Including the Children

As we have made clear, all who are baptized are welcome to this Table.  And this of course means that all baptized children are welcome.  All who are bread get bread.  Young children should have the Supper explained to them by their parents in preparation for partaking and even while partaking of the Supper, and they should attend to what is being said.

You see, we are not requiring that all who partake be able to explain the Supper before they may partake – rather we are requiring that all are having the Supper explained to them – this the bread, this is wine, this is Jesus, this is His body.  We feed covenant children the bread and wine in much the same way that we begin speaking English to them after they are born – not because they understand it, but rather in order that they might come to understand it.

Communion is not a higher level class of Christianity – something for those who have completed Christianity 101.  Communion is the class – it is the lab, if you will, where we come to understand as we are nourished each Lord’s Day by the Great Teacher Himself.