Click here for a PDF file of this sermon series with pictures and footnotes.
Grace, mercy and peace be to you
from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
I’d like to begin today with words
from the gospels of Luke and Matthew which says:
This is my
body which is given for you.
This is my
blood of covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
Prayer: Let the words of my mouth
and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our Rock and
our Redeemer. Amen.
Last week, when we began our
sermon series on the Lord’s Supper, I particularly talked about the words of
institution: the words which Christ spoke on the night he was betrayed, and how
this is Christ’s will, and how the Lord’s Supper must be a very important thing
since these words are written down 4 times in the New Testament.
But also, I spoke about the words
of Christ “This is my body”, and how it is our church’s confession of faith
that in the Lord’s Supper, we really do eat and drink Christ’s body and blood,
and nothing less than his body and blood. And I also spoke about two common
objections to this teaching: that it is impossible for Christ to be seated at
the right hand of God and also to be in the Lord’s Supper at the same time. But
God is not located in one place on a map, but he is to be found everywhere. If
Jesus, in his human flesh, is seated at the right hand of God, it means that he
is able to be wherever he promises to be, since God’s right hand is everywhere.
The other thing we talked about
was the objection which says that because Jesus says, “Do this in remembrance
of me”, the Lord’s Supper must simply be just bread and wine, which is a
remembrance meal. But we talked about the fact that in the bible the word
“remember” doesn’t mean simply something we think about, but something we do, a
bit like how someone might “remember” their wedding anniversary by actually
doing something like buying a present. So we remember Jesus in the Lord’s
Supper by eating his body and drinking his blood. (If you would like to read
what I said last week, you’re welcome to get yourself a copy.)
As we begin our second part of
this series today, I’d like us to think a little bit more about the words, This
is my body and This is my blood. The thing that actually makes the
bread and wine the body and blood of Christ is word of God itself. It’s not a
pastor who transforms these things by some power which he possesses, and it’s
not your faith that makes these things the body and blood of Christ. It’s the
word of God that does it. So every time we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, the
pastor always recites the words which Christ said, because these words are the
power that brings about the true presence of Christ’s body and blood. So
without Christ’s words, we don’t believe that Christ’s body and blood would be
there.
In the Book of Concord, which is
the Lutheran confession of faith, to help understand this point, the authors
quote a pastor from the 300s, whose name was John Chrysostom. He was the bishop
at the Holy Wisdom Church in Constantinople which is modern-day Istanbul. The
Holy Wisdom Church is still standing, but it became a mosque at some time in
history, and is now a museum. John Chrysostom said this:
Christ Himself prepared this
table and blesses it. For no man makes the bread and wine set before us into
Christ’s body and blood, only Christ Himself, who was crucified for us. The
words are spoken by the mouth of the priest. But by God’s power and grace, by
the word, where Christ says: “This is My body”, the elements presented are
consecrated in the Supper. The declaration “Be fruitful and multiply and fill
the earth” was spoken only once. But it is ever effective in nature, so that it
is fruitful and multiplies. So also this declaration, “This is my body; this is
my blood”, was spoken once. But even to this day and up to His second coming it
is effective and works so that in the Supper of the Church His true body and
blood are present.
Can you see what he says? It’s
Christ’s word that makes it his body and blood.
Sometimes people might say: Well,
I’ll just believe what I like about it. And there are some churches that practically
teach nothing about the Lord’s Supper, and leave it up the individual to decide
what they think. But this would not be faithful to Christ’s words: This is
my body. Either it’s his body, or it’s not. It’s got nothing to do with
whether or not you believe it’s his body. It has to do with whether it is
his body. So, the Lord’s Supper is the body and blood of Christ, whether or not
a person believes in it.
Now this is a very important
thing. Because the bible speaks about two ways in which we can receive the
Lord’s Supper. Either we can receive it in a good way or in a bad way. Either
we receive it to our blessing, or we receive it to our judgment. The body and
blood of Christ are still the same, however we receive it, but there is a good
way to receive the Lord’s Supper, and a bad way to receive it.
So St Paul says: Whoever eats
the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty
concerning the body and blood of the Lord.
Do you notice? If the body and
blood of Christ weren’t there, how could anyone be guilty of sinning against
it?
So what does St Paul say about
it? He says: Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and
drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body
eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill
and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged.
So St Paul says that we shouldn’t
eat and drink without discerning the body. This means, if we don’t
believe that the body and blood of Christ are in the Lord’s Supper, if we don’t
discern Christ’s body and blood there in the supper, we eat and drink a
judgment upon ourselves.
But there’s
another aspect which we need to consider too. Jesus doesn’t simply say: This
is my body and this is my blood, but he says: This is my body,
which is given for you. This is my blood, which is shed for you for the
forgiveness of sins.
So when we
come to receive the Lord’s Supper, our simple acknowledgement that this is
Christ’s body and blood is not enough. We also need to hear Christ’s words that
these things are given for you and shed for you for the forgiveness
of sins.
Now, why is
this important? Well—have a think about it. Here is Christ’s perfect human
body, united to his divinity in the one person. And here you are to receive
it—and you are not perfect, in fact, you are far from perfect. And here is
Christ’s holy and precious blood, which was poured out for you on Calvary. And
here you are to receive it—and your blood is not holy and precious. How can it
happen that these two thing are going to mix: you with all your imperfections
and Christ’s holy, precious, perfect body and blood?
Well, there’s
only one way in which these two things can come together, and that is that
Christ has to forgive your sins. If Christ is going to come and enter into your
body in this amazing way, surely you would normally be completely destroyed
because of your sin. But this is Christ’s body which is given for you and
Christ’s blood which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. The
only way that the Lord’s Supper can work is if Christ forgives your sins. In
fact, he gives his body and blood to you precisely so that you can receive the
forgiveness of sins, and be strengthened in this forgiveness through it.
And so, when
we come to receive the Lord’s Supper, we need to acknowledge that this is
Christ’s body and blood, but also, that we are sinners. St Paul says: Let a
person examine himself. Let a person examine his faith whether he or she discerns
the body, but also let a person examine his heart whether he or she is a
sinner. If you’re not a sinner, then the sacrament is not for you. If you’re
not a sinner, and you don’t believe you’re a sinner, then the only way you can
receive this gift is to your judgment.
In the
Lutheran Church, we often talk about sin and forgiveness in very black and
white terms, and the reason for this, and part of the reason why we have
confession and absolution in the church is to prepare people to receive the
Lord’s Supper. The bible speaks in very black and white terms about the Lord’s
Supper, and so we also want to talk in very black and white terms about
examining ourselves.
Nobody is
worthy to receive the Lord’s Supper. But when we acknowledge our unworthiness,
then we receive it in a worthy way, in a worthy manner. It doesn’t depend on us
and on our worthiness. It depends on Christ and his word which promises us the
forgiveness of sins. So the Book of Concord explains it like this: We
believe, teach and confess also that there is only one kind of unworthy guests:
those who do not believe. About these guests it is written in John 3:18,
“Whoever does not believe is condemned already.” And this judgment becomes
greater and more grievous, being aggravated by the unworthy use of the Holy
Supper. And then it says: We believe, teach, and confess that no true
believer—as long as he has living faith, however weak he may be—receives the
Holy Supper to his judgment. For the Supper was instituted especially for Christians
weak in faith, yet repentant. It was instituted for their consolation and to
strengthen their weak faith.
It should be
a wonderful joy for us to come and receive the Lord’s Supper for our comfort
and strength! We might say: “But I have such a weak faith.” Well, weak faith is
still faith. You’re not saved by strength of faith, but by faith in all of its
weakness.
Let’s read
together what Luther writes in the Small Catechism about this:
What is the
benefit of this eating and drinking?
These words,
“Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins,” show us that in the
Sacrament forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation are given us through these
words. For where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and
salvation.
We’ve spoken
about how we come to receive the forgiveness of sins in the Lord’s Supper. But
Luther also talks about life and salvation. Why is that? Why is it that “where
there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation”?
Well, imagine
that you had a friend, who had a large house with all kinds of nice things in
it, a swimming pool, and an exotic pet, like a monkey. And it’s such a joy for
you to go around there on hot days and swim in the pool, and when it’s not hot,
you can feed the monkey peanuts and bananas. Then you and your friend have a
fight. You decide it’s about time for you to go and visit him. Now, what
happens if your friend doesn’t forgive you? Well, you don’t get to go in the
front door. But if your friend does forgive you, then, you get to go in, and
enjoy all the things in your friend’s house, you get to swim in their pool, and
feed their monkey. And most importantly, you get to enjoy your friend’s company
and friendship.
The same goes
with Jesus. He promises us his forgiveness in the Lord’s Supper. And when he
gives us his forgiveness, he lets us in his house, and we get to come and enjoy
all the wonderful gifts of heaven, and most importantly, the company and
friendship of Jesus. So you can see: where there is forgiveness of sins,
there is also life and salvation.
So what does
it mean when it says: life and salvation? Well, it means that Jesus
offers us here all the wonderful gifts of the Holy Spirit: love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Jesus
invites us to come and ask him for these gifts here. But also, we receive a
down-payment here in the Lord’s Supper of the resurrection of the body and the
life everlasting. Luther said: When you come to the Lord’s Supper, go to it
like you’re going to your death, so that when you die, it will be just like
going to the Lord’s Supper.
So, what will
happen when we die? We will receive the complete and total perfect healing of
our bodies and our souls, and we will become completely like Christ. And this
is what is given here in the Lord’s Supper. This is the body and blood of
Christ. And when we eat and drink the body and blood of Christ here, we are
receiving a foretaste of our heavenly body in the next life. This is not just
food of the soul, but for the body. We say at the end of the Lord’s Supper: The
body of our Lord Jesus Christ and his holy precious blood strengthen and
preserve you in body and soul until life eternal.
So, when we
come to the Lord’s Supper, we come to it with all our sins, and all of our sins
of weakness. But we also come to the Lord’s Supper with all the weaknesses of
our bodies, and we ask for Christ’s healing which we know that we will receive
completely perfectly in the next life. The Lord’s Supper is therefore not
something that communicates disease, but this bread and wine is physically
united to the body and blood of Christ himself, who has taken upon himself all
our diseases. For example, a blind lady comes to the Lord’s Supper knowing that
this body and blood belongs to the same Christ who healed many blind people all
those many years ago, and when she enters into heaven, and when she is resurrected
from the dead, that same Jesus will allow her to see him with her own eyes much
more clearly than she has ever seen anything before. As St Paul says: Now we
see in a mirror dimly, but then we will see face to face.
So our
church’s confession of faith, together with the Christians of the early and
mediaeval church, calls the Lord’s Supper a “medicine”. One old writer, called
Ignatius from Antioch, in the first generation after the apostles calls the
Lord’s Supper a medicine of immortality, an antidote that we may not die but
live in God through Jesus Christ, a cleansing remedy through warding off and
driving out evils. The Book of Concord quotes an old bishop in the early
church, Ambrose, who says about the Lord’s Supper: “Because I always sin, I
always need to take the medicine.” Luther says the same thing in the Large
Catechism: “[We] should regard and use the Sacrament just like a precious
antidote against the poison [we] have in [us]. Here in the Sacrament you are to
receive from the lips of Christ forgiveness of sins. 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.”
But are these
people going a bit over the top, when they talk about the Lord’s Supper in this
way? Not at all—remember that St Paul said about those who receive the
sacrament in an unworthy manner: This is why many of you are weak and ill,
and some have died. So if receiving the Lord’s Supper for judgment brings
weakness, illness and death, then receiving the Lord’s Supper to our blessing
brings strength, health and life. Or as Luther says in the Catechism: For
where there is forgiveness of sins there is also life and salvation. This
is why we give the Lord’s Supper to people also in time of sickness and when a
person is close to death.
There’s a
beautiful statement of St Bernard, a Christian writer in the 1100s: The body
of Christ is to the sick a medicine, to the pilgrim a way; it strengthens the
weak, delights the strong, heals weariness, preserves health. Through it man
becomes more gentle under reproof, more patient under labour, more ardent for
love, wiser for caution, more ready to obey, more devoted to giving of thanks.
Let’s read
one more part of the Catechism:
How can
bodily eating and drinking do such great things?
Certainly not
just eating and drinking do these things, but the words written here: “Given
and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” These words, along with the
bodily eating and drinking, are the main thing in the Sacrament. Whoever
believes these words has exactly what they say: “forgiveness of sins”.
Can you see? The
words, these words, whoever believes these words. We wouldn’t believe any
of this if it weren’t for God’s word. As we learn a deeper understanding
of the Lord’s Supper, our understanding of the power of Christ’s word grows
too. The word of God is the thing which fuels the Lord’s Supper here. The
Lord’s Supper is never performed in silence, but is always accompanied by
Christ’s word, so that you can hear it, and when you have heard it, you can
believe it.
What
wonderful encouraging words of Christ: This is my body which is given for
you! This is my blood which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins!
Amen.
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