12) the Israelites were instructed to kill and eat a lamb, eaten with bitter herbs and unleavened (without yeast) bread, sprinkling the blood of the lamb on their doorposts so the angel of death would “pass over” their houses and spare their firstborn in God’s final display of power over the Egyptian Pharaoh. Their bread wasn’t going to have time to prove/rise with the yeast since they were to be ready to flee Egypt the next day. Each year when the Israelites celebrated Passover they would again eat lamb and unleavened bread, using the occasion to remember and celebrate God’s plan of salvation. The festivities were to last 7 days in which they would do no work, just remembering and celebrating all God had done for them.
It was during one of these annual Festivals of Unleavened Bread/Passover that Jesus introduced a new food-based act we now call the Lord’s Supper. Matt 26, Mark 14 and Luke 22 all record Jesus celebrating the Passover meal with his 12 disciples.
26 While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.” 27 Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. 28 This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. 29 I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.” Matt 26:26-29
Jesus had already predicted his death and was here again using the bread and wine to portray the death he was about to endure as the sacrificial lamb, God’s wrath poured out on Him and not us so we might be saved.
As Christians we now have a new and better meal to remember and celebrate what God did to save us!
Paul describes (1 Cor 11:17-34) how New Testament Christians were abusing this new celebration by excluding others in it’s observance, getting drunk on the wine, using it to fill their stomachs and celebrating the meal “without discerning the body of Christ”, then goes on to remind the Corinthians its’ purpose in remembering and celebrating Jesus atoning sacrifice.
The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
This passage is often read in church when we have the Lord’s Supper to similarly remind us of the significance of what we are remembering and celebrating.
Aren’t kids too young to celebrate the Lord’s Supper?
This is a common position taken by churches, wanting everyone to have a proper understanding of Jesus’ death and resurrection and the grace it poured out before taking the Lord’s Supper. In this, children are sometimes given a ‘blessing’, reserving the partaking of the bread and wine/juice after such an understanding can be articulated. 1 Cor 7 supports the position that children born into families where one or more parents are saved are also born into God’s kingdom. If these children are part of God’s kingdom then I would not want to rob them of this commemorative experience, rather use it to grow their understanding of salvation through Jesus’ death and resurrection by including them in it. Afterall, we don’t wait for children to be able to articulate the wonderful privilege of prayer before asking them to talk to God, or being able to count to 30 before remembering and celebrating (and eating) someone’s birthday (cake)! Let’s use this wonderful, tangible experience to keep growing wonder in our children of the amazing, costly gift of grace and salvation, helping them remember and celebrate the Lord’s Supper with a biblical understanding of what it is (and is not).
Freedom to Choose
At Hunter Bible Church we understand parents arrive at different conclusions about kids and the Lord’s Supper, and often for different reasons. Let’s have an open and enquiring posture about the decisions of others given this one fits more in the wisdom realm rather than an issue of obedience to scripture.
An important aspect of involving kids and t(w)eens when we have the Lord’s Supper at church is to talk with them about it, using it as an opportunity to help them see God’s unfolding plan of redemption, culminating in Jesus. This discipling can be done either with participation in the Lord’s Supper when we celebrate it as a church family, or with a ‘watch and learn’ posture. Teens who may be in the throws of deciding whether they trust Jesus as their Lord and Saviour can also use these occasions to keep thinking into their faith development. Choosing NOT to participate in communion as a matter of conscience is okay, that’s between God and an individual; in the same way that having the juice and bread doesn’t ‘make someone a Christian’.