Lenten Midweek III
Christian
Questions with Their Answers: Receiving Christ’s Body and Blood and Proclaiming
His Death[1]
March 15, 2023
Text: Christian Questions 13-16
I
invite the congregation to turn to page 329 in your hymnal as we examine
Questions 13-16 of “Christian Questions with Their Answers”…
Tonight’s
questions with their answers lead us to confess what it is that we receive
in the Lord’s Supper, and why we believe we receive it. And then in so receiving, what it is
we are remembering and proclaiming.
The
confession is straightforward and simple.
No Aristotelian philosophical terms about substance and accidents. No end runs around the plain words of our
Lord so as to make Him say the opposite of what He is saying. No handwringing about how to make this
mystery accessible and acceptable to human reason. Just the bare meaning of the words. What is this bread in the Supper? It is the body of Jesus Christ. What is this wine in the Supper? It is the blood of Jesus Christ. What on earth would convince you to
believe this? Jesus says it, and
that’s good enough for me. “Take,
eat, this is My body; drink of it, all of you, this is My blood” (Question
14). In the Lord’s Supper, we eat
Christ’s body, and drink His blood. Because
that’s what He says. His Word
makes it so.
So
that dispenses with the first two questions.
We don’t deny, by the way, that we are eating bread and drinking
wine. But that bread is Christ’s
body. And that wine is Christ’s
blood. Lutherans are not transubstantiationists. We do not believe the bread changes into
Christ’s body, and the wine changes into Christ’s blood. Nor are we, as we are often accused of being,
consubstantiationists. That
theory probably fits Calvinism better than Lutheranism, though the Calvinists
probably wouldn’t agree. The idea in
consubstantiation is that, here is the bread, and it is just bread, but along
with it in some way, Christ’s body is received.
That works very nicely with Calvin’s idea that the faithful eat the
earthly bread, and then, by faith, stretch up to heaven to feed on Christ’s
body spiritually (and, by the way, unbelievers, as a result, according
to this theory, get nothing but bread, because they don’t have any faith to
stretch). But that’s not what we’re
saying. We’re saying that the “is”
in “this is My body; this is My blood,” is essentially an equal
sign. This is bread that is
Christ’s body, because He says so.
This is wine that is Christ’s blood, because He says so. As a result, whether it is or isn’t
has nothing to do with my faith (faith receives the benefit, the good,
of the Sacrament, but it doesn’t make the Sacrament what it is). It depends wholly and alone on Christ’s
sure Word. His Word that does
what it says. His Word that makes
it so (“Let there be,” and there is). His Word that cannot lie. He says it is, and so it is,
and that is what the communicant eats and drinks, the believer to his
salvation, the unbeliever to his judgment (1 Cor. 11:29).
Perhaps
you’ve heard the colorful story of Luther and Zwingli at the Marburg Colloquy
in 1529. Zwingli and his colleague, Oecolampadius,
marshalled their arguments why it is unreasonable to think the
communicant is actually, bodily, eating anything other than
bread, and drinking anything other than wine, in the Lord’s Supper. Luther, for his part (with Melanchthon at his
side), wrote the words, “hoc est corpus meum,” “This is My body,” in
chalk on the table, and covered it with the tablecloth. And at each of Zwingli’s arguments, Luther
would simply lift the tablecloth and point to the words. On the basis of those words, regardless of
reason’s objections, we must believe the bread is Jesus’ body, and the wine His
blood. In spite of all the other things
Luther and Zwingli agreed on at the Colloquy, because they could not agree that
the Lord’s Supper is what Jesus says it is, Luther sadly concluded, “We are of
a different spirit.” We must hold to the
words of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Our reason must be captive to the Word.
Now,
every time we come to the Sacrament, we are both remembering and proclaiming
the Lord’s death for our sins. As He
says, “This do in remembrance of Me,” and as St. Paul says, “as often
as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he
comes” (1 Cor. 11:26; ESV). Remember
and proclaim. To remember here
means so much more than simply to “call to mind.” In the Scriptures, to remember often
means to participate in. It means
to take action. So, for example, the
Passover seder was a memorial meal for the Israelites, which they were
to observe throughout their generations in remembrance of the Lord’s
great deliverance from Egypt. When they
spoke of the Passover during the seder, they spoke of it as something the LORD
did for them, even if they were not yet born at the time of the Exodus. For in eating the Passover meal, the Passover
was really present (a present reality) for them, and they were actually
participating in it. That is what
the remembrance was all about. So
it is for us when we eat our Passover Lamb, Jesus Christ, and drink His blood,
in the Holy Supper. We do this in remembrance
of Him, which is to say, we actually receive all the benefits of His
suffering and death for our sins. What
was done there and then becomes ours here and now.
And
it is a sermon that you are preaching every time you gather here around
the altar to eat and drink what the Lord here gives you. You proclaim the Lord’s death until He
comes, Paul says. That is a profound
statement. When you receive the Lord’s
Supper, you are proclaiming that the God who became flesh, conceived by
the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, who suffered, died, and rose again
for you, who ascended into heaven, and who is coming again to judge the living
and the dead, has not left you alone as orphans (John 14:18). He has not abandoned you. He is, as He promises, with you always
until the end of the age (Matt. 28:20). He
comes to you. Really and truly. In the flesh.
In the Supper. He comes,
and you can walk right up to Him here, at the altar, right up to the Holy of
Holies… because He died for you, the perfect Sacrifice of Atonement for your
sins, to take your sins away, and wash you clean, so that you are holy,
and may bask in the very presence of God.
That is to proclaim the Lord’s death.
And it is to proclaim that this is now the way Jesus manifests
His presence among His people, in His Church, until He comes again visibly and
in great glory.
You
are also proclaiming some other things when you come to the Supper, and we
should remember this. You are
proclaiming that no mere creature could make satisfaction for your
sins. Not the bulls and goats and sheep
of the Old Testament sacrifices. Those
all pointed forward to THE Sacrifice of Jesus’ body on the altar of the
cross. Nor the satisfactions of mere
human beings. Not even super Christians
and saints. Even Jesus Christ, if He
were not true God, could not make satisfaction for our sins by His bodily
death. His death can only count for us,
and for the sins of the whole world, because this Man who died is God.
And
so we proclaim, to ourselves and others, that our sins are so serious that the death
of God is demanded to make atonement for us. We must not underestimate the grievous
offense of our sins before God, nor the damnation they merit for us. We have to be honest with ourselves about who
we are apart from Christ… poor, miserable sinners.
And
this then fills us with all-the-more joy and comfort when we hear that our Lord
Jesus Christ, true God and true Man, has come to suffer the damnation our sins
deserve, to pay the penalty in full, to free us from our sin and guilt, and to
give us eternal life. And that all of
this is ours by faith in Christ.
When we receive the Lord’s Supper, we proclaim this very thing.
Now
the “you” who eat this bread and so proclaim, is a second person plural. That is, Paul is saying “y’all eat,
and so y’all proclaim” in this verse.
That is to say, this is something you do together. Your sermon is preached in unity with
those who are communing with you.
When you commune at a particular altar, you are proclaiming your “Amen”
to the theology taught at that altar.
That is an important thing to remember.
If you cannot say “Amen” to the things that are taught at a particular
Church, you should not commune at that altar.
That is not to say they aren’t Christians, but it is to say you are not
yet in agreement with them such that you should go to the Lord’s Supper
together. You will, when Jesus
comes again and sets everybody straight, and you should pray that this can be
the reality now, in this life, by all of us coming to theological agreement on
the basis of the Scriptures. But that is
an ideal that isn’t true yet. So, if you
can’t say “Amen” to the theology at a particular altar, don’t commune as if you
can. And in communing at this altar,
understand, you are proclaiming your “Amen” to what is taught here.
And
may what is taught here ever be Jesus Christ, true God and true Man, who died
for your sins, who is risen from the dead, who is present with you here, giving
you His true body and blood under bread and wine, that you ever receive from
Him forgiveness of sins, eternal life, and salvation. When you come to the altar, you remember that. That is, you participate in that
reality. And you proclaim it.
And
how do you know it is true? For one
reason, and one reason only. That is
what Jesus says. And our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Truth incarnate, cannot lie.
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/
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