Helping Children Understand The Lords Supper

By Dalton Vann

For Brady and Kaylen

Forward
At the age of three, my son began asking many questions about Communion and was very taken with the death of Jesus. We had explained to him that we took communion to remember Jesus and His death. It became necessary for me to explain how the bread and juice were connected with the body and blood of Christ as the boy grew. My son was concerned that he would need to go through the same things that Jesuss body did on the cross. So I also had to explain the concept of substitution (propitiation) to a three-year-old. The words I used and the story I told were simple and incomplete but enough to set things straight in his little mind for now. Knowing there was more explaining to be done and questions to be answered my children grow, I tried to plan out the lessons based upon the aptitude of the child as they mature. Un-highlighted text: ages 3-6 Yellow highlight: ages 5-7 Orange highlight: ages 6-9 Children mature and are able to grasp these concepts at different rates, as their training and aptitude grants them. The ages above are guidelines. Your child may be ready for the next level at a different time than others. The lessons of this book assume the child has been in Sunday school and is familiar with God, Jesus and worship. Even if they do not understand the meaning of worship or the spiritual aspects of deity, their familiarity with the terminology should be enough at this stage. Lastly, by its nature, the symbolism of the communion evokes images of blood and bodily harm. This is not a subject easily broached with many adults in our culture, let alone children. Historically, death and butchering of animals for food and other purposes has been the rule and even children were familiar with the blood associated with bodies. This helped past cultures understand the significance of the blood and body of Christ. Parents today must help their children to become familiar with these things in a respectful way that is appropriate for their maturity and experience. Images within this book are purposefully vague but are illustrative enough for discussion of the blood and body of Christ. Dalton Vann

God is our maker and Father. He loves us and all people everywhere like our Mommy or Daddy love us. God is amazing and wonderful. He is perfect love and goodness and justice all at the same time. Justice means standing for what is right and doing what is deserved1,

Justice can be hard to explain so it may require a bit more discussion. By definition: acting or being in conformity with what is morally upright or good (righteous); being what is merited (deserved); legally correct (lawful). Provide examples of punishment for something bad, like stealing or not sharing.

In the beginning, God taught man to obey Him2.

2. Gen 2:16-17 And Jehovah God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: (17) but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

But people did not want to obey God. Disobedience is when we do things that God does not like. These are bad things. Because God is good and holy3, He does not want us to do bad things. He hates the bad things but he loves us. The bad things we do are called sin. The consequence of sin is eternal separation from God.5 But God gave us a way to be forgiving for our sins.

3. You may need to discuss what holy means. Dedicated to or completely good. Set apart from everything else. 4. Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

God sent Jesus to forgive us from sin. Jesus is God. Jesus came to earth as a man and taught people how to love and obey God.

Some people did not like the message that Jesus taught. Some people misunderstood what He said and others were bad people that wanted to kill Jesus. Jesus allowed Himself to be killed by those people.

The way they killed Jesus was by hanging His body on a cross. They did that by nailing His hands and feet to the wooden cross and His blood came out. They put a crown made of sharp thorns on His head and blood came out of His head. They pierced his side with a spear and blood poured out. Jesus died on the cross for our sins. He was buried and came back to life on His own three days later to show that He is God.

Jesus never sinned so His blood is perfect and it washes away our sins. When Jesus gave Himself to die on the cross, he took our place. He bore the punishment that we deserve because God demands justice. But God sent Jesus to take our place because He loves us so much. He gave us a way out of the punishment for our sins5. When we believe in Jesus and obey God, He is very happy with us. His sacrifice6 takes away our sins so we are justified7.

5. See Romans 3:21-26 6. Hebrews 9:22 says, "Without shedding of blood there is no remission." I John 1:7 tells us that "The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin." 7. Just-as-if-Id never sinned - To be free of penalty or blame.

We remember the sacrifice8 that Jesus made for us every Sunday by taking the Lords Supper. We also call it communion. It is flat bread or a cracker and grape juice, also called fruit of the vine.

Jesus gave His disciples the example of what to do. Jesus said, when you eat the bread and drink the cup, you remember Him9.

8. For more on helping children understand the importance of sacrifice, see the Afterward. 9. 1 Corinthians 11:24-26 and when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, This is my body, which is for you: this do in remembrance of me. (25) In like manner also the cup, after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood: this do, as often as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. (26) For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink the cup, ye proclaim the Lord's death till he come.

Communion Helps Us Worship

By eating and drinking the bread and the juice every Sunday10 it helps us to think about what Jesus did for us and the love God has. Because God is love, He wants us to live with Him and gave us a way to be forgiven of our sins. Because he is just, the body and blood of Jesus took our place and satisfied Gods justice. That is why the Lords Supper is so special and such an important part of worship.

10. Came together on the first day of the week to break bread. Act 20:7 EMTV Now on the first day of the week, the disciples being assembled to break bread, Paul was discussing with them, being about to leave on the next day, and extended his message until midnight. Breaking of bread is communion: 1Co 10:16 EMTV The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?

The bread and the juice are not the actual body and blood of Jesus. They are symbols. A symbol often represents something we cant see. Like in a traffic light, red is the symbol for stop and green is the symbol for go.

After we are baptized, then we can take the Lords Supper too and be thankful for Gods love for us. The bread and the juice bring back the memory of Christs body and blood when He died on the cross. It is a time for us to pray to God and worship Him in a very special way that He asked us to do.

If you are not a Christian and you eat the bread and drink the juice, it will not mean much to you. So it is best not to take the bread or juice until you become a Christian11. The purpose of the Lords Supper is to remember the sacrifice of Jesus and what that means for you. So if you cant do that, you should not take communion12. But when you are old enough, it will be a special time!

Afterward: Sacrifice (Why did Jesus die?) God explained to His people how to worship Him. People offered sacrifices to God and many of those sacrifices were animals. The animals died and their blood poured out to teach the people. They were a reminder that that when we disobey God, the punishment we deserve is death. This is because God is just and cannot be around sin. God said without the pouring out of blood, there is no forgiveness for our sins (Hebrews 9:22). The thought of blood may be difficult but it is important. You see, life is in the blood (Leviticus 17:11). Jesus came to earth to give people a perfect sacrifice in the place of animals Himself. His sacrifice was perfect because even though He experienced life like we do, He did not sin. Because He was the perfect sacrifice, His blood gives us the opportunity for eternal life. (See John 6:32-68) Eternal life is in His blood and His the sacrifice of His body removed the separation between us and God (Heb 10:20). His body and His blood did something that the sacrifices of animals could not do. The animal sacrifices reminded us of the consequences of sin but when Jesus sacrificed Himself, He took our place. We dont have animal sacrifices any more. Now we live our lives as sacrifices to God by trying to please Him through obedience and by showing others love (2 Samuel 15:22). Read Hebrews 9 and 10 and Romans 3 through 6 for more on this topic.

Afterward: Baptism and Repentance When we are old enough to understand all of these things then we can believe and be baptized (Mark 16:16). Before we are baptized, we must repent for our sins (Acts 2:38). To repent is to be sorry for the bad things we have done and to turn away from them.1 Baptism means to be lowered into the water and pulled out again. This is a symbol, like Jesus being buried after He died and then arose2 because He came back to life. Only God can do that.

To become a Christian means that you have heard Gods Word (Romans 10:17), believe that Jesus is the Son of God (John 8:24), repented for your sins (Luke 13:3), confessed that you have sinned (Matthew 10:32), and have been baptized for the forgiveness of sins (I Peter 3:21). 2 Make hand motion of laying flat (burial) and standing up (rising from the dead).