St. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 11:23-26, wrote: “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.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.” (Cf. Matt. 26:26-29; Mark 14:22-25; Luke 22:14-23)
For centuries, churches and theologians have argued about the Lord’s Supper and how and when Christians partake of Jesus’ body and blood. Does the substance of the bread and wine change into the body and blood of Jesus? Are the body and blood of Jesus present together with the bread and the wine or in, with, and under the forms of bread and wine? At what point in the Lord’s Supper do Christ’s body and blood become present so that Christians may eat and drink of them? Do the bread and wine merely represent or symbolize the body and blood of Christ in a similar way as the Passover lambs offered under the Old Covenant (Exodus 12) symbolized and pointed ahead to Jesus Christ, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29)? What about using unfermented grape juice or bread made with yeast? Can one partake of Christ’s body and blood by dipping the bread into the wine? Are individual wafers and cups OK or must there be one loaf and one cup? Yes, the list of questions could go on, and the disputes will likely continue, too.
We could take sides and join in the arguments, which are based in large part on man-made attempts to explain what occurs in the Lord’s Supper, or we could look at the focus of the Supper in the words of our Lord Jesus.
Notice first that Jesus does not explain how participants in the Lord’s Supper partake of His body and blood. He did not say that the bread and wine are changed into His body and blood. He did not say His body and blood are in, with, and under the forms of bread and wine or somehow included together with the bread and the wine. He did not say His body and blood become present when the words of institution are read, the elements are blessed by the pastor or priest, or when those partaking of the Supper receive them with their mouth or consume them. He said nothing about what should be done with leftover elements following the Supper. He did not require announcing one’s intention to partake or using private confession before the Supper. Again, the list of things not mentioned or taught by Jesus could go on.
What does He say? He says of the bread: “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” He says of the cup (which contained wine in the Passover meal): “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”
Yes, Jesus used the words “this is” of the bread and wine given as His body and His blood, but He used the same words in John 6:33-35 (before the Lord’s Supper was even instituted) when He spoke of Himself as the bread of life, and He used the same words, with the added emphasis of the word “truly,” in John 6:53-58 when He referred to His flesh and His blood as true food and drink that one must partake of to be saved. Jesus’ words in John 6 make clear that He there refers not to the Lord’s Supper but to partaking of Him and His body and blood in faith — to partaking of Him by trusting in Him and His sacrifice on the cross for the sins of the world.
It should be noted that Matthew 26:28 says of the cup: “This is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” Likewise, Mark 14:25 says: “This is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many.” Luke 22:20 says: “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.” The word order is slightly different in the four Lord’s Supper accounts. Yet, in every one of them, Jesus indicates that partaking of the Lord’s Supper is partaking of the new covenant promise of the forgiveness of sins, put in force by the shedding of Jesus’ blood on the cross for the sins of the world (cf. Heb. 8 and 9).
Coming back to the words Jesus spoke when He instituted the Lord’s Supper, words which the Apostle Paul gives us in 1 Corinthians 11, what is the emphasis? What does Jesus clearly command us to do? Jesus said, “Do this in remembrance of Me”; “This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” The Apostle further explains Jesus’ words when he says, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.” We often argue and fight over questions we can’t answer and forget the purpose of this special Supper, which Christ instituted to strengthen and keep us in the faith. It is to remind us and direct our faith to what Jesus did for us when He suffered and died on the cross!
What, then, are we doing in the Lord’s Supper? We remember that Jesus gave His body into death for our sins when He suffered and died on the cross. We remember that He took the full punishment for our sins. He was offered up as our perfect and holy sacrifice for sin. “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isa. 53:6).
We remember that Jesus, by shedding His blood on the cross, put into force a new covenant, a covenant in which God forgives our iniquities and remembers our sins no more (cf. Jer. 31:31-34; Heb. 8:7ff.). We remember that Jesus, the Bread of Life, gave Himself for us that we might partake of His sacrifice in faith and receive the benefits He won for us, the benefits assured to us by His blood, shed to put in place the new covenant of which we become beneficiaries when we place our faith in Christ Jesus and are baptized into His name.
Do St. Paul’s words recorded in 1 Corinthians 10:14-22 about communing or sharing in the body and blood of Christ when we partake of the Lord’s Supper teach transubstantiation or some form of “real presence”? No, they speak of partaking of the Lord’s Supper as a way in which believers partake of Christ’s sacrifice in faith (remembering and trusting in His sacrifice for our sins), and they warn against partaking of sacrifices offered to idols.
And what about Paul’s warning against partaking of the Lord’s Supper unworthily, without self-examination, recorded in 1 Corinthians 11:27-32? Do these words demand the real presence of Christ’s body and blood in the Supper? To say nothing of the respect demanded regarding all the Old Testament sacrifices that merely pointed ahead to Christ, consider the words of Hebrews 10:26-31. If a believer impenitently turning back into willful sin is said to be trampling “the Son of God underfoot” and counting “the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing,” certainly observing the Lord’s Supper without self-examination and remembering the sacrifice Christ made to redeem us makes us guilty of trampling “the Son of God underfoot” and counting “the blood of the covenant by which [we are] sanctified a common thing.” To partake of the Lord’s Supper without a penitent heart and faith in Christ’s sacrifice for mercy is to sin against Christ’s body and blood, given and shed for the remission of our sins.
What’s my point in all this? It’s not to further the arguments but, rather, to redirect our thoughts to what the Lord’s Supper is and should be for believers. Instead of arguing over what is not revealed, let’s focus on what has been revealed (cf. Deut. 29:29): Whenever we partake of the bread and the cup, we are called upon to remember Christ and His perfect sacrifice on the cross for our sins, and we partake of His sacrifice through faith in the promise of God in the new covenant established by Christ’s shed blood: “I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more” (Jer. 31:34).
St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.” Thus, the Lord’s Supper is a proclamation of the fact that Christ’s body was put to death in our stead and His blood was shed to atone for our sins; and, indeed, “it is finished” (John 19:30). Our sins were punished in full on the cross of Jesus — His resurrection is proof (cf. Rom. 4:23-25). Therefore, when we partake of Jesus’ sacrifice for sins by faith, our sins are covered by His blood. We have God’s pardon and forgiveness!
The focus of the Lord’s Supper is to remind us and direct our faith and hope to Jesus and His atoning sacrifice on the cross for the sins of the world until He comes again. And, through faith in Him and what He accomplished for us, we are given to partake of the benefits of Christ’s sacrifice — forgiveness for all our sins and eternal salvation!