After my post on children taking communion (Kiddies Menu: Children at the Lord’s Table) I received some great questions. I wanted to address them more fully than in a crammed comment cage.
Have you ever thought of these provocative variables in the form and substance of the Lord’s Supper:
- Should we not emulate the NT church’s practice of sharing an entire, sit-down meal?
- Must the bread be unleavened?
- Must the wine be alcoholic?
- Must the wine be red or can we use Champagne instead?
- Where does one draw the line? For example, can pizza and Coke count as communion? I.e. can the bread be sweetened, or have a topping? What about milk and cookies?
Makes the blood boil a bit, doesn’t it? You may have got stuck on the
milk & cookies on, and you would probably say: “Obviously not,
don’t be dumb.” And you’d be right to say that…but why?
Here are some principles by which we can make these decisions.
1. Jesus instituted a practice of breaking and sharing bread and wine, therefore the substance of the meal must correlate with his intention.
Thus breaking bread is essential, as it represents the
breaking of Christ’s body.
The bread represents the body. It was the
symbol Jesus selected, perhaps because he also called himself the Bread
of Life (John 6:35).
This is why he said “Do this in remembrance of me” as he broke the
bread. He clearly meant “Break bread.” Not, break a cookie, or cut some
pepperoni pizza slices. Continue at Clint Archer
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