Lenten Midweek V
Christian
Questions with Their Answers: Our Great Need for the Lord’s Supper[1]
March 29, 2023
Text: Christian Questions 19-20
I
invite the congregation to turn to page 330 in your hymnal as we examine
Questions 19-20 of “Christian Questions with Their Answers”…
The
Sacrament of the Altar is a gift, but it isn’t only a gift. It is also a Commandment. Our Lord Jesus says, “Do this in
remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19).
Sometimes our sad sack of flesh has to be reminded that the Lord’s
Supper isn’t just an add-on option.
Jesus tells us to do it, so we should do it, according to
His institution, and for the purpose for which He has given it. That is the Law, and it should bring us to
repentance for our ungrateful and begrudging reception, or even excluding
ourselves from our Lord’s gift, because we think we have something better to
do, or whatever the reason may be.
More
important than the Commandment, though, is the Promise. It is the Promise that here, by the power of
His Almighty Word, the Lord Jesus gives us Himself under bread and wine, His
true body, His true blood, given and shed for us for the forgiveness of sins. To help us.
To strengthen us. To enliven us
for spiritual warfare in our daily life in Christ against our three main
enemies: The devil, the world, and our own sinful nature.
In
short, we need the Sacrament. It is our
own pressing need that should admonish and encourage us to receive the
Sacrament frequently, as often as possible, preferably every week, as a matter
of first importance. More important than
Sunday brunch. More important than the
big game. More important than sleeping
in or catching up with the laundry. You
need the Lord’s Word preached into your ears.
And you need the Lord’s body and blood delivered into your mouth. St. Ambrose famously said, “Because I always
sin, I always need the medicine.” And
we could add, because your three main enemies will never give it a rest, you always
need the Lord Jesus in you to keep you from falling in the battle.
Question
20 is my favorite question in all the Questions and Answers. Here is pastoral Luther at his best, with a
gleam in his eye, but applying wisdom to a very common Christian malady. What should you do if you are unaware
of your great need for the Sacrament? If
you have no hunger and thirst for it?
I’ve been a pastor for some time now, and I can tell you, Christians this
side of the veil are pretty good at coming up with reasons maybe we don’t need
to have the Sacrament so often. It
hasn’t happened in a while, but some have even told me so, to my face. If we cut out Communion, it would cut the Church
service down by half an hour so I could get on with more important things. Well, I’ve been a Christian for some time
now, too, but always on this side of the veil, where we have to contend with
the old bag of bones, so I do get it.
I do know where people are coming from. I confess to you my own most grievous sin,
that there are days when even I think to myself, “Can this be over
already? I’m tired, and I’m hungry, and
I’m a little grumpy.” Instead of
rejoicing in every soul receiving in their mouth the Bread of Life, the Blood
that washes away their sins. Instead of
rejoicing that there is also a place at the Table for me, a miserable
beggar, for whom the King has set a Feast.
It
happens to all of us. We forget our
need. And, by the way, the longer we’re
away, the less aware we are. Like the
starving man, so hungry he no longer feels the gnawing hunger pains. It’s a demonic trick. But so often it works like a charm. So, what to do?
First,
Luther says, reach in under your shirt and just check and see… Are you still flesh and blood? Yep.
Okay then, let’s remember and believe what the Scriptures say about
human flesh and blood this side of the Resurrection. We had one of the readings today, Galatians
5: “Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity,
sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger,
rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like
these” (vv. 19-21; ESV). Boy, if I’m
going to weed out those works, and instead bear the fruit of the Spirit (vv. 22-23),
I need Jesus in me. And then there is
what Paul says in Romans 7 about his struggle as a Christian living in the
sinful flesh, asking the age-old question, “Why do I keep doing that?”, not
doing the things he wants to do, but doing the very things he hates (vv.
15-20). We can relate. We can say with Paul, “Wretched man that I
am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (v. 24). And then we can confess with him, “Thanks
be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (v. 25). The Lord, who is given us to eat and to
drink, right here in the Supper. He
overcomes this body of death, the old Adam, the sinful nature. He delivers us from the tyranny of our own
flesh. We need the Sacrament for our
daily battle against this main enemy.
Then,
Luther says, just take a look around you and ask yourself, “Am I still in the
world?” Yep. Sure looks like it. Let me just check the headlines a minute to
be certain. Oh, sure enough. All bad news.
Okay then, let’s remember and believe what the Scriptures say about how
there will be no lack of sin and trouble in the world. Again, we had one of the readings this
evening, John 15 and 16. If you are a
Christian, the unbelieving world will hate you.
Because it hates Jesus (15:18).
Because the servant is not greater than his Master. Because you are no longer of the world, and
it is clear that you belong to Jesus, and your loyalty is to Jesus, and not to the
world. So you can expect persecution
(vv. 19-20). Indeed, the hour is coming
when whoever kills you will think they are doing a good and holy work (16:2). St. John reminds us in his first epistle that
the world, along with its sinful desires is passing away, while the will of God
abides forever (1 John 2:17). He says
that the one who has been born of God, which is to say, the one who is
baptized, the one who believes that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that one
overcomes the world (5:1-5). What we
need to sustain us in our baptismal life and in the one true faith through all
the world’s hatred and persecution, is Christ Himself. And so He comes to us in His Supper.
Third
(and now, this is no joke… Luther gets
right to the point): You will certainly also have the devil around you, who
with his lying and murdering day and night will let you have no peace, within
or without. This is just what the
Scriptures say. In our first reading,
St. Peter tells us, “Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring
lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). Jesus teaches us that the devil is a murderer
from the beginning, a liar, and the father of lies (John 8:44), and for now,
until he is judged, he is the ruler of this world (John 16:11). St. Paul teaches us that our struggle is not
against flesh and blood, “but against the rulers, against the authorities,
against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual
forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12). It is the devil who shoots his fiery darts of
temptation, affliction, and despair at us (v. 16). It is he who lays his snares for us (2 Tim.
2:26), to trip us up, and trap us. So we
must be outfitted with the whole armor of God (Eph. 6), clothed with Christ Himself
(Gal. 3:27), the Lord Himself in us, to fight the battle for us,
and so to win the victory. And so we
have the Supper.
Luther
takes us through essentially the same self-examination with regard to our
three main enemies in the Large
Catechism, and there he reminds us: “If you could see how many knives,
darts, and arrows are every moment aimed at you [Ephesians 6:16], you would be
glad to come to the Sacrament as often as possible.”[2]
We
should come often to the Sacrament because our Lord commands it. “Do this,” He says. We should come because He promises that He,
Himself, is bodily present in it, and here feeds us with Himself for the
forgiveness of our sins. We should come
because of our fallen flesh, and because we are in the world, and because the
devil won’t leave us alone for a moment.
Luther says that if all that fails to convince you of your great need
for the Sacrament, you have much bigger problems. “Then take this advice,” he says, “and have
others pray for you. Do not stop until
the stone is removed from your heart [Ezekiel 36:25-26]… With God’s grace, you may feel your misery
more and become hungrier for the Sacrament, especially since the devil doubles
his force against you. He lies in wait
for you without resting so that he can seize and destroy you, soul and
body. You are not safe from him for one
hour.”[3]
“We
must never think of the Sacrament as something harmful from which we had better
flee,” writes the good doctor, “but as a pure, wholesome, comforting remedy
that grants salvation and comfort. It
will cure you and give you life both in soul and body… Here in the Sacrament
you are to receive from the lips of Christ forgiveness of sin. It contains and brings with it God’s grace
and the Spirit with all His gifts, protection, shelter, and power against death
and the devil and all misfortune… If,
therefore, you are heavy laden and feel your weakness”… and I suspect you are
and do if you have felt your flesh, and looked around you at the world, and
know the devil’s oppression… “then,” says Dr. Luther, “go joyfully to this
Sacrament and receive refreshment, comfort, and strength [Matthew 11:28].”[4]
Beloved
in the Lord, these questions and answers are no child’s play. They help us to examine ourselves, what we
know and believe from the Scriptures about God, about our sin, about the saving
work of our Lord Jesus Christ, and about His Holy Supper. Having thus examined ourselves, remembering
and proclaiming His death, let us come now to His Table to be filled with all
good things. In the Name of the Father,
and of the Son X, and of the Holy
Spirit. Amen.
[1] This year’s Lenten Midweek
meditations make use of the resources at https://resources.lcms.org/worship-planning/worship-suggestions-for-2023-midweek-lenten-services/
[2] LC V:82 (McCain).
[3] Ibid, 83-84.
[4] Ibid, 68, 70, 72.
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