This Is My Body

And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me. LUKE 22:19

No subject caused Luther more grief, or brought out more of his stubbornness, than the Lord’s Supper. It divided him first from Rome and then, more painfully, from fellow Reformers who agreed with him on almost everything else. Readers who come from other traditions will find some of what follows hard to accept, and they should know at the outset that this chapter describes a place where sincere Christians have disagreed for five hundred years. But it is impossible to understand Luther without understanding why this mattered to him so much. For him, the Supper was the gospel in bread and wine, and the heart of it was two words: for you.

Against the captivity

In 1520 Luther wrote On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church, the most radical of his treatises that year. In it he argued that the Supper had been held captive in three ways. First, the cup had been withheld from the laity, though Christ said, Drink ye all of it. Second, the church had bound consciences to the philosophical theory of transubstantiation, which explained how the bread became Christ’s body in the language of Aristotle; Luther believed that Christ was truly present, but thought no one should be forced to accept a particular explanation of how. Third, and worst, the Mass had been turned into a sacrifice offered by the priest to God, a good work performed for the living and the dead, and sold for money.

That third captivity struck at the gospel itself. The Supper, Luther said, is not something we offer to God. It is something God gives to us: a testament, a promise sealed by Christ’s death, handing us the forgiveness of sins. To turn it into our work was to turn the gift upside down.

For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. HEBREWS 10:14

His early sermon on Christ’s sufferings had already made the point sharply. Those who think it is enough simply to attend Mass, as if the ceremony worked by itself, miss its purpose, which is to bring the sufferings of Christ home to us. He asks:

“For what help is it to you, that God is God, if he is not God to you?”

Given for you

In the Small Catechism, Luther explains the Supper with the same simplicity he used for baptism. It is the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, under the bread and wine, given for Christians to eat and drink, instituted by Christ Himself. What does it give? The words tell us: given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. And where there is forgiveness of sins, Luther adds, there is also life and salvation. Who receives it worthily? The one who believes those words, for you.

For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. MATTHEW 26:28

The Supper, then, is not first a memorial of an absent Christ, nor a proof of our devotion, but a meal in which the present Christ gives Himself and His forgiveness to sinners. Luther urged troubled believers to come often, precisely because they were troubled. The Supper was medicine for the sick, not a reward for the healthy.

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? 1 CORINTHIANS 10:16

Marburg

In the 1520s Luther found himself facing Reformers who read the words This is my body differently. Ulrich Zwingli of Zurich, and others with him, argued that is here means signifies, as when Christ says I am the door. The bread represents Christ’s body; the Supper is a memorial and a pledge of faith. Christ’s body, they argued, is in heaven at the right hand of God and cannot be in many places at once.

Luther would not accept it. The words say is, he insisted, and we have no right to change them. Christ, who is God, can be present as He wills; the right hand of God is not a place in the sky but God’s power, which is everywhere. In October 1529 the Landgrave Philip of Hesse brought the two sides together at his castle at Marburg, hoping to unite the Protestants against their enemies. Luther is said to have chalked the words This is my body on the table before him and refused to move from them. The theologians agreed on fourteen of fifteen articles of faith. On one point within the last article, the bodily presence of Christ in the bread, they could not agree, and they parted without fellowship at the Lord’s Table.

Take, eat; this is my body. MATTHEW 26:26

A fair judgement

What are we to make of this? Three things can be said with some confidence. First, Luther was right that the Supper is Christ’s gift before it is our act, and that its heart is the forgiveness of sins. Christians of every view can learn from that. Second, his opponents were not despisers of the sacrament. Zwingli loved Christ and sought faithfully to honour His words, and John Calvin, a little later, taught a real spiritual feeding on Christ in the Supper that stands between the two positions. Third, Luther’s refusal to acknowledge Zwingli and his friends as brothers in Christ, and the harsh language he used about them, did lasting harm. The division of the Protestant churches over the table where Christ prayed for His people to be one is a sorrow, and Luther’s temper made it worse.

Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. EPHESIANS 4:3

The reader who shares Luther’s view will find in his writings a deep and consoling theology of Christ’s nearness. The reader who does not will still find in him a man who took Christ’s words with utter seriousness, and who could not bear to see them softened. Both may learn humility from Marburg.

Coming to the table

However we understand the manner of Christ’s presence, Luther’s pastoral counsel holds. Come to the Supper as a beggar, not as a saint. Examine yourself, not to find whether you are worthy, but to find whether you need forgiveness, and if you do, come. Listen to the words for you, and believe them. And go from the table to love your neighbour, for, as Luther often said, the Supper makes us one loaf with Christ and with each other.

But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. 1 CORINTHIANS 11:28

For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come. 1 CORINTHIANS 11:26

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. The next time you come to the Lord’s Table, listen for the words for you and receive them personally.

2. If you have stayed away from the Supper because you felt unworthy, consider Luther’s counsel that it is medicine for the sick, and speak to your pastor.

3. Learn the view of the Supper held by a Christian tradition other than your own, from its own writers, and pray for its members.

4. Ask whether there is a fellow Christian with whom you have refused fellowship over a secondary matter. Seek to be reconciled as far as conscience allows.

5. After receiving the Supper, look for a practical way to serve someone who shares the same table.

A PRAYER

Lord Jesus Christ, on the night You were betrayed You gave Your disciples bread and wine, and said, This is my body, given for you.

Thank You that at Your table You give and do not demand, and that there You hand me the forgiveness of my sins.

Forgive Your church for the bitterness with which we have argued over Your gift, and make us one as You and the Father are one.

Feed me with Yourself, and send me out to love my neighbour, until You come. Amen.