Since it is Easter Weekend and I grow weary of the banter on transunstantiation and mysteries and there is much insistence on getting back to the topic. I would like to contribute, not to the argument on Catholic vs Lutheran doctrine, but to the original question ... the title of this topic:
Why can't the bread & wine be the body & blood of the Lord?
I offer the following (in honor of the season):
John 19:16-37 [NIV]
Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified. So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). There they crucified him, and with him two others—one on each side and Jesus in the middle.
Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: jesus of nazareth, the king of the jews. Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek. The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, “Do not write ‘The King of the Jews,’ but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews.”
Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”
When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom.
“Let’s not tear it,” they said to one another. “Let’s decide by lot who will get it.”
This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled that said,
“They divided my clothes among them
and cast lots for my garment.”
So this is what the soldiers did.
Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman, here is your son,” and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.
Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jewish leaders did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down. The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe. These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken,” and, as another scripture says, “They will look on the one they have pierced.”
This is the body and blood that was broken for my sin, for the new covenant. This is the body and blood that has the power to effect a miraculous transformation ... in those who believe. This is the body and blood that was present in the upper room at the last supper, holding the cup and breaking the bread to offer it. This is the body and blood that commanded us to REMEMBER HIM! To remember every time we ate the bread and drank the wine.
This is why the power is not in the cracker and the juice. No one was ever saved by a cracker and some juice. It was the death of the Christ, Son of the Living God, that brings salvation to the world. "Do this in remembrance of Me." The emphasis is not on THIS, the emphasis is on ME (Jesus Christ).
I have said my peace. I will say no more.
God bless all.
I go to celebrate HIS Resurection in the morning, and to remember HIM.
