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“As often as you eat the bread and drink the cup, you are proclaiming the Lord’s death until He come.”
᛭ INI ᛭
There’s something wonderful about Communion. It’s the same thing that’s wonderful about Holy Baptism or Holy Absolution. It’s the same thing that’s wonderful about the Scriptures and Sermons. But today “the holy Christian and Apostolic Church” (Nicene Creed) celebrates our Lord’s Last Will and Testament, the Sacrament of the Altar, Communion, the Lord’s Supper.
Now, the reason that Communion is wonderful, along with all the other Gifts of our Lord, is Christ and what He has done for you. “He died for [you] and shed His blood on the cross for [you] for the forgiveness of sins.” (Christian-Question 15) That’s “what Christ has done for you that you trust in Him.” (Christian-Question 15) It’s why He was “incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the [blessèd] Virgin Mary,” why He “became man,” why “He was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate,” why “He suffered and was buried.”
The Lord’s Suffering and the Lord’s Supper go together, like that first Holy Week. You can’t separate them! The death of your Lord fills the Sacrament with meaning and purpose. Without Christ’s resurrection from the dead our preaching is useless and our faith is in vain, so also without Christ’s sacrificial death Communion’s useless and it’s pointless to take it.
Christ’s crucifixion is the wonderful thing about Communion, but this also means something beautiful for you, too! It’s what St. Paul, by the Holy Spirit, says, “As often as you eat the bread and drink the cup, you are proclaiming the Lord’s death until He comes.” The beautiful thing St. Paul’s driving at is this:
THROUGH TAKING COMMUNION, YOU ACTUALLY PARTICIPATE IN CHRIST’S DEATH!
(I. Through taking Communion you participate in Christ’s death by receiving the means of His death.)
Now, when I say that THROUGH TAKING COMMUNION, YOU ACTUALLY PARTICIPATE IN CHRIST’S DEATH, I mean, first of all, that you participate in His death by receiving the means of His death. You receive His body that was given into death and His blood that was shed for you. That’s what the bread and wine are.
Maybe you think theology is hard. It’s not necessarily so. It just often uses specific language, terms, and methods. Here’s a counter example. I think farming is hard, but for you tending a garden, or prepping and planting a field, or taking care of cattle and calves isn’t all that challenging a concept. Sure, there’s some stuff you know well, some not so well, things you have to be reminded of, things you learn a bit more year after year. Same thing with the Bible and biblical doctrine.
When it comes to a “meet, right, and salutary” understanding of the Lord’s Supper, it’s as simple as this: “Is” means “is.” All Lutheran preaching, teaching, devotion, reflection, and meditation on the Lord’s Supper is just rejoicing in Christ’s little word “is.” We take our Lord at His Word. We don’t try to use philosophy to over explain it like the Roman Catholics. We don’t try to explain it away as symbolic like most other Protestants. Our Lord and our God, IHS Christ, says “This [bread] is My body; “this cup [of wine] is the new Testament in My blood,” and we simply go, “Then, I’ve got nothing else. I guess that’s what it is! Christ says it is. Who am I to say more or less?”
Communion’s bread is Christ’s body not because you believe it or eat it, but because it’s blessed with His almighty Word. Same thing with the wine: your faith, feelings, motives, and drinking don’t make it Christ’s blood. His Word consecrates it, blesses it, makes it holy so that it’s His blood. It’s bread; it’s wine—not just plain bread or wine, but blessed bread, blessed wine, which are, by His blessing, His body and blood.
(II. Through taking Communion you participate in Christ’s death by receiving the benefits of His death.)
THROUGH TAKING COMMUNION, YOU ACTUALLY PARTICIPATE IN CHRIST’S DEATH! You receive the means of His death: His body and blood. Through Communion you also participate in Christ’s death by receiving the benefits of His death—forgiveness, life, and salvation. As Christ Himself says, “This [bread] is My body, which is given for you. This cup [of wine] is My blood, shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” Lutheran theology also rejoices in those little words, too: “for you.”
Christ is “the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world” by His death. “He Himself bore our sins in His own body…by His wounds you have been healed.” (1-Pt 2) “You were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold…but with the precious blood of Christ.” (1-Pt 1) “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.” (Eph 1) “He Himself is our Peace,” (Eph 2), “having made peace by the blood of His cross.” (Col 2) “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood remains in Me and I in him, and has eternal life, and I will resurrect him on the Last Day.” (Jn 6)
These are all the benefits of Communion, and they’re received by faith alone. True faith trusts Christ and trusts His tiny little words: “is”—“is body,” “is blood;” “for you;” “for the forgiveness of your sins.” “Whoever believes these words has exactly what they say.” (SC) Whoever does not, whoever doesn’t discern the Lord’s body, “eats and drinks judgment on himself,” consumes Christ’s body and blood for judgement. Those with faith in Christ and His Words, repent of their sins, don’t want to live in them anymore, and look for Christ’s Sacrament to free them from their sins. To them no harm shall ever come from communing. For them Communion is “φάρμακον ἀθανασιας, ἀντίδοτος τοῦ μὴ ἀποθανεῖν, ἀλλὰ ζῆν ἐν ΙΗΣ Χριστῷ διὰ παντός.” (Ign-Eph 20)
(III. Through taking Communion, you participate in Christ’s death because by receiving you’re proclaiming Christ’s death.)
THROUGH TAKING COMMUNION, YOU ACTUALLY PARTICIPATE IN CHRIST’S DEATH!—not only because you receive the means as well as the benefit of Christ’s death, but by receiving you’re proclaiming Christ’s death. Taking communion is part and parcel with preaching Christ’s death. As Paul says, “As often as you eat the bread and drink the cup, you are proclaiming the Lord’s death until He come.”
“Preaching Christ crucified” doesn’t just mean Pastors from the pulpit declaring Christ died for your sins. It’s also you receiving communion. Eating and drinking Christ’s body and blood is in itself, in that very act, proclaiming Christ’s death. Taking communion proclaims that you believe He died for you, that His blood sets you free to be part of the people of God. Communing proclaims to the members of our congregations that you not only agree with the teachings, but that you believe that only IHS Christ, the Son of the Living God, can truly make you better and holy and righteous and free from sinful behavior, that He by His almighty blessing gives you His body to eat and His blood to drink for the forgiveness of your sins.
So, you proclaim at church, too! Not by giving out the body and blood of Christ, but by receiving it! THROUGH TAKING COMMUNION, YOU ACTUALLY PARTICIPATE IN CHRIST’S DEATH!—“you proclaim the Lord’s death” for you and for all “until He comes.” And so “the holy Christian and apostolic Church” ordered its life around the Altar, as the Book of Acts tells us. It was more than just the daily or weekly congregational gathering. It also affected the weekly life of individual Christians. When it came to the practice of fasting, even from the earliest days of the Christian Church, Thursdays were NOT a fasting day. It’s also why the Congregation at Prayer uses the LSB suggestion of praying every Thursday “for fruitful and salutary use of the blessed Sacrament of Christ’s body and blood.” (LSB 294)
(Conclusion.)
THROUGH TAKING COMMUNION, YOU ACTUALLY PARTICIPATE IN CHRIST’S DEATH!
The grave danger is to think that participating in Christ’s death isn’t actually all that big of a deal. There’s no real reason to order your entire life, your entire week around it. Christ our Lord says, “If anyone would follow Me, let him take up his cross and follow Me.” (Mt 16) To “offer your body as a living sacrifice” (Rom 12) in self-less service toward those around you. The only way such good works are good and pleasing to God are by faith in Christ, and faith is Christ is strengthened through taking communion, which is also how you participate in Christ’s death.
Yes, you also participate in Christ’s death by “[sermons] and God’s Word,” (SC) by Holy Baptism and Holy Absolution, but tonight’s Holy Thursday, so we’re taking up Communion. Christ dies for you, but it does you no good unless He brings its benefits to you. So, the death of your Lord fills the Sacrament with meaning and purpose, for without Christ’s sacrificial death Communion’s useless and it’s pointless to take it.
But Christ is crucified, the blessed bread and wine are His body and blood, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins, and “as often as you eat the bread and drink the cup, you are proclaiming the Lord’s death until He come,” which is to say:
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