Pooh's Think - Volume 18, Issue 1

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The Family Table

Randy Booth

Welcome to our worship service. We are delighted to have you visit with us today. During the communion service you will notice that entire families partake of the bread and the wine, including the little children. Allow us to explain why we think this is consistent with what the Bible teaches and to point out some of the benefits of having our children participate in this covenant meal.

Jesus referred to His disciples saying, "Little children, yet a little while I am with you" (Jn. 13:33). Indeed, our Lord explicitly requires that even adults must become like little children to enter His kingdom (Matt. 18:2-4). Then there is the other sense in which we speak of "little children," i.e., in reference to infants or toddlers. As baptized members of the church, they too have been engrafted into the Body of Christ and are included in the active worship of God.

Little children are sponges when it comes to soaking up new information. Even when they seem not to be paying attention, the youngest of children often surprise us when we hear them recite the very thing we thought had passed them by (sometimes to our delight or chagrin). By the time my granddaughter, Sophie, was twenty months old, she would eagerly tell anyone that the bread was "the body of Christ," and the wine was "the blood of Christ." From the moment a child is born (or perhaps even before that), parents begin to teach their children by speaking, singing and living out before them a Christian life. They are part of the covenant relationship our households have with God. While very young children cannot articulate immediately all that we impart to them, this does not cause us to stop teaching them. Our children are learning that these are the things God's people do; they are learning that they are counted among the people of God.

Worship is one of the chief obligations of all God's creatures. While we teach our children to walk and talk, we diligently teach them the Scriptures and how they should worship God when they "sit in their house," when they "walk in the way," when they "lie down," or when they "rise up" (Deut. 6:6-7). In 2 Timothy 3:15, the apostle Paul writes to Timothy saying, "and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus." The Greek word for "childhood" in this text is the word used to describe a "nursing babe." No doubt, the infant Timothy heard the Word of God from the mouths of his faithful mother Eunice and his grandmother Lois from the time he was born.

Jesus was thankful that truth is revealed even to the immature: "In that hour Jesus rejoiced in the Spirit and said, `I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight' " (Lk. 10:21). God teaches us that He communicates with and receives praise even from very young children. In fact, we read the prophecy in Psalm 8:2 that this would be the case—a prophecy that was fulfilled in Matthew 21:15_16: "But when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that He did, and the children crying out in the temple and saying, `Hosanna to the Son of David!' they were indignant and said to Him, `Do You hear what these are saying?' And Jesus said to them, `Yes. Have you never read, "Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have perfected praise?"'" We cannot not dismiss the fact that there are mysteries in the ways of God, and that the Spirit, like the wind, "blows where it wishes" (Jn. 3:8).

The Bible is clear that all of God's covenant promises belong to "you and your children." Covenant children are members of the covenant community and are entitled to its benefits. Just as circumcision was an advantage for Jews—"much in every way" (Rom. 3:2)—so too, those who have received the covenant sign and seal of baptism have all the covenant privileges. You will notice how enthusiastically these little ones receive the meal. Toddlers may not remember the day of their baptism, but they surely know that every Lord's Day they belong to the faithful—not on the basis of what they have done, but on the basis of what He has done and on the basis of who they are in Him—and will eat the meal of blessing with all the congregation. Their parents have taught them, and continue to teach them, what this means, and that they are indeed a part of God's people. Their baptism is not an empty symbol; it means that they belong, that they are not wandering for fourteen years in the wilderness, not whiling away the weeks in an earthly Presbyterian Purgatory, waiting to pass an exam to earn them full admittance to this institution supposedly founded on grace alone.

Young children were admitted to the sacramental meals of the Old Covenant. Preeminent among the feasts was the Passover, which was the meal that signified God's deliverance or salvation. As the blood of the Passover lamb was applied to the doorposts and lintels, entire households were spared the judgment of God, including (especially!) the children. The Passover meal commemorates this redemptive mercy of God. As the household participates in the Passover meal, the Bible tells us to expect a question from the children: "What do you mean by this service?" (Exod. 12:26). The meal is designed to be the occasion for instruction concerning the grace of the Lord—a rehearsal of God's salvation. This weekly memorial teaches them who God is and what He has done, and thus leads to the worship of the God who made them and calls them to Himself.

The Lord's Supper is the New Covenant counterpart to the Passover. It points to the Lamb of God—"Christ, our Passover"—who shed His blood for His people to deliver them from their sins. If godly parents instruct their children well, then they discern the body—they know what is going on. By faith we receive God's promises, which are given to us and our children, and thus the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper are likewise received with great joy by us and our children.

Randy Booth is the minister of Grace Reformed Church (CREC) in Nacogdoches, TX. He also serves as the moderator of the CREC Council.