Opbouw, Vol. 8, No. 47 (12 March 1965), pp. 375-76
Translated by Jim Witteveen from the works of Gerard Visee.
The
Old Covenant
It is beyond dispute that, just as
baptism has taken the place of circumcision, so the Lord’s Supper stands in
direct continuity with Israel’s Passover. Already from the words of the apostle
Paul—to leave aside many other passages of Scripture—“For Christ, our Passover,
has been sacrificed,” (1 Cor. 5:7), the direct connection between the Passover
and the Lord’s Supper is beyond discussion.
There is, however, this difference:
Christ is not merely Israel’s Passover Lamb, but the Lamb of God who bears the
sins of the world. And because the Blood has now been shed, we have received,
in place of the bloody sacrament of the Passover, the unbloody sacrament of the
Lord’s Supper. The children also participated in that Passover. They were not
passive spectators, but ate along with the others. The Passover meal was
celebrated by households, by parents together with their children.
To be sure, this did not therefore
make it merely a family affair. This is already evident from the fact that, if
a household was too small to consume the Passover lamb completely, Israelites
from other households had to be invited to join them. It is also evident from
the night on which Christ instituted the Lord’s Supper. He did not constitute a
family together with His disciples, yet the Passover celebrated there was no
less lawful because of it. That no children were reclining at table that night
says nothing regarding the present question. There were no children in that
company, but neither were there any women. Yet women did, and still do,
participate in the celebration of this meal.
But when the Passover was instituted,
the participation of the children was expressly prescribed. In Exodus 12:26 we
read: “And when your sons say to you, ‘What does this service mean to you?’
then you shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the LORD’s Passover, for He passed
over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt….’” By “sons” we are not to think
of adults, but of children. This is also how Luther, Calvin, the Statenvertaling,
and W. H. Gispen in the Korte
Verklaring der Heilige Schrift translate the word. Indeed, the same
word is rendered “children” in the New Translation in Genesis 18:19,
Deuteronomy 6:7, and Deuteronomy 32:46.
The question asked by the children
concerning the meaning of the Passover goes back to an ancient custom which the
Jews still observe today during the Passover feast. During the meal, the
question prescribed in Exodus 12:26 is still asked by the youngest member of
the household gathered around the Passover table. In answer to that question,
the father of the household recounts the history of Israel’s deliverance,
following the Haggadah,
the printed liturgy of the Passover celebration, which lies before him. The
children of the household are present, participate in the meal, and ask about
its meaning.[i]
Calvin on Exodus 12:26
On the passage of Scripture just
cited, Calvin makes several important observations. Commenting on verses 24–42,
he writes:
“The command for the annual repetition
of the celebration of deliverance is once more strongly emphasized, together
with the remark that it will come into force when Israel enters the Promised
Land (v. 25). The command that fathers must also instruct their children
concerning the meaning of this celebration, lest it remain a dead and useless
work, is new in this connection. Entirely rightly, instruction is the soul of
the sacraments for us, without which their life-giving power is lacking.
Therefore the Passover meal must not remain a mute spectacle. The words (v.
26), ‘When your children shall say to you,’ certainly do not mean to tell the
father that he must wait with instruction until the child happens to ask on his
own. Rather, they merely remind him that the age required for instruction must
first have been reached. For children as well, there is here an encouragement
to inquire eagerly and carefully into the meaning of the ceremonies as soon as
they are mature enough to grasp the significance of the celebration. Thus the
holy ordinance was to be handed down from generation to generation and remain
living and effective among the people. Since, furthermore, the Passover lamb is
the corresponding type of the Holy Lord’s Supper, it is also evident with
regard to the latter that no one ought to be admitted who cannot understand
Christian doctrine.”[ii]
Gispen in the Korte Verklaring
In the Korte
Verklaring der Heilige Schrift, Dr. W. H. Gispen writes the
following on Exodus 12:26:
“On the basis of this and similar
commands (cf. Ex. 10:1–2; 12:7–8, 14–15; Deut. 4:9; 6:6–7, 20–25; 11:18–21;
Josh. 4:4–9, 20–24), the custom arose among the Jews that one of the children,
usually the youngest, at a certain moment during the annual Passover meal (seder), asks the
father about the meaning of the various Passover observances. The child then
recites several questions from the Haggadah
(literally, ‘telling’; it is a Jewish book of narratives). The answers are
likewise taken from the Haggadah.
Since considerable freedom is permitted in the way this is done, the custom has
given rise to the development of all kinds of legends. ‘The institution of the
Passover is once again strongly emphasized, but at the same time joined to the
institution of the instruction of the children. The Israelite child is not to
perform a dead ritual thoughtlessly; he is to ask, “What does this mean?” And
the Israelite fathers must not suppress the questions of the awakening
spiritual life, but answer them, thereby beginning the spiritualization of the
Passover rite’ (Lange).”[iii]
Calvin Compared with Lange
Whoever reads carefully and compares
what Calvin and Lange (in Gispen’s quotation) observe will notice that, despite
their broad agreement, there is one small but significant difference. Calvin
emphasizes—and rightly so, drawing the line from the Passover meal to the
Lord’s Supper—that the instruction of the children must precede participation
in the Passover meal and in the Lord’s Supper. Lange, however, proceeds from
the assumption that the children who are already participating in the
Passover meal are to find in the actions themselves the occasion—and be
stimulated by them—to ask for further instruction.
It seems to me that, although Calvin
rightly emphasized the necessity of knowledge, Lange follows the course of the
text more closely. For there is an element in this passage that we all too
often neglect with respect to baptism and the Lord’s Supper: the significance
of the actions and signs—which in themselves are mute—as means by which the
living God reveals Himself.
(To be continued).
G. Visee
