With the elementary kids, we’re pausing from our regular Genesis curriculum to focus on Lent – specifically, Holy Week. This Sunday we talked about the Last Supper.
Did you know the connection between the 10th plague in Exodus, the Passover Jesus and all other Jews celebrated (and still do), and Holy Communion that we take each month?
In Exodus, when Moses went to Egypt to tell Pharaoh to release the Israelites, who he’d kept as slaves, Pharaoh continually agreed and then changed his mind at the last second. To forcefully encourage him to comply, God sent plagues on Egypt. The tenth and final one was the plague of the first-born child. Every first born would die one night. In order to protect the Israelites from this plight, they were instructed to sacrifice a lamb and to put that lamb’s blood on their doorframe. When the angel of death saw the blood, he would pass over that home. This is what the Israelites celebrated each year at Passover!
Passover was what Jesus and his disciples traveled to Jerusalem to celebrate the last week of Jesus’ life. The night Jesus would be arrested, he sat down to dinner with his friends and had, what we call, the Last Supper. At the Last Supper, Jesus broke bread, gave thanks for it, and gave it to his disciples telling him that this was his body. He told them to take it and eat it in remembrance of him. He also took a cup of wine, gave thanks for it and told his disciples to drink this because it was the blood of the new covenant.
Does this sound familiar?
It should! These are the same words Andrew says as he prepares to offer Holy Communion to us. And these are the same words he said to our elementary school kids this week as they took Holy Communion together. It was powerful to see them all sitting there eagerly listening to Andrew. It was truly precious (in the non-patronizing way) to hear their earnest questions about communion and the Passover. And it was life-giving to hear them say the Lord’s Prayer together and to sing the words we sing each month, “One bread. One body. One Lord of all.”
Our kids are learning big things and it’s incredible to be a part of! Please always feel free to ask questions.
Munger Kids 