What Is The Sacrament Of The Altar?
1 Corinthians 11:23-32
I Corinthians 11:23-25 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”
Dear fellow redeemed in Christ our Lord… I know this is an understatement, but this is absolutely the weirdest Holy Week I have ever experienced as a pastor. And I am certain it is the weirdest one for all of you as well. We have been unable to gather as a full congregation for almost a month. Small family groups and some individuals have been receiving the Sacrament of the Altar by appointment. We are certainly not despising the Sacrament; we just can’t get to it as much as we desire.
And that fact alone has caused me great anxiety for days, because today of ALL days in the Church Year, year we focus almost exclusively on our Lord’s Supper. And in preparing for this day and this sermon I have to admit that I was concerned that I might be “rubbing it in” a bit to do this tonight when almost none of us could commune on this day. I know that none of you would take it that way, but my sinful flesh and stress play weird games in my head.
As some of you may know, many churches around the country – even some Lutheran churches – have tried to “solve the problem” of not having communion in the normal way by introducing the novelty of online communion. This is where the pastor is at the church and the congregation is watching at home, and those at home are to have bread and wine – or grape juice – in front of them. When all are tuned in to the pastor’s broadcast, he says the Words of Institution over the elements at the church, and those at home are to say them along with him over their own elements. Thus, the “magic” of home communion.
I won’t go into the multitude of reasons why this blasphemous idea is so wrong, except to say that no self-respecting Lutheran pastor or congregation would ever entertain such an empty-headed “solution.” It is simply and profoundly devoid of any Scriptural or Confessional basis. Among other things, it teaches that laymen can do the things that only called and ordained pastors are given by our Lord to do.
We have an intense desire and need for the Sacrament of the Altar. It is, as Luther correctly states in the Small Catechism, “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.” But in this current situation we will not set aside our Lord’s Word or His institution, nor will we go against the historic practice of Christ’s Church for the past 20 centuries. We simply have to wait until we can gather together rightly in this place, which we will do in small groups this coming Sunday to celebrate Easter and have the Sacrament. Aside from that and in the meantime, your pastor will come to your home upon your request to bring you Christ’s body and blood properly administered.
As you know, we celebrate the Lord’s Supper often; every Sunday and other times throughout the Church Year. And in practically every sermon, I urge us Christians toward His Holy Supper, to that Holy Communion of the body and blood of Jesus. But today of all days, on this anniversary of Christ’s institution of the Sacrament of the Altar, we do well to consider what the Holy Supper is and what its benefits are.
Consider one of those other names for the Sacrament: it is also known as the “Eucharist,” that is, the “Thanksgiving.” And, indeed, that is exactly what it is – a Eucharist of remembrance. What did Jesus do when He instituted His Supper? As He took the bread and the cup, He gave thanks. The Sacrament is both Christ and the people of Christ all giving thanks to God the Father for the gifts of bread and wine.
But more than that, since the Sacrament of the Altar is the fulfillment and completion of the Old Testament Passover, it is a thanksgiving for God’s deliverance of Israel by means of the Passover Lamb, whose blood kept them safe from death and ushered them out of slavery into freedom.
But more than that, it is the New Covenant or New Testament in the blood of Christ. It is a thanksgiving to God for providing a new and improved Passover (which we also call Easter) – a new Passover that leaves the first one way behind, because we have a better Lamb – Christ, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.
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But more than that, the Sacrament of the Altar is a thanksgiving for the fact that God is providing in this very meal a connection – a communion – between those who eat and drink and the body and blood of Christ. The once-for-all sacrifice of Christ is brought to us here, so that we can benefit from it. The forgiveness of sins that Christ earned for all is delivered to us here as we are made partakers of it; as we, with our sins, are brought into contact with the One who bore our sins on the cross. His death is applied to us; it becomes our death, the one we deserve. And His life is applied to us, so that we feed on the life of Christ. It is literally “medicine” against sin.
Truly this Sacrament is a Eucharist, a thanksgiving; it is Jesus giving thanks to His Father for giving Him a Church, a beloved Bride, for giving Him communicants who believe in Him and who benefit from His sacrifice. And it is we who are giving thanks to the Father for mercifully bringing us together with Christ. We give thanks to God for bringing us into contact with Christ’s true body and blood, for forgiving our sins, and for giving us life and salvation as a gift.
The Sacrament of the Altar is a remembrance, but it is not just a remembrance. It is not as the Evangelicals, the Reformed, the Baptists, and others imagine. If they celebrate the Supper at all, it is viewed only as a way of remembering that Jesus died on the cross some 2,000 years ago. For them, His body and His blood are absent from the bread and the wine, which amounts to a denial of Christ’s words.
When Jesus calls this gift a “remembrance,” and when we use that word, we don’t mean that we are calling the absent Jesus to mind. The fact is, the Sacrament of the Altar is the way in which Jesus specifically instructed His Christians to remember Him who is really present with us in the Sacrament.
We are to remember Him and believe His Words by taking bread, giving thanks, recognizing that this is the true body of Christ that was once given for us on the cross, and is now being given to us in the Sacrament. We are to remember Him by taking a cup of wine, giving thanks, and recognizing that this is the blood of the New Testament, once shed on the cross for the forgiveness of sins and now being administered to us for the forgiveness of sins. And we do so because Christ Himself said so. We believe His words; we don’t try to explain them or understand them. We simply, by God-given faith, believe them.
Whenever you come to the Sacrament, remember the body and blood of Jesus. Remember this true God and true Man, crucified, beaten, bloodied, dead, and sacrificed for all your sins. Remember that the body and blood of Christ were given and shed willingly, for you. Remember Jesus, no longer dead, but risen again and reigning.
Remember Jesus who instituted this meal so that His people should be continually kept in communion with Him who died for them, and should continually receive the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation in this Sacrament.
Whenever you come to the Sacrament, you remember Jesus before the world, proclaiming His death till He comes.
But see, the remembrance He gives you to perform is not like the remembrance of a funeral, with somber sadness. It is not the remembrance of weeping or mourning, or of anger toward a world that hates Jesus and would crucify Him all over again if they had the chance. The remembrance He gives us is a meal of bread and wine, body and blood; a meal of joy and gladness, a meal of forgiveness, life, and salvation.
The Sacrament of the Altar is a meal of thanksgiving – a Eucharist – for fellow believers in Christ who confess Him together as one. It is a meal of thanksgiving to God our Father, and to our crucified and risen Lord Jesus. This is how we remember Him rightly and praise and worship Him for all eternity – as the Lamb who was slain for our redemption, as the Lamb who makes us partakers of His redemption, and as the Lamb who really and truly comes to us with His body and blood.
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
