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This Sacrament, also known as the Eucharist or Lord’s Supper, may be thought of as “God’s way of hugging us.” Jesus shares the promised blessing: “This is My blood which is poured out for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:28).
While this Sacrament doesn’t play a huge role in Scripture, we know that it did in the earliest church. Christians cherished this Sacrament and included it in their Sunday worship.
Let’s carefully look at the relevant Scriptures here…
Matthew 26:26-29, “While they were still eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to His disciples, saying, ‘Take and eat, this is my body.’ Then He took the cup, (wine) gave thanks and offered it to them saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the new covenant which is poured out for many of you for the forgiveness of sins. I tell, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine (wine) again until I drink it anew with you in my Father’s kingdom.”
1 Corinthians 11:23-29, “Jesus took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, ‘This is my body which is for you, do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, He took the cup saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood, do this, as often as you drink it, remembering me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes. Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner is guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself, 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 upon himself.”
Real Presence!
Historically, this has been one of the most stressed and treasured teachings of Christianity. As we look at the Scriptures, a literal reading embraces that the meaning of “is” is “is.” Jesus says “This IS my Body… this IS my Blood.” We believe that Christ is present in the Eucharist, fully, “for real” and this is the essence of the doctrine of Real Presence. We accept this “at His word” and as a mystery. Lutherans do not even attempt to get into the science or physics of all this – we don’t believe we are being cannibals (an early charge against Christians!) and we realize that it doesn’t look or taste like anything other than bread and wine, but we take Jesus at His word – and leave it at that. We don’t get into the questions of HOW or WHEN or WHY – we just accept that the word “is” means exists, present, “there.”
But while not specifically a part of our doctrine, we do not deny that bread and wine are present, too. As we look at the Scriptures, we see that after the Consecration, we find the realities referred to as bread, wine, body and blood – all FOUR, without any distinction or differentiation, and thus we just accept that all 4 are “real” and “there.” In a sense, all 4 are the “is.” The focus, of course, is entirely on the Body and Blood (so we speak of it as such), the bread and wine are fairly irrelevant (you can have bread and wine any day!) but we accept that bread and wine are equally “really there,” too. It is only the bread and wine that our senses perceive, but our faith perceives much more! The Eucharist is not just bread and wine, it is also Jesus! This is Real Presence.
Newer Catholic View….
Real Presence was the view from the earliest Christians, and is still the doctrine among Lutheran, Orthodox and many Anglican and some Methodist Christians. Technically, it's still ONE view of The Catholic Church although such has been largely "buried" by a new concept it invented in the Middle Ages called “Transubstantiation.” Technically, the unique Catholic dogma of Transubstantiation (1551) does not replace Real Presence (since, again, Real Presence is simply the literal affirmation that Christ is literally present) but adds to it.
The Catholic Dogma of Transubstantiation dogmatically rejects 2 of the 4 realities spoken of in the biblical texts – the bread and the wine. The new Catholic dogma states the bread and wine were converted into the body and blood (in a specific sense) and thus cease to exist in any real way (Catholicism says they exist only as an “Aristotelian Accidents” - from the pagan philosopher Aristotle’s theory of accidents); the Catholic Church now speaks only of the “appearance” of bread and wine “remaining” but insists that the bread and wine are not really “there.” The bread and wine were “transubstantiated” (from the concept of alchemy) into the Body and Blood of Jesus.
Transubstantiation was not a dogma in Luther’s day, but Luther and the Luther fathers did not embrace it. Nor did Reformed or Anglican Christians. They found this theory (coming out of medieval Catholic Scholasticism) to be textually baseless (again – the Bible says “is” not “converts” and the Bible speaks equally of FOUR things after the Consecration – Body, Blood, bread and wine) and simple irrelevant - a classic case of just going too far, applying too much human “stuff’. It does nothing to affirm Real Presence and focuses instead on the bread and wine – which just doesn’t matter much. There’s nothing achieved by embracing two abiblical pagan theories – from alchemy and Aristotle – to try to deny the bread and wine, especially since we all agree the bread and wine are not the point anyway. Lutherans simply don’t get into “scientific” theories here (much less make them dogma!), we rather leave the issue exactly where God does, and consider the issue as Mystery. If someone wants to embrace some pious opinion about HOW of all this (or a host of other matters), fine – but that doesn’t make it dogma. We simply embrace that what is said is literally true: IS…. BODY, BLOOD, BREAD, WINE. We just accept that. All of that. As mystery. Letting God have the last word.
Transubstantiation requires a “split interpretation” of the texts whereas 2 realities are taken literally and 2 are taken figuratively (essentially explained away) in spite of no textual indication for such a distinction. The 16th Century reformer Zwingli eventually did the same thing, only embracing the bread and wine as “real” and the body and blood as not “real,” requiring the same “split interpretation” of the texts, the same need to explain away 2 of the 4 things the Bible speaks of after the Consecration. Many modern
“Evangelical” Protestants (especially in the USA) eventually embraced Zwingli’s view. It affirms the bread and wine are “real” but the Body and Blood are not; they are “present” only in some symbolic “sense.”
Newer "Evangelical" View...
While Lutherans find the new Catholic essential denial of the bread and wine as pretty irrelevant (they don’t really matter), we find the typical Zwinglian/Evangelical denial of the Body and Blood more troubling – Jesus does matter!!! But in both cases, the Mystery is being subjected to science concepts, the issue seems to be what “can’t” be instead of what Scripture simply says is. Lutherans believe we should leave it as the glorious Mystery the Bible presents, letting God have the last word. It doesn’t matter if our brains can explain things scientifically, if we can’t explain “how can that be?” What matters is that our faith embraces the Mystery of Christ’s presence. Lutherans stick with the ancient, biblical affirmation of Real Presence – adding or subtracting nothing from it.
See below...
.
While this Sacrament doesn’t play a huge role in Scripture, we know that it did in the earliest church. Christians cherished this Sacrament and included it in their Sunday worship.
Let’s carefully look at the relevant Scriptures here…
Matthew 26:26-29, “While they were still eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to His disciples, saying, ‘Take and eat, this is my body.’ Then He took the cup, (wine) gave thanks and offered it to them saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the new covenant which is poured out for many of you for the forgiveness of sins. I tell, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine (wine) again until I drink it anew with you in my Father’s kingdom.”
1 Corinthians 11:23-29, “Jesus took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, ‘This is my body which is for you, do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, He took the cup saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood, do this, as often as you drink it, remembering me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes. Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner is guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself, 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 upon himself.”
Real Presence!
Historically, this has been one of the most stressed and treasured teachings of Christianity. As we look at the Scriptures, a literal reading embraces that the meaning of “is” is “is.” Jesus says “This IS my Body… this IS my Blood.” We believe that Christ is present in the Eucharist, fully, “for real” and this is the essence of the doctrine of Real Presence. We accept this “at His word” and as a mystery. Lutherans do not even attempt to get into the science or physics of all this – we don’t believe we are being cannibals (an early charge against Christians!) and we realize that it doesn’t look or taste like anything other than bread and wine, but we take Jesus at His word – and leave it at that. We don’t get into the questions of HOW or WHEN or WHY – we just accept that the word “is” means exists, present, “there.”
But while not specifically a part of our doctrine, we do not deny that bread and wine are present, too. As we look at the Scriptures, we see that after the Consecration, we find the realities referred to as bread, wine, body and blood – all FOUR, without any distinction or differentiation, and thus we just accept that all 4 are “real” and “there.” In a sense, all 4 are the “is.” The focus, of course, is entirely on the Body and Blood (so we speak of it as such), the bread and wine are fairly irrelevant (you can have bread and wine any day!) but we accept that bread and wine are equally “really there,” too. It is only the bread and wine that our senses perceive, but our faith perceives much more! The Eucharist is not just bread and wine, it is also Jesus! This is Real Presence.
Newer Catholic View….
Real Presence was the view from the earliest Christians, and is still the doctrine among Lutheran, Orthodox and many Anglican and some Methodist Christians. Technically, it's still ONE view of The Catholic Church although such has been largely "buried" by a new concept it invented in the Middle Ages called “Transubstantiation.” Technically, the unique Catholic dogma of Transubstantiation (1551) does not replace Real Presence (since, again, Real Presence is simply the literal affirmation that Christ is literally present) but adds to it.
The Catholic Dogma of Transubstantiation dogmatically rejects 2 of the 4 realities spoken of in the biblical texts – the bread and the wine. The new Catholic dogma states the bread and wine were converted into the body and blood (in a specific sense) and thus cease to exist in any real way (Catholicism says they exist only as an “Aristotelian Accidents” - from the pagan philosopher Aristotle’s theory of accidents); the Catholic Church now speaks only of the “appearance” of bread and wine “remaining” but insists that the bread and wine are not really “there.” The bread and wine were “transubstantiated” (from the concept of alchemy) into the Body and Blood of Jesus.
Transubstantiation was not a dogma in Luther’s day, but Luther and the Luther fathers did not embrace it. Nor did Reformed or Anglican Christians. They found this theory (coming out of medieval Catholic Scholasticism) to be textually baseless (again – the Bible says “is” not “converts” and the Bible speaks equally of FOUR things after the Consecration – Body, Blood, bread and wine) and simple irrelevant - a classic case of just going too far, applying too much human “stuff’. It does nothing to affirm Real Presence and focuses instead on the bread and wine – which just doesn’t matter much. There’s nothing achieved by embracing two abiblical pagan theories – from alchemy and Aristotle – to try to deny the bread and wine, especially since we all agree the bread and wine are not the point anyway. Lutherans simply don’t get into “scientific” theories here (much less make them dogma!), we rather leave the issue exactly where God does, and consider the issue as Mystery. If someone wants to embrace some pious opinion about HOW of all this (or a host of other matters), fine – but that doesn’t make it dogma. We simply embrace that what is said is literally true: IS…. BODY, BLOOD, BREAD, WINE. We just accept that. All of that. As mystery. Letting God have the last word.
Transubstantiation requires a “split interpretation” of the texts whereas 2 realities are taken literally and 2 are taken figuratively (essentially explained away) in spite of no textual indication for such a distinction. The 16th Century reformer Zwingli eventually did the same thing, only embracing the bread and wine as “real” and the body and blood as not “real,” requiring the same “split interpretation” of the texts, the same need to explain away 2 of the 4 things the Bible speaks of after the Consecration. Many modern
“Evangelical” Protestants (especially in the USA) eventually embraced Zwingli’s view. It affirms the bread and wine are “real” but the Body and Blood are not; they are “present” only in some symbolic “sense.”
Newer "Evangelical" View...
While Lutherans find the new Catholic essential denial of the bread and wine as pretty irrelevant (they don’t really matter), we find the typical Zwinglian/Evangelical denial of the Body and Blood more troubling – Jesus does matter!!! But in both cases, the Mystery is being subjected to science concepts, the issue seems to be what “can’t” be instead of what Scripture simply says is. Lutherans believe we should leave it as the glorious Mystery the Bible presents, letting God have the last word. It doesn’t matter if our brains can explain things scientifically, if we can’t explain “how can that be?” What matters is that our faith embraces the Mystery of Christ’s presence. Lutherans stick with the ancient, biblical affirmation of Real Presence – adding or subtracting nothing from it.
See below...
.