No Passive Participants

As you know, our church allows baptized covenant children to participate in the Lord’s Supper, a practice called paedocommunion or child communion. One of the various defenses of this practice comes from the first Passover celebration in Exodus where children most certainly were present. There we read that “all the congregation of Israel” participated and that each “household” acquired a lamb for themselves or joined with a neighboring family (Ex. 12).

In preparation for the meal, Moses tells the parents that their children will ask of them, “What do you mean by this service?” And the answer to be given was, “It is the Passover sacrifice of the Lord, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when He struck down the Egyptians and delivered our households" (Ex. 12:27).

This is one aspect of their observance that we ought to imitate as well. Children are not to be passive participants in this sacrament, receiving the bread and wine merely as some kind of routine church snack. Rather, according to our church’s formal teaching on the matter in our Constitution, children are to be instructed each week regarding what this all means. 

In order to do this, one of the first things you can do with your youngest when we come to this time in the service is ask them if they are baptized, teaching them to answer yes with a cute pat on their head. As they get a little older, you might simply remind them that this is Christ’s body and blood, given for them. And at some point they will just hear and understand my words as you do for your weekly instruction. 

And so then, let’s ask the question, what do we mean by this service? It is the Passover sacrifice of Jesus our Lord, who covered our sin in His blood, as He struck down Satan and delivered our households.  

So come, and welcome, to Jesus Christ.

—

Lord's Day, Sept. 15, AD 2024
King's Cross Church, Moscow, Idaho