What the Lord’s Supper Is

Sermon for Midweek of Transfiguration

Small Catechism Review: The Lord’s Supper

I told our catechism students earlier this week that we won’t actually spend all that long studying the Sixth Chief Part of the Small Catechism, the part on the Lord’s Supper. We’ll spend about a month on it, but that’s very little compared to the Second Chief part. We won’t spend all that much time on it, because the teaching of the Lord’s Supper is really very, very simple, because the words of the Lord Jesus concerning the Lord’s Supper are very, very simple. This evening we focus on what the Lord’s Supper is.

What is the Sacrament of the Altar? It is the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, under the bread and wine, instituted by Christ Himself, for us Christians to eat and to drink. Where is this written? The holy Evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke and St. Paul write: “Our Lord Jesus Christ, on the night in which He was betrayed, took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and gave it to His disciples and said: ‘Take, eat; this is My body, which is given for you. This do in remembrance of Me.’ “In the same way also He took the cup after supper, gave thanks and gave it to them, saying, ‘Take and drink of it, all of you. This cup is the New Testament in My blood, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.’”

Countless books have been written on this simple teaching of the Small Catechism. Countless controversies have raged. The visible Christian Church is still divided largely over the doctrine of the Lord’s Supper. What a shame! But it’s another example—not unlike the doctrine of justification—of the devil taking the clear words of God and blowing a cloud of smoke over them, as it were, so that people can’t see them clearly anymore. May God grant us His Holy Spirit to enable us to see through the smoke and the fog to the clear words of our Lord.

It’s the night on which He was betrayed, Maundy Thursday, the Thursday of Holy Week. Jesus and His disciples were celebrating the Passover, with the lamb and the unleavened bread, the dip made from bitter herbs, and the wine. They had finished the Passover meal itself. And then Jesus does something new. He takes the bread, gives thanks for it, breaks it, that is, divides it up, and gives it to His disciples, saying, Take and eat. This is My body which is given for you. This do in remembrance of Me. So, what is the Sacrament of the Altar? It is bread. No doubt about it. But is bread which the Lord declares to be His body. Which body? The very one that is given for you. Given where? How? Well, connecting it with what He says a moment later about His blood which is shed, it’s the body that was given into death on the cross. And finally, it’s the bread which is Christ’s body, which His disciples are to take from Him after He has blessed it, and eat it.

How can that piece of bread be the body of Christ? We have no idea, and we don’t try to explain it. We simply believe that it is, because He said, “This is,” and there is no indication in the text that “is” means anything other than “is.”

Then He takes the cup of wine, gives thanks, and gives it to His disciples, saying, “Take and drink of it, all of you. This cup is the New Testament in My blood, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” So, what is the Sacrament of the Altar? It is wine. No doubt about it. St. Paul rebukes the Corinthian Christians for getting drunk on it, so it can’t possibly be grape juice. But it is wine which the Lord declares to be His blood. Which blood? The blood of the New Testament which Christ shed on the cross. When Moses sealed the Old Testament with the children of Israel, it was sealed with blood. Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, “This is the blood of the covenant which the LORD has made with you according to all these words.” So, too, the New Covenant or the New Testament is sealed with the blood of Christ, shed once on the cross, and now applied to the people of God, not by sprinkling, but by drinking. Not once, but “as often as you drink it.”

How can the wine in the cup be the blood of Christ? We have no idea, and we don’t try to explain it. We simply believe that it is, because He said, “This is,” and there is no indication in the text that “is” means anything other than “is.”

What’s that? Human reason says it makes no sense? Who cares? What’s that? Jesus uses metaphors in other parts of Scripture. “I am the Vine; you are the branches.” Yes, and then He always goes on to explain some spiritual truth based on that earthly image. Not here in the Lord’s Supper. In what way is His body “like” bread? In what way is His blood “like” wine? There is no analogy. There is no comparison. There is no representation. Is simply means is.

Does the rest of Scripture agree with that interpretation? Well, what does St. Paul say? The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? How can you have a communion—a sharing in or a participation of the bread and the wine with something that is absent? Something that is not there? And then in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, St. Paul accuses those who eat the Supper unworthily as sinning against the body and the blood of the Lord. How can you sin against His body and blood if His body and blood are absent?

Roman Catholics agree that Jesus’ body and blood are present in the Sacrament of the Altar, but they philosophize about the bread and wine vanishing, so that it now only appears to be bread and wine. The Evangelicals simply believe in the Real Absence of the body and blood of Jesus in the Supper, claiming that the bread and wine (or other drink) simply represents Jesus’ body and blood. And the Calvinists craftily claim to believe that there is a “spiritual presence” of Jesus’ body and blood, but that it’s not at all connected to the bread that is eaten or the wine that is drunk. It’s received only by faith, they say, not orally, not with the mouth, so that an unbeliever who happens to receive the Lord’s Supper doesn’t receive anything at all but plain bread and plain wine.

We Lutherans teach the Real Presence of Jesus’ body and blood with the bread and wine. We stick with the simple words of Scripture, and we leave it to others to deny it or twist it or philosophize about it. We will stick with the simple words of the Lord, and be content to know that He wishes to give us His very body and blood to eat and to drink. As for why He gives it and the benefit we are to receive from it, that we will cover in the next two weeks, if the Lord is willing. Amen.