Eucharist. Lord’s Supper. Communion. It can be a bit confusing even for us adults. What does it mean, exactly? Why do we take it? What should we think about when doing so? How does the Passover meal play into this? Isn’t it a bit odd to imagine us eating Christ’s body and drinking His blood? So many questions, so many ideas. While we won’t be diving into all of this here, it is important that we introduce our children to this significant event.
In an effort to help our littles understand this event-packed, theologically dense week, we here at Play Eat Grow are sharing devotionals centered on Passion Week that can help you show your children what Jesus did and endured so that we could have a relationship with the Father. Each Friday up until Good Friday, we will hit one event during the Passion Week. Here’s what we have planned:
You can find the passages describing the Last Supper in Matthew 26:17-30, Mark 14:12-25, and Luke 22:7-20. I decided to use the Luke passage because I wanted to focus on the meaning of the bread and wine and not deal with Judas’ betrayal right now with my 3 and 4 year old.
There are a lot of important things going on in this passage, but I chose to focus on just one thing. I found that if I present too many themes or strands, preschooler minds sometimes get a bit confused or they just check out. The beauty of living and teaching the liturgical year is that each year, we revisit the same stories. And each year we can add one thing to the children’s’ understanding of the passage.
Because this is the first year that we’ve talked about it very intentionally, we focused on verses 19 and 20.
To set up, I set the table, dimmed the lights, and lit some candles (since the meal took place at night). I placed some saltine crackers (it’s too early to buy unleavened bread from our supermarket), and some grape juice on the table.
Me: This is a story of a very important event in the last days before Jesus died on the cross and was raised from the dead. The Passover was an important meal in Jesus’ day. Can you think of an important day that we celebrate in America that includes an important meal? It comes before Christmas?
Me: Yep. That’s right! What kinds of foods do we eat on Thanksgiving? During this holiday, Passover, people met together to celebrate the time long ago when God rescued the Israelites from Egypt, where they had been slaves.**I then read the passage out of The Jesus Storybook Bible . Sally Lloyd-Jones does such a good job of explaining this in a pint-size version. I would highly recommend it. **
Me: At this special meal, they ate foods that reminded them about what God had done for them. Two of the foods we eat today during our church gatherings are bread and wine (which is a drink made from grapes).
“Why is it called Passover?”…. this is where I explained the blood on the doorframe and the death of the firstborn, etc. which was NOT in my original plan.
Me: The Bread represented Jesus’ body, and the wine represented Jesus’ blood. We have some crackers here to represent the bread that they ate, and some grape juice to represent the wine. We are going to eat them in a few minutes, but first we’re going to decorate a cup. At churches, the wine or grape juice is sometimes served in a fancy cup, called a goblet. We have some goblets that we’re going to make fancy.
(This is where I gave them some jewels with stickers on the back and some goblets that we found at Target so that they could decorate their goblet. I used puffy paint to write their names on them so that we would remember which one belonged to each kid).
Me: So now, we’re going to eat our cracker and drink our juice, and when we do, Jesus says to remember what He did on the cross and also that we can now have a relationship with Him because He died so that our sins could be forgiven. {Talk about that with the kids}. Let’s thank God and then eat it together and drink it together. I then prayed with the kids.The kids REALLY liked this part, and did such a good job thinking about Jesus and praying with me. Ada especially was super cute in saying, “I love Jesus! I love God! That sneaky snake cannot tear up my heart!”
I think it really did leave an impression on them, because when we were at the after-hours clinic at our pediatrician’s office, the resident asked the innocent question of, “What did you do today?” Aly beamed as she told her that she made a goblet covered in jewels.
For those of you who have bigger kids, one idea is to experience the Passover meal together, and to let that inform and enrich the Last Supper story.Overall, no matter how old your children are, I think what is really important is that you don’t force this lesson. It’s a tough one, and it should be kept age-appropriate. Each year, you can add another layer of the complexity of this sacred event to your child’s understanding.
Tags: bread and winecommunioneucharistlentlord's supperpassion weekpassion week devotionals for kids