Winston Churchill honored the memory of the Royal Air Force pilots who sacrificed their lives to guard England during the air war with Germany in World War II. He declared, "Never in the history of mankind have so many owed so much to so few." A similar tribute appears on a memorial plaque in Belgium at the site of the Battle of the Bulge, one of the bloodiest conflicts of World War II. The inscription, in honor of the 101st Airborne Division, reads, "Seldom has so much American blood been shed in the course of a single action. Oh, Lord, help us to remember." These are fitting tributes to the courageous men who sacrificed so much in battle. We want to remember those who have sacrificed their lives in order to defend us from our enemies and to protect us from harm. We should remember. We don't want to forget.
There is another who sacrificed His life for us. We respect the soldier who died on our behalf, but this Man's sacrifice on our behalf was infinitely greater, and the stakes involved were infinitely higher. This Man is Jesus of Nazareth. His suffering upon the cross was far beyond anything we can imagine and infinitely above what any other human has ever experienced. I am referring not merely to His physical suffering, as great as that was, but to the spiritual dimension of His agony, which is far beyond what we can comprehend. He sacrificed His life in this unique act of atonement to deliver us from Satan, sin and death, to save us for the eternal judgment our sins deserve, to make us right with God. Never in the history of humanity have so many owed so much to one Man. We should remember. We don't want to forget. So we regularly, frequently partake of the Lord's Supper. Jesus said, "Do this in remembrance of Me."
In our passage today, Jesus is instituting the Lord's Supper. He is commanding us to eat bread and to drink wine and to do it in remembrance of Him.
The Lord has given us only two sacraments, baptism and the Lord's Supper. I want to begin today by comparing and contrasting them with each other. Baptism is the sacrament of spiritual birth, and the Lord's Supper is the sacrament of spiritual nurture.
First, let's look at baptism. In John chapter three, Jesus said to Nicodemus, "Unless one is born again or born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Baptism with water sacramentally symbolizes this spiritual birth. We baptize by applying some water from above to a person. This baptism with water symbolizes Jesus' baptizing with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit in several places in Scripture is symbolized by water because water cleanses and water gives life. This is what the Holy Spirit does when He applies to us the redemption accomplished by Christ. He brings us to spiritual life, and he washes away our sins. The Scripture says that Jesus pours out His Holy Spirit upon His people. The Holy Spirit is a divine Person and He is not literally poured out, but, as I have said, the Holy Spirit is often symbolized in Scripture with water. So the language of Jesus' pouring out His Holy Spirit upon His people is a figurative way of saying that Jesus sends His Holy Spirit to apply His redemptive work to His people, to wash away their sins and to give them spiritual life. When we are saved, the Holy Spirit comes down upon us, creates faith in our hearts, and thus unites us to Christ. The Holy Spirit baptizes us into Christ, immerses us into Christ, puts us into a permanent mystical union with Christ. The human experience of this mystical union is saving faith. This is what is symbolized by water baptism. I am not saying this is what happens at the time of water baptism. This is what is symbolized by water baptism.
Now how many times are you born? Only once. In like manner, we are baptized only once, because baptism is the sacrament of the new birth. And what did you do in order to be born? Nothing at all. It just happened to you. In like manner, you are just the passive recipient of the waters of baptism. You are just there, and the waters of baptism are applied to you.
The Lord's Supper is the sacrament of spiritual nurture. How many times do you eat? Many times. How often do you eat? You eat frequently and regularly. In like manner, you partake of the Lord's Supper frequently and regularly. When you eat, do you have an active role? Yes, you do. You feed yourself. In like manner, the Lord's Supper is an active sacrament. You take, you eat, you drink, you do this in remembrance, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes.
We saw the new birth in John chapter 3. We read about spiritual eating and drinking in John chapter 6, verses 53 and 54:
These verses do not directly refer to the Lord's Supper. If they did, then everyone who ever partakes of the Lord's Supper is going to heaven: "Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day." We know that partaking of the Lord's Supper does not guarantee that a person is going to heaven. Some people join the church for a time and then later deny the faith. Jesus voiced these words recorded in John chapter six about a year before He instituted the Lord's Supper. Jesus is not talking directly about the Lord's Supper in John chapter six but rather about that spiritual truth which the Lord's Supper illustrates and points to. In John chapter six, Jesus is using eating and drinking as a metaphor for depending upon Jesus for spiritual life and nourishment. Everyone who does that is going to heaven, and doing that is what the Lord's Supper symbolizes.
53 Then Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. 54 "Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day." Bread nourishes, sustains and maintains the life of the body. Wine nourishes, refreshes, strengthens and gladdens. That is what the sacrificial work of Jesus does for us spiritually. We must constantly commune with Christ, or we will spiritually weaken and die. When we abide in Christ as a branch abides in a vine, we spiritually thrive and bear much fruit. When we neglect communion with Christ, we are like a branch severed from the vine. The branch is deprived of the life sustaining sap, and it withers and dies.
So the Lord's Supper is the active sacrament of spiritual nourishment, the repeated sacrament that we should partake of regularly and frequently.
The symbolism of the Lord's Supper is that of eating and drinking. Jesus said that the sacramental bread which we break is His body, and the sacramental drink which we bless is His blood. In what sense is that true? In what way does the Lord's Supper involve the literal body and blood of Christ? There are four different suggested answers, and I want to examine each one. None of these views take Jesus' words in a strictly literal sense, and each has a different explanation of their meaning. To save time, I will talk only about the bread because the same principles will apply to the wine.
We'll begin with the view that is furthest from our own, and that is the view of Rome, which is called transubstantiation. The view of Rome is that the bread retains the outer form of bread, but the invisible substance of the bread becomes the literal body of Jesus. The bread still looks, feels, smells and tastes like bread, but it is really the flesh of Jesus. Everyone who eats the bread eats the flesh of Jesus whether he eats in faith or eats in unbelief. According to this view, when Jesus held up the bread and said, "This is My body," what He meant was, "This bread still has the outer form of bread, but its imperceptible inner substance has become My flesh. This bread has become an amalgam, a mixture, a compound of bread and flesh with the attributes of the bread (or the accidents of bread, to use the philosophical term) and the substance of human flesh." The problem with this view is that it says that Jesus' body and blood are here on earth every time someone celebrates the Lord's Supper. That simply is not true. Jesus is still with us on earth in terms of His divinity and through His Holy Spirit, and that is why Jesus could promise that He will be with us always, even to the end of the age. Jesus' humanity, however, is not on earth but in heaven at the right hand of God the Father. Jesus' in His humanity will not return to earth until that event we call the Second Coming:
If Jesus' body and blood are already here on earth every time we partake of the Lord's Supper, then the Second Coming makes no sense. Jesus, in His humanity, is in heaven, and will stay there until His bodily return to earth at the Second Coming.
John 16:7 7 "Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. Acts 3:20-21 20 "Jesus Christ ... was preached to you before, 21 "whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, ... Philippians 3:20-21 20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, ... 1 Corinthians 11:26 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes. The second view is the Lutheran view. This view says that when Jesus' was glorified, His physical body became omnipresent. His physical body is now everywhere, but it is especially present in the communion bread like magnetism is present in a magnet. According to this view, when Jesus held up the bread and said, "This is My body," what He meant was, "This bread is still bread, but My body is now in and with and under it."
The problem with this view is that Jesus' glorified body is not omnipresent. It is still a localized human body. When Stephen was martyred and looked into heaven, He saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God with a localized body. Other verses tell us that Jesus is now seated at the right hand of God:
Also, the Bible teaches that when Jesus returns and we are resurrected, we shall be made like Him:
Colossians 3:1 1 If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Hebrews 10:12-13 12 But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, 13 from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. When we are resurrected, we are going to be like Jesus in His resurrection body, and we are not going to be omnipresent.
I John 3:22 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. The third view is called the Zwinglian view. According to this view, the bread and wine are bare symbols. Every quarter has an image of George Washington on it, and that is what I mean by a bare symbol. That image on the quarter symbolizes George Washington, but it does not put you into any real communion with George Washington. All that image on the quarter can do is to point your thoughts to George Washington. The only communion you can have with George Washington is in your imagination. According to this view, when Jesus held up the bread and said, "This is My body," what He meant was, "This bread represents My body." This view is getting close to the truth because the bread and wine do only symbolize the body and blood of Jesus. The problem with it is that the New Testament teaches that we can have a real communion or fellowship with the real body and blood of Jesus through the communion service:
The Zwinglian view does not take into proper account the powerful work of the Holy Spirit through the communion service. There is more at work here than our imagination.
1 Corinthians 10:16 16 The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? The fourth view is Calvin's view, much of which is well summarized by question 170 of the Westminster Larger Catechism:
Q. How do they that worthily communicate in the Lord's Supper feed upon the body and blood of Christ therein? A. As the body and blood of Christ are not corporally or carnally present in, with, or under the bread and wine in the Lord's Supper, and yet are spiritually present to the faith of the receiver, no less truly and really than the elements themselves are to their outward senses; so they that worthily communicate in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, do therein feed upon the body and blood of Christ, not after a corporal and carnal, but in a spiritual manner; yet truly and really, while by faith they receive and apply unto themselves Christ crucified, and all the benefits of his death.
According to this view, the bread and wine represent the body and blood of Jesus. They do not in any way become the literal body and blood themselves. We do not literally chew on Jesus' flesh with our teeth or literally drink Jesus' blood with our mouths. But when we partake of the Lord's Supper, the Holy Spirit uses the symbolic message that Jesus is our spiritual nourishment, to strengthen our faith in Jesus. And faith is the human experience of our mystical union with Christ. How can we have this mystical union with Jesus in His humanity if Jesus is now at the right hand of God and is not returning to earth bodily until the Second Coming? The Holy Spirit accomplishes this in a way beyond our understanding, not through Jesus' coming down to earth at this time, but through our mystically ascending to heaven. The Christian's identification with the risen Christ is so real and significant that there is a genuine sense in which the Christian is now where Christ is. The Christian is seated with Christ in the heavenlies (Ephesians 2:4-6). The Christian has come to the heavenly Jerusalem and to Jesus and His blood (Hebrews 12:22-24). We are where Jesus is through the mystical union effected by the Holy Spirit. Our subjective experience of the mystical union grows as our faith grows. The Holy Spirit uses the communion service to increase our faith, to strengthen our faith, to confirm our faith. Thus through the communion service, we can have communion with the total person of Christ, including His body which was broken and His blood which was shed for our salvation.Beloved, by eating this bread in faith, we have communion with the real physical body of Christ, and by drinking this wine in faith, we have communion with the real physical blood of Christ. The communion is in proportion to our faith. If a person partakes with no faith, there is no communion. The message of the communion meal is that Jesus' sacrificial death is our spiritual life and nourishment. To the degree that the Holy Spirit uses that message to strengthen our faith in Jesus, to that degree we have a spiritual communion with the total person of Jesus. In this way, the Holy Spirit effects what the Lord's Supper symbolizes for those who believe. Our bodies are nourished through the earthly bread and wine, but our souls are nourished through the heavenly body and blood.
Here is another way to explain what happens at the communion service. The Holy Spirit uses the communion service to strengthen our faith and thus to strengthen our subjective experience of the mystical union with Christ. The mystical union enables us to commune with the humanity of Christ as bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. Through the miracle and mystery of the incarnation, our communion with the humanity of Christ enables us to commune with the divinity of Christ. Through the mystery of the Trinity, our communion with the divinity of Christ enables us to commune with the Godhead. And the Godhead is the source of all our spiritual life and strength.
We need this spiritual communion with Christ which the Holy Spirit provides through the communion service. Apart from our communion with Jesus, we spiritually weaken and we cannot live for God. May God use our partaking of communion to strengthen our faith in Christ. May He feed us, nourish us, strengthen us, refresh us that we may leave this place better prepared to live for Him.