THE LORD'S SUPPER
(It is also called communion, the Table, the Holy Eucharist ("thanksgiving"), and Mass.)
Here are the primary Scriptural passages concerning the Supper:
Matthew 26:26-30— While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, "Take and eat, this is my body." Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it anew with you in my Father's kingdom."
Mark 14:22-25— While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, "Take it; this is my body." Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, and they all drank from it. "This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many," he said to them. "I tell you the truth, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it anew in the kingdom of God."
Luke 22:14-20— When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. And he said to them,"I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God." After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, "Take this and divide it among you. For I tell you I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes."… And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me." In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you."
I Corinthians 10:16-17— Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread which we break a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.
I Corinthians 11:23-33— For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me." In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me." For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. But if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment. When we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world. So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for each other. If anyone is hungry, he should eat at home, so that when you meet together it may not result in judgment. And when I come I will give further directions.
A personal word.
I trust you will take the time to study and reflect on these important passages. The plain words of each passage make it clear we are actually taking Christ's body into our body. We are truly "participating" in Christ's body, blood, and death.
It is amazing to me how we can believe in God Almighty to do so many things from creating the Heavens through His Word, to creating man out of earth, to becoming a baby in a manger, and providing all our needs—yet we have a difficult time believing His body and blood are in the elements just because we cannot reason this out. What kind of trust is this? Why has the Lord allowed us to fall so far away from the truth?
We have fallen from the truth. It is out of God's grace and mercy that he does not discipline all of us with "sickness" and "sleep." This happened to the Corinthians because they were treating the Supper as any other supper—that is a supper without the real body and blood of Christ. God, I fear, is ready to discipline us most severely. We must begin to judge ourselves! May God continue to have grace and mercy on us.
My solution in a nutshell:
It is my conviction that the lukewarmness of our age can only, as a means of the Spirit, be warmed to truth and made zealous to good works by the reading, study, and understanding of Scriptures, especially as taught and expressed in the writings of Martin Luther.
Let us make our beginning…
A compilation of Luther's teachings follows. These quotes are taken from about ten volumes of his works, especially from his four volumes entitled "Word and Sacrament." I pray you will enjoy this "study" as much as I have enjoyed putting it together. May God give you a teachable heart and mind. "A good word finds a good heart."
(Bold print is mine; normal print, including italicized for emphasis, is Martin Luther's.)
Luther suggested we memorize this:
HERE MY LORD HAS GIVEN ME HIS BODY AND BLOOD IN THE BREAD AND WINE, IN ORDER THAT I SHOULD EAT AND DRINK. AND THEY ARE TO BE MY VERY OWN, SO THAT I MAY BE CERTAIN THAT MY SINS ARE FORGIVEN, THAT I AM TO BE FREE OFDEATHANDHELL,HAVEHEAVEN,ETERNAL LIFE, AND BE A CHILD OF GOD AND AN HEIR OF HEAVEN. THEREFORE I GO TO THE SACRAMENT TO SEEK THESE THINGS. I AM A POOR SINNER WITH DEATH BEFORE ME, I MUST GO THROUGH IT; AND THE DEVIL THREATENS ME WITH ALL KINDS OF TROUBLE AND DANGER. BECAUSE I AM IN SIN, A CAPTIVE OF DEATH AND THE DEVIL, BECAUSE I FEEL I AM WEAK IN FAITH, COLD IN LOVE, WAYWARD, IMPATIENT, ENVIOUS, WITH SIN CLINGING TO ME BEFORE AND BEHIND; THEREFORE I COME HITHER WHERE I FIND AND HEAR CHRIST'S WORD THAT I SHALL RECEIVE FORGIVENESS OF SINS.
I. Introduction
A past problem present… So we at present see to our sorrow that many masses are held and yet the Christian fellowship which should be preached, practiced, and kept before us by Christ's example has virtually perished. (Luther used the word "mass" for communion. Don't be threatened.)
We are destroying ourselves… The more precious the sacrament, the greater the harm which comes upon the whole community of saints from its misuse.
Are you willing to be carried into eternal life by the Table?… The sacrament is for us a ford, a bridge, a door, a ship, and a stretcher, by which and in which we pass from this world into eternal life.
How much do we love God's promises?… The mass is the foremost promise of all.
The Supper is our entrance into Eternal Life… The bread is truly the sacrament of the dying and departing; for in it we commemorate the passing of Christ out of this world, that we may imitate him...Baptism may be allotted to the beginning and entire course of life, while the bread belongs to the end and to death...He clearly seems to have instituted the sacrament of the bread with a view to our entrance into the life to come.
These words are life itself—we must hold fast to them… Everything depends on these words. Every Christian should and must know them and hold them fast. He must never let anyone takethemawayfromhimbyanyotherkindofteaching,even though it were an angel from heaven. They are words of life and of salvation, so that whoever believes in them has all his sins forgiven through that faith; he is a child of life and has overcome death and hell. Language cannot express how great and mighty these words are, for they are the sum and substance of the whole gospel.
Is this us in the mirror?!… On the other hand, when a person abstains from the sacrament and does not use it, then harm has to follow and it cannot but happen that his faith daily becomes increasingly weak and cold; as a result, then, it must furthermore follow that he becomes lazy and cold in his love for the neighbor, sluggish and averse to doing good works, unfit and unwilling to resist evil. So with the passage of time he finds less delight in the sacrament until he becomes completely tired of thinking about his dear Savior.
If you sow to the wind, you will reap the whirlwind… Christ says, "If you do not want to eat and drink of my Supper which I have prepared for you out of deep affection, I shall send you famine again so that you shall get neither supper nor breakfast. If you are filled to satiety so that you do not want my food, I shall make you hungry and you shall not even have your own food. If you do not want the bread of life which I am offering to you so plentifully, then help yourself to pestilence, fever, and all manner of sickness and die in continual subjection to the devil. If you do not want the sacrament of love, grace, and peace—which I bestow upon you through it—then engage in war, dissension, discord, and all kinds of trouble." What else should God do with us? Is this man arrogant or abundantly authorized from on High?… My books which I have written to oppose them (those in error regarding the Table) are available, and the truth has been abundantly and powerfully enough proved by me for anyone who desires to have the right faith. So there need be no more quarreling or debating.
II. Basic Teaching
There are three parts to the Lords Supper… Three parts: sacrament or sign which must be received or at least desired if it is to work a blessing; the significance of this sacrament, which must be internal and spiritual, within the spirit of each person; and faith, which makes both of them together operative and useful.
Christ set the example… "I am the Head, I will be the first to give himself for you. I will make your suffering and misfortune my own and will bear it for you, so that you in your turn may do the same for me and for one another, allowing all things to be common property, in me, and with me. And I leave you this sacrament as a sure token of all this, in order that you may not forget me, but daily call to mind and admonish one another by means of what I did and am still doing for you, in order that you may be strengthened, and also bear one another in the same way."
This blessing must be "hidden" to teach us to trust… It is also profitable and necessary that the love and fellowship of Christ and all saints be hidden, invisible, and spiritual, and that only a bodily, visible, and outward sign of it be given to us. For if this love, fellowship, and support were apparent to all, like the transient fellowship of men, we would not be strengthened or trained by it to desire or put our trust in the things that are unseen and eternal. Instead we would be trained to put our trust in things that are transient and seen, and would become so accustomed to them as to be unwilling to let them go. We would not follow God, except so far as visible and tangible things led us. We would thereby be prevented from ever coming to God. For everything that is bound to time and sense must fall away, and we must learn to do without them, if we are to come to God.
Baptism and the Table are guides… Baptism leads us into a new life on earth; the bread guides us through death into eternal life.
Promise and faith must never be severed… If the words of promise are not delivered, what exercise of faith can there be? And without faith, who can have hope or love? Without faith, hope, and love, what service of God can there be?… For anyone can easily see that these two, promise and faith, must necessarily go together. For without the promise there is nothing to be believed; while without faith the promise is useless, since it is established and fulfilled through faith.
Individual faith only, please… Let this irrefutable truth stand fast: Where there is a divine promise, there every one must stand on his own feet; his own personal faith is demanded, he will give an account for himself and bear his own load.
The Table is a sacrifice of praise only… There is no sacrifice in the NT other than the sacrifice of the cross and the sacrifice of praise (Heb. 13:15).
Protection from legalists… A Christian is holy in body and soul, whether he be layman or priest, man or woman. If anybody denies that, he speaks blasphemy against holy baptism, the blood of Christ, and the grace of the Holy Spirit. A Christian is a rare and wonderful thing, and God is more concerned about him than about the sacrament. For the Christian was not made for the sacrament, but he sacrament was instituted for the Christian.
How to believe; we kill our Old Man by moving from intellect to faith… Let go of intellect; for they strive in vain to understand how flesh and blood can be present, and because they do not grasp it they refuse to believe it. One must not do such violence to the words of God as to give to any word a meaning other than its natural one, unless there is clear and definite Scripture to do that. This is what is done by those who without any basis in Scripture take the word "is" and forcible twist it to mean the same as the word "signifies."
For your own good—believe or stay away… He who does not believe that Christ's body and blood are present does well not to worship either with his spirit or with his body.
The words must me properly regarded… Bread and wine, or the body and blood of Christ, regarded without the words, will teach you to give thought and attention to your own works. They will drive you away from pondering God's work and the reason why he is present, so that you will be quite anxious to do a lot for him, and will not let anything be done for you. And: The sacrament of the Supper must indeed prefigure and signify something, viz. the unity of Christians in one spiritual body of Christ through one spirit, faith, love, and the cross, etc. But the words used in connection with this sacrament shall and must express with simplicity what they say.
It is second nature for us to de-emphasize God's work… Human nature tends so easily to emphasize its own works and to neglect God's work, and the sacrament will not admit of that.
The Devil blinds us with our own minds… The devil blinds people, and the result is, first, that they are incapable of seeing any work of God in the right light, and second, that they also fail to regard the Word, and accordingly want to find out everything with their own minds. If you were to search out everything about a kernel of wheat in the field, you would be so amazed that you would die. God's works are not like our works.
The whole is greater than the sum of its parts… Everything that is required of a Christian must be in the sacrament: acknowledgment of sin (which we call contrition), faith, giving of thanks, confession. These things must not be separated from one another.
A marvelous concert—the Word and Work of God… For so God does with us when he sets before us two things: his work and his Word. The body is to do the work, the soul is to grasp the Word. If the work were presented without the Word, it would help no one. For example, if he had let Christ be born of Mary without the Word, the work would have been of no avail to her, for she would have known nothing of it, and would not even have recognized it.
"It's in there."… God's Word accomplishes what is good times without number; indeed, it does all things: it produces and strengthens faith, conquers sin, the devil, death, hell, and all evil; it makes us obedient to God, indeed, children and heirs; it glorifies God, it delights all angels and gladdens all creatures. But all this must also be in the Supper, because God's Word is in it.
LOOK AT THE WORD: "THIS IS MY BODY."… The heart grasps the words of faith and eats spiritually precisely the same body as the mouth eats physically, for the heart sees very well what the uncomprehending mouth eats physically. But how does it see this? Not by looking at the bread or at the mouth's eating, but at the Word which is there, "Eat, this is my body."
Admit you do not understand Christ's words… If we take ourselves captive to him and confess that we do not comprehend his works and words, we should be satisfied. We should speak of his works simply using his words as he has pronounced them for us and prescribed that we speak them after him, and not presume to use our own words as if they were better than his.
Why the Devil hates and attacks the Supper… St. Paul and Luke say that the new testament is in the Supper and not the sign or figure of the new testament. Figures or signs of the new testament belonged to the old testament, among the Jews. He who admits that he has the figure or sign of the new testament admits that he does not yet have the new testament; he has taken a backward step and denied Christ and become a Jew. Christians ought to have the new testament itself, without figure or sign. They may have it hidden under an alien form, but they must have it truly present. NowifthenewtestamentispresentintheSupper,then forgiveness of sins, Spirit, grace, life and salvation must be there. All these are embraced in the Word. For who would know what was in the Supper if the words did not proclaim it? See, then, what a beautiful, great, marvelous thing this is, how everything meshes together in one sacramental reality. The words are the first thing, for without the words the cup and the bread would be nothing. Further, without bread and cup, the body and blood of Christ would not be there. Without the body and blood of Christ, the new testament would not be there. Without the new testament, forgiveness of sins would not be there. Without forgiveness of sins, life and salvation would not be there. Thus the words first connect the bread and cup to the sacrament; bread and cup embrace the body and blood of Christ; body and blood of Christ embrace the new testament; the new testament embraces the forgiveness of sins; forgiveness of sins embraces eternal life and salvation. See, all this the words of the Supper offer and give us, and we embrace it by faith. Ought not the devil, then, hate such a Supper and rouse fanatics against it?
Just believe that… The true body of Christ is there bodily under or in the bread.
A sacred attitude… Yes, I want to go to the sacrament, not that I would thereby do a good work or achieve merit, also not for the sake of obedience or for the sake of the law of the church, but to praise and glorify my God who has established it for my reception and out of love and thanks to my Lord and Savior who has instituted it in honor of his suffering in order that I might use it and give thanks for it. For I want to be one of those who thanks him for his suffering and I do not want to be found among those who despise it and are ungrateful. I also do not want to give others a bad example and become an offense and thus make myself a partaker of their contempt and ingratitude; but, much rather, I want to set a good example and attract others to it so they they, too, may glorify and praise it and also assist in observing and strengthening the remembrance of the suffering of Christ. At the same time, as a Christian I want to confess my Lord before the world. Such a thank offering I want to perform for him, even if I should not obtain any other benefit from it; for it is supposed to be my thanks to the Lord for his bitter suffering which he endured for my sake.
This is something you do get for nothing… Christ desires that you do not so shamefully despise his sacrament and think so lightly of it and neglect it even though it is free and does not cost you anything.
A sure sign for sinners… We must be sure that he undoubtedly wants to be gracious toward us and help us. How can we become sure of this if he does not give us an indubitable sign of his grace and love for us? Otherwise, who could guess what his feeling toward us is… How can he demonstrate sublimer love and deeper mercy than that he should therein truly give us his own body and blood as food?
First things last… Anyone who is willing to be taught should find complete satisfaction on this subject in St. Luke alone, so clearly and well does he speak of the Supper. First he describes Christ's farewell drink and says, "He took a cup, gave thanks, and said, 'Take this, and divide it among yourselves; for I tell you that from now on I shall not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes'" Here Christ testifies that this will be his last drink of wine on earth with his disciples. Immediately afterward he gives the cup of wine of the new Supper. If there were nothing but common wine in the new Supper, how is it possible that this should be his farewell drink—that he will drink no more wine? If that was his last drink of wine, then this cannot be wine which he afterward gives them to drink. If it is not wine, it must be what he called it, viz. his blood, or the new testament in his blood. Thus St. Luke forcefully takes his stand that there cannot be ordinary wine in Christ's Supper.
III. Reasons to Attend Communion
Six forces which drive us to the Table… The evil spirit assails us unceasingly with many sins and afflictions. The world, full of wickedness, entices and persecutes us and is altogether bad. And our own guilty conscience assails us with our past sins; and there is the fear of death and the pains of hell.
God says to us… "Look, many kinds of sin are assailing you; take this sign by which I give you my pledge that this sin is assailing not only you about also my Son, Christ, and all his saints in heaven and on earth. Therefore take heart and be bold. You are not fighting alone. Great help and support are all around you."
To receive a sign that comfort is beside us… I will go to the sacrament to receive a sign from God that I have on my side Christ's righteousness, life, and sufferings, with all holy angels and the blessed in heaven and all pious men on earth. If I die, I am not alone in death; if I suffer, they suffer with me.
To receive a physical benefit… Our body is fed with the body of Christ, in order that our faith and hope may abide and that our body also may live eternally from the same eternal food of the body of Christ which it eats physically. This is a bodily benefit, nevertheless an extraordinarily great one, and it follows from the spiritual benefit.
To be made holy by and through our unworthiness and our Hope… There are two things that are constantly assailing us, so that we fail to gather the fruits of the mass. The first is that we are sinners, and unworthy of such great things because of our utter worthlessness. The second is that, even if we were worthy, these things are so high that our fainthearted nature does not dare to aspire to them or hope for them.
To thank Him and find grace… You have two ways or reasons for receiving the sacrament. The first one is that you thereby thank and praise Christ. The other is that you are also obtaining comfort and grace for yourself. For we cannot deal with God in more than two ways, namely, by giving thanks and by voicing our petitions. Say: "Lord, I thank you for all your grace given to me, and I furthermore pray that you would help me still in my need."
IV. The Actual Partaking
Approach only believing… Only believe and you have already partaken of the sacrament.
Approach joyfully… Let him go joyfully to the sacrament of the altar and lay down his woe in the midst of the community.
Approach in faith… The only worthy preparation and proper observance is faith, the faith by which we believe in the mass, that is, in the divine promise.
Approach hungry… This food demands only hungry souls, and is shunned by none so greatly as by a sated soul which does not need it" Thus the Jews were required to eat the Passover with bitter herbs.
Approach with nothing but acceptance… The safest course will be to go to the mass in the same spirit in which you would go to hear any other promise of God, that is, prepared not to do or contribute much yourself, but to believe and accept all that is promised you there, or proclaimed as promises through the ministry of the priest.Ifyoudonotcomeinthisspirit,bewareofattendingatall, for you surely be going to your condemnation.
Approach beyond prayer… The mass, or promise of God, is not fulfilled by praying, but only by believing.
Approach boldly to obtain peace of conscience… For since the word of divine promise in this sacrament sets forth the forgiveness of sins, let every one draw near fearlessly, whoever he may be, who is troubled by his sins, whether by remorse or by temptation. For this testament of Christ is the one remedy against sins, past, present and future, if you but cling to it with unwavering faith and believe that what the words of the testament declare is freely granted to you. But if you do not believe this, you will never, anywhere, by any works or efforts of your own, be able to find peace of conscience. For faith alone means peace of conscience, while unbelief means only distress of conscience.
Approach in thankfulness… He who sacrifices prays and asks God that he would graciously accept his sacrifice, etc. He who gives thanks, however, does not pray that it will be acceptable, but rejoices that something is given to him and that he has received it.
Approach without fear of judgment… He who sacrifices wishes to reconcile God. But he who wishes to reconcile God considers him to be angry and unmerciful. And whoever does this does not expect grace of mercy from him, but fears his judgment and sentence.
Approach with Christ's words foremost in your mind… Emphasize the words of the sacrament: This is my body given for you:… Let every Christian store these words in his heart and especially keep them before him and meditate upon them when he receives the sacrament or hears mass. For these words are a thousand times more important than the elements of the sacrament; without them the sacrament isn't a sacrament but a mockery before God.
Approach beyond meditation and knowledge toward a respectful esteem… Now when I say that you should fix the Word of God in your heart I do not mean merely that you should know it and meditate on it. That is nothing. I mean rather that you should regard and esteem it as it ought to be regarded and esteemed. That is, you should hold it to be a living, eternal, all-powerful Word that can make you alive, free from sin and death, and keep you so eternally; that brings with it everything of which it speaks, namely, Christ with his flesh and blood and everything that he is and has. For it is the kind of Word that can and does do all these things, and therefore it should be so regarded.
Approach as a "subordinate"… Spiritual worship is the adoration or bowing of the heart, so that from the bottom of your heart you thereby show and confess yourself to be his subordinate creature. For from this you see that true worship can be nothing else than faith; it is faith's sublimest activity with respect to God. For no one is capable of such heartfelt confession, adoration, bending, and bowing before God in his heart, unless he unwaveringly holds God to be his Lord and Father, from who he receives and will receive all good things, and through whom, without any merit on his part, he is redeemed and preserved from all sins and evil.
Approach waiting for His work, forgetting worship and adoration… The words teach you to give thought and attention to why Christ is present; they will cause you to forget your work and to wait only upon his. For a sacrament is a matter of faith, because in it only the works of God proceed and are effected—through his Word! Therefore, those who consider the sacrament to be thus in the Word will forget both worship and adoration. And...There are four groups of people: The first are those whose entire interest is in the words of this sacrament, so that they feed their faith; they receive the bread and wine with the body and blood of Christ as a sure sign of that Word and of faith. These are the most secure and the best. They probably seldom descend so low as to bother themselves about worshipping and adoring, for they pay attention to the work God does to them and forget about the works they do for the sacrament. The second group are those who exercise the right sort of faith, and then descend to their own works and worship Christ spiritually in the sacrament. That is, they bow inwardly with their hearts and confess him as their Lord, who does all things within them; and they prove their inward worship by outwardly bowing, bending, and kneeling with the body. The third group are those who worship him inwardly only. The fourth group are those who worship him outwardly only. These last are completely worthless.
Approach to obtain courage… If you will exercise and strengthen this faith, then you will experience what a rich, joyous, and bountiful wedding feast your God has prepared for you upon the altar...Then your heart will become truly free and confident, strong and courageous against all enemies.
Approach in freedom… One should not make an act of worship out of the sacrament. To be sure, I kneel, but I do so out of reverence. When I am lying in bed I receive it without kneeling.
It is a matter of freedom, just as one is at liberty to kiss the Bible or not. This might also be called adoration. If I do not do it, I have not sinned. But if anybody tries to compel me to do it as a thing necessary for salvation, I refuse and preserve my freedom.
Approach to be served… It is the Lord's Supper, in name and in reality, not the supper of Christians. For the Lord not only instituted it, but also prepares and gives it himself, and is himself cook, butler, food, and drink. Christ does not say, in commanding and instituting it, "Do this as your summons to mutual recognition and love," but, "Do this in remembrance of me."
Approach to listen… What does it mean to remember him other than to praise, listen to, proclaim, laud, thank, and honor the grace and mercy which he has shown us in Christ?
Approach without shame… Dear fellow, you must not look at yourself, how worthy or unworthy you are, but at your need--your need of the grace of Christ. If you see and feel your need, you are worthy and sufficiently prepared, for his has not instituted the sacrament to act as a poison and to harm us, but to grant comfort and salvation....Say: "Though I am unworthy, I am also needy. Whoever must beg should not be ashamed to do so. Shamefacedness is an unnecessary domestic servant in a poor beggar's home. For that reason Christ himself praises an impudent rascal in Luke 11:8."
V. Approach after Examination
If discipline would again be restored by instituting examination prior to communion, as certainly would be very useful and good, then one could more easily come to the point where one could institute a system of ecclesiastical discipline which would hold parents responsible for urging their children and members of their household to go to the sacrament and to church, and for preventing the young people from falling into such pagan contempt of the sacraments and of all divine matters.
Examine with sorrow… You must feel with sorrow all the dishonor done to Christ in his holy Word, all the misery of Christendom, all the unjust suffering of the innocent, with which the world is everywhere filed to overflowing. You must fight, work, pray, and—if you cannot do more—have heartfelt sympathy… and all things are in common, both good and evil.
Then all things become easy, and the evil spirit cannot stand up against this fellowship.
Examine with a desire for help… There must be a sorrowing, hungry soul, who desires heartily the love, help, and support of the entire community.
Examine with an eye for relief from a "smiting conscience"… He should make sure that it is no mere desire of the human flesh that prompts him. He should examine his faith and determine whether it is genuine: Let a man examine himself. This examination, however, covers your whole life. You must find within yourself a smiting conscience which is weighed down with a sense of sin and longs for the grace of God, a conscience that stands in dread of death or hell and longs for strength, a conscience that seeks and takes the sacrament, firmly relying on Christ's word, in order to receive such grace and strength and help.
Examine knowing you would be GLAD to be rid of your sins… We are to be pure in the sense that we are sorry for our sins and would gladly be rid of them, and are vexed that we are such miserable people—insofar as we are serious about it and not just pretending. Complete sinlessness, however, no one will ever attain. Even if you should do so, you would not dare to go to the sacrament, for it was instituted specifically for the sake of the weak. So much for the use of the sacrament: it is to strengthen the conscience against all distress and temptation.
Examine longing for God's mercy… No one can benefit from attending mass unless his heart is deeply troubled and he longs for divine mercy and desires to be rid of his sins; or unless, if he has evil intentions, he is changed during the mass and comes to have a desire for this testament.
Examine for real sins, expecting real help… There is just no better mirror in which to see your need than the Ten Commandments, in which you will find what you lack and what you should seek. Therefore, where you find in yourself a weak faith, feeble hope, and little love toward God; where you find that you do not praise and honor God but love your own honor and fame, think much of the favor of men, do not gladly hear mass and sermon, are too lazy to pray, then you must pay more heed to these infirmities than to all physical harm to goods, honor, and life, and believe that they are worse than death and all mortal sickness. You should earnestly lay these in firmities before God, lament and ask for help, and with all confidence expect help, believing that you are heard and that you will receive help and mercy… Then proceed to the Second Table of commandments. See how disobedient you have been and still are toward father and mother and all in authority; how you sin against your neighbor with anger, hatred, and evil words; how you are tempted to unchastity, covetousness, and injustice in word and deed against your neighbor. In this way you will without a doubt find that you are full of all need and misery, and that you have reason enough to weep even drops of blood, if you could.
Examine God's wrath… To be sure, I did teach, and still teach, that sinners shall be stirred to repentance through the preaching or the contemplation of the passion of Christ, so that they might see the enormity of God's wrath over sin, and learn that there is no other remedy for this than the death of God's Son.
Examine for poison… I have taught and still teach that Christ's flesh is not only of no avail but actually is poison and death if it is eaten without faith and the Word.
Examine it: This is no ordinary bread… The Corinthians ate the bread with the misconception that it was ordinary bread, and discerned no difference between this bread and other bread. This certainly is what is meant by "unworthily eating the body of Christ." This is why Paul admonishes them to examine themselves and perceive who they are and how they regard this bread. If they do not regard it as the body of Christ, or treat it as if it were not the body of Christ, then they do not discern the body of Christ.
Examine your inheritance… Let everyone look at himself and examine his own heart: First, whether he believes that Christ, God's Son, has instituted and bequeathed to us human beings such a sacrament; second, whether he believes that Christ, out of fathomless love, was so sincerely and faithfully concerned about us.
Examine death… "Shed for you for the forgiveness of sins." If sins are present, then certainly death is also present; if death is present, then certainly hell and the devil are present. Such consideration therefore helps you to thank him more diligently and to participate in the sacrament more readily in honor of his suffering, for what heart can comprehend with increasing adequacy what a benefit and grace it is that one is redeemed from death and the devil, from sins and all evil, and is righteous, alive, and blessed without one's merit and help, only through the blood and dying of the Son of God.
Examine reality and spiritual feeling… If you say that you do not feel sin, death, the world, the devil, etc. and are not engaged in a fight or a struggle with them, and therefore no need compels you to partake of the sacrament, I answer: "I hope that you are not serious in believing that you alone among all the saints and people on earth should be without such a feeling." If I knew that you were really serious about it, I would truly arrange it so that on all streets on which you walk all the bells would have to be rung and ahead of you they would cry out: "Here comes a new saint, exalted about all saints, who neither feels nor has sin." But I want to tell you without jesting: "If you do not feel any sin, you are assuredly completely dead in sins, yes, dead and sin is reigning over you with might." I do not even have to mention coarse, external sins such as a desire for unchastity, adultery, anger, hatred, envy, revenge, pride, covetousness, lasciviousness, etc.; the fact that you have neither the need nor the desire to partake of the sacrament is in itself already a most serious and great sin.
Examine a solution… If you do not feel death go to the graves in the churchyard, or believe the Scripture which says: "It is appointed for men to die once" (Hebrews 9:27)… If you do not feel the devil, how he can drive you to unbelief, despair, blasphemy and hatred of God, believe Scripture, which shows us how he has by such means plagued Job, David, St. Paul, and many others, and can also plague you. Accordingly say this: "Truly the devil is still a prince in the world, and I have not yet eluded him. As long as I am in his principality he is a threat to me. For this reason I must go to the sacrament and hold to my dear Helper and Savior so that my heart and faith may be strengthened daily and the devil may not impale me with his spear or kill me with his fiery, poisoned arrows. For although Christ has conquered the devil for us, the devil has nevertheless still remained a lord in the world so that he can assail us with great spiritual temptations and thus exercise us in our faith."
Examine the danger of "security"… I have had to say this so bluntly and simply on account of the coarse, lazy Christians who do not know how to reflect very deeply on matters, and therefore unconsciously become sluggish and secure as if they needed neither God nor his Word. They amble along as if they were neither in danger nor in need and, in the process, they lose their faith and become incapable of doing good works.
VI. Benefits
Community is deepened… The significance or effect of this sacrament is fellowship of all the saints. Community. It is a sure sign of this fellowship and incorporation with Christ and all saints.
A sharing that is genuine, vulnerable and strengthening… This fellowship consists in this, that all the spiritual possessions of Christ and his saints are shared with and become the common property of him who receives this sacrment. Again all sufferings and sins also become common property; and thus love engenders love in return and mutual love unites. To carry out our homely figure, it is like a city where every citizen shares with all the others the city's fame, honor, freedom, trade, customs, usage's, help, support, protection, and the like, while at the same time he shares all the dangers of fire and flood, enemies and death, losses, taxes, and the like. For he who would share in the profits must also share in the cost, and ever recompense love with love.
A real concern… This is obvious: if anyone's foot hurts him, yes, even the little toe, the eye at once looks at it, the fingers grasp it, the face puckers, the whole body bends over to it, and all are concerned with this small member; again, once it is cared for all the other members are benefited.
A real oneness… Christians should care for one another, support one another, sympathize with one another, bear one another's burdens and affliction… We on our part must make the evil of others our own, if we desire Christ and his saints to make our evil their own. Then will the fellowship be complete, and justice be done to the sacrament. For the sacrament has no blessing and significance unless love grows daily and so changes a person that he is made one with all others.
A sweetening and expanding spirit… From this you will see that nothing else is needed for a worthy holding of mass than a faith that relies confidently on this promise, believes Christ to be true in these words of his, and does not doubt that these infinite blessings have been bestowed upon it. Hard on this faith there follows, of itself, a most sweet stirring of the heart, whereby the spirit of man is enlarged and enriched (that is love, given by the Holy Spirit through faith in Christ), so that he is drawn to Christ, that gracious and bounteous testator, and made a thoroughly new and different man.
An individual focus… When I preach this death, it is in a public sermon in the congregation, in which I am addressing myself to no one individually; whoever grasps it, grasps it. But when I distribute the sacrament, I designate it for the individual who is receiving it; I give him Christ's body and blood that he may have forgiveness of sins, obtained through his death and preached in the congregation. This is something more than the congregational sermon; for although the same thing is present in the sermon as in the sacrament, here there is the advantage that it is directed at definite individuals.
An increase in number… The Christians alone are to partake of the sacrament, but at the same time they are to take thought that their number may increase.
A spiritual spinach… The sacrament has been instituted to attract, entice, and draw people, so that they might come willingly and gladly, yes, so that they might afterwards run with might, wrestle, and strive, as Christ says in Matthew 11:12: "The kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and men of violence take it by force." A one-two punch...This is the primary benefit and fruit which accrues to you from the use of the sacrament that you are reminded of such favor and grace and that your faith and love are stimulated, renewed, and strengthened so that you might not reach the point of forgetting or despising your dear Savior and his bitter suffering and the great, manifold, eternal need and death out of which he has rescued you.
The second benefit is this: Where such faith is thus continually refreshed and renewed, there the heart is also at the same time refreshed anew in its love of the neighbor and is made strong and equipped to do all good works and to resist sin and all temptations of the devil. Since faith cannot be idle, it must demonstrate the fruits of love by doing good and avoiding evil. Thus a Christian by such a right use of the sacrament continually, increasingly, day after day, renews himself and grows in Christ, as Paul also teaches us that we should always be renewed (Eph. 4:23) and increase in holiness.
A spiritual exercise program… God has acted rightly and properly when he has permitted us to remain in a state in which we must fight and wrestle with sins, death, the devil, the world, the flesh, and all sorts of temptations, so that we are obliged and compelled to seek and desire his grace, help, word, and sacrament.
Otherwise, if this were not the case, no human would be at all likely to inquire either after his word or after his sacrament, or seek either grace or help.
Snuggle in… It is not a small thing when someone is gladly in the midst of the multitude among whom God is praised and thanked; it is something for which the ancient fathers longed with deep sighs, as Psalm 42:5 says: "I would gladly go with the multitude and go with them to the house of God, with the sound of praise and thanks among the multitude keeping festival."
VII. Metaphors
Bread and wine… As the bread is made out of many grains and mixed together… drops of wine, in losing their own form, become the body of one common wine and drink… And through the interchange of his blessings and our misfortunes, we become one loaf, one bread, one body, one drink, and have all things in common.
Food… There is no more intimate, deep, and indivisible union than the union of the food with him who is fed. For the food enters into and is assimilated by his very nature, and becomes one substance with the person who is fed.
Stretcher… The sacrament is for us a ford, a bridge, a door, a ship, and a stretcher, by which and in which we pass from this world into eternal life.
A cradle… See only that you pay heed to God's Word and remain in it, like a child in the cradle. If you let go of it for a moment, then you fall out of it. This is the devil's sole aim, to tear people out of it and to cause them to measure God's will and work by human reason.
Gold… If he (a person given communion) deceives me, he deceives himself. Nevertheless, the sacrament is true and the absolution is true. It is as if I were to give somebody ten pieces of gold and he took them to be only ten coppers. The gold is right in front of his eyes. If he doesn't know what he's taking, the fault is his and the loss is his.
An opal… I have seen crystals or jewels within which was a kind of spark or flame, as in an opal. This flame shines as if it were at every side of the stone, for whichever way the stone is turned, the flame can be seen as if it were at the very front of the stone, though it is really in the center of it. I am not speaking now from Scripture. But we must use our reason or else give way to the fanatics. If Christ also sat at one place in the center of the universe, like the spark in the crystal, and if a certain point in the universe were indicated to me, as the bread and wine are set forth to me by the Word, should I not be able to say, "See, there is the body of Christ actually in the bread," just as I say, when a certain side of the crystal is placed before my eyes, "See, there is the spark in the very front of the crystal"? Do you not suppose that God in a much truer and more miraculous way can set forth Christ's body in the bread, even if he were at a certain place in heaven, than show me the spark in a crystal?
A ring… The Devil cannot be idle. Wherever he instigates one heresy, there he must instigate additional ones, and no error remains alone. If the ring is broken at one point, it is no longer a perfect ring; it no longer holds together and constantly comes apart.
VII. Erroneous Views
The Devil cannot leave it alone; he must besmirch God's works and words. If he cannot tear it away completely, he makes an empty nut of it. The pope took away from us one element of the sacrament. These people, (fanatics) however, leave us both elements; but they make a hole in the nut, in order that we may lose the body and blood of Christ… I should rather be dead than hear Christ so scorned and abused by them. They say that it is only a sign, by which one may recognize Christians and judge them, so that we have nothing more of it than the mere shell. So they come together, and eat and drink, in order that they may commemorate his death. All the power is said to be in this commemoration, the bread and wine are no more than a sign and a color by which one may recognize that we are Christians.
Preliminary statements… For unbelief is nothing other than blasphemy of God, according to which he is regarded as a liar… Reason is the Devil's mother… Oh, if the dear prophets and patriarchs had only seen and heard of such a sacrament, how glad and desirous of it they would have been; how they would have been amazed that we should be such blessed people as compared with them! On the other hand, how it would have hurt them if they would have seen that we despise it so disgracefully.
Four spirits of error… First spirit: Here sits my body which will be given for you.
Second: The bread "signifies" my body which was given for you... How does it sound, my friend, when you try to interpret this according to Zwingli's opinion, "Christ signifies the true vine"? Who then is the true vine which Christ signifies?
Third: The word "body" is not supposed to mean "body" but "sign of the body" so that the meaning is ": This is the sign of my body.
Fourth: The new rule of the holiest spirit. Where the clear word of God contradicts your understanding, look for some other word which please you, and say that it is the Holy Spirit. After that you may arrange and interpret the words as it seems good to you.
What these spirits say and do… Nor does it help them to boast that they rightly teach and praise Christ in other subjects. For he who deliberately denies, blasphemes, and desecrates Christ in one subject or article cannot correctly teach or honor him at any other point; it is sheer hypocrisy and deception, however impressive its appearance. For this is the way it is: one either loses Christ completely, or has him completely. He does not divide himself into pieces; with the whole heart, with the whole soul he wills to be loved and honored. Through these fanatics, however, the devil prepares the way for other heretics who will come and say that Christ is nothing, and has neither flesh nor divinity, as happened in the early days of Christendom.
Thus the Lord's Supper among them is nothing other than a daily common meal at which they use bread and wine; during a meal one can talk about Christ, read about him, praise him, thank him, and also eat spiritually, as well as in the Supper of Christ. Christ is therefore an exceedingly great fool to institute a special Supper when the world already is filled to capacity with suppers which take place daily.
They say, "Yes, but one does not see or feel the usefulness." Good Lord, is this the flaw? To the fanatics, of course, he is of no avail. They would like to grope and feel something in order to escape having to believe.
Now if Christ had intended to institute a Supper in which not his body and blood, but a likeness of his body and blood were present, he would properly have left us the old Mosaic supper with the paschal lamb. Beyond all measure, with absolute conclusiveness, through and through, in every respect, and quite beautifully this represents and prefigures and typifies his body which was given for us and his blood which was shed for us for the forgiveness of sins, as all the world well knows. Why then should he be so foolish as to abolish this fine supper of the Old Testament and substitute a supper which in meaning and in essence is altogether insignificant in comparison with it?
The New Testament is gospel, spirit, forgiveness of sins in and through the blood of Christ, and whatever else we may add, for it is all one entity, gathered together into one mass or substance, the whole in the blood, the whole in the cup. Where the one is, there the other is also. Whoever names or points to the one, deals with the whole. Now, how can ordinary wine "represent" or "signify" so important a thing, if all the figures of the Old Testament can scarcely signify it?
Consider this… Whoever does not want to trust in God's Word and to take his stand on these or on similar passages, "What God says, he can do" (Romans 4:21), and "God cannot lie" (Hebrews 6:18), I faithfully counsel him to leave Holy Scripture and the articles of the Christian faith alone. For his interpretation constantly drags him deeper into error. It would be better for him to remain a condemned heathen than that he should become a condemned Christian.
IX. A Severe Warning
I'm afraid you may not want to read this… O dear man! If someone does not want to believe the article of faith concerning the Lord's Supper, how will he ever believe the article of faith concerning the humanity and divinity of Christ in one person? If you have doubts about whether you are receiving the body of Christ orally when you eat the bread from the altar, likewise, that you are receiving the blood of Christ orally when you drink the wine in the Lord's Supper, then you must surely have serious doubts(especially when the end of your life draws near) about the infinite and incomprehensible Godhead, who is and must essentially be everywhere, can be bodily enclosed and included in the humanity and in the Virgin's body, as St. Paul says in Colossians 2:9: "In him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily."
A history of error to prove the point… For this reason we say that everything is to be believed completely and without exception, or nothing is to be believed. The Holy Spirit does not let himself be divided or cut up so that he should let one point be taught and believed as trustworthy and another as false— except in the case where there are weak believers who are willing to let themselves be instructed and are not stubbornly opposing his truth. Otherwise, if this attitude should obtain that it does not harm anyone if he desires to deny one article of the faith because he still regards all the others as true (although basically this is impossible), then no heretic would ever be condemned, indeed, there could not even be a heretic on earth. For it is characteristic of all heretics that they start by denying one article of the faith; after that, all the articles must suffer the same fate and they must all be denied, just as the ring, when it gets a crack or a chink, is totally worthless. And if a bell cracks at one place, it does not chime any more and is completely worthless.
Arius singled out this one article of faith and said that Christ was not God but a creature. All the other articles of the faith...he probably believed more reverently (to judge by his words) than true Christians believe. However, the Holy Scripture stands firm and testifies that he did not believe any article of the faith. For thus St. John says in I John 2:23: "No one who denies the Son has the Father. He who confesses the Son has the Father also." Now if Arius does not have the Son and the Father, then he also has no God or Creator of heaven and earth. That is, it is of no use to him that with his mouth he calls God the Father and Creator of heaven and earth, and highly exalts him, even though no other God is Creator of heaven and earth than this one whom Arius mentions with his lying tongue. Thus baptism is no longer baptism for him, forgiveness of sins is no longer forgiveness of sins, the sacrament is no longer the sacrament; that is, it no longer does him any good even if previously he was indeed rightly baptized and had received true forgiveness and the true sacrament.
The heretic Macedonius, bishop of Constantinople, also believed all articles of the faith except the one that the Holy Spirit was true God. What good did it do him and his party?
Nestorius, too, who was also bishop of Constantinople, was a man who strictly adhered to all but one of the articles of faith, as did the other members of his party; but, with respect to one article he was a heretic, for he held that God's Son, Christ, was not born of Mary, the Virgin, and that Mary was not and could not be a mother of God.
From these three heretics there eventually emanated and came to light additional heresies (which had previously been hidden within them), until the abominable Muhammad emerged.
How is it that the pope became so completely heretical and that he brought one heresy after the other into the world until there are now at Rome, especially at the papal court, nothing but Epicureans and mockers of the Christian faith? It is because they have fallen from faith in Christ and depend on works, that is, on their own righteousness. Of what use wee all the other articles of faith to him? What good does it do him greatly to exalt with his mouth the true God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and to make a splendid pretense of living a Christian life? For he, nevertheless, is and remains the greatest enemy of Christ and is the true Antichrist. He has made himself the head of Christendom, yes, the anus as the place of excrement of the devil, through which so great an abomination of masses, monkery, and unchastity has been passed into the world.
Consequently, it will not do the fanatics any good if, in connection with the sacrament, they do a great deal of babbling about the spiritual eating and drinking of the body and blood of Christ and about the love and unity of Christians. For these words are nothing but fig leaves with which Adam and Eve wanted to cover and adorn themselves so that God would not notice their shame and sin. Much less will their great labor of teaching and writing and their earnest, chase conduct help them. All this is still a heathenish practice. It is also useless for them to believe in God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and in Christ the Savior. Everything, I say, is lost along with all articles of faith, no matter how correctly and blamelessly they speak of and represent the same with their false, blaspheming mouth, because they deny and call false this single article of faith when Christ says in the sacrament: "Take (the bread) and eat; this is my body which is given for you." For what they chatter about spiritual eating and about love has solely this aim: They want to cover up and hide such harm and poison so that one should not take notice of or see the same but should regard them as remarkable and very good Christians. This is what we call placing an illusion before one's eyes and adorning the gloomy devil (as St.Paul teaches in II Cor. 11:14) with the bright dress of the angels of light. Therefore, their great boasting and many works are in vain because they do not want to be Christians in this one article of faith.
The Lord talks about this in Luke 11:35-36: "Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness. If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly light." So, too, it is stated in Matthew 6:23: "If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness."
A pitiably plea… Perhaps you would like to say: "My dear Luther, it is to be hoped that this is not so, or at least there is no use being anxious about the fact that God should be so very vehement and relentlessly strict that he would want to condemn people on account of one article of faith if they faithfully adhere to and believe all other articles." This is the way not only the heretic comforts himself but also other sinners comfort themselves. They want God to take into consideration the rest of their good works and to be gracious to them, as King Saul, too, wanted to cover up his disobedience with his religious devotion and sacrifice, I Samuel 15:15. So they proceed securely and with self-assurance, as if they lacked nothing; the many great works and the labor which they do will outweigh a single failure. Over against this attitude it must be said that God could scarcely hope or expect that his poor, miserable, blind creation should be so senseless and proud in opposition to its Creator and Lord that it would deny, regard as false, and blaspheme his divine word; rather, he should be able to hope that his humble, submissive, obedient creation would not deny and blaspheme a single word but sincerely receive all words in general and every word in particular, and give thanks with great joy that the creation is worthy to hear one single word from its dear God. Yes, it is fitting for God to look at it in this way.
X. Conclusion
Pastors: Watch and be on guard… For we have allowed the people to go their own merry way without amending and changing their lives. We do not admonish, do not urge, do not persevere, even as our office demands. Rather, we snore and sleep as securely as they do, and do not reflect on the matter any more than this: Whoever comes to the Lord's Table will come; whoever does not come, let him stay away. Thus we deal with both kinds of Christians, although better things should be expected of us. We know that the abominable Satan and prince of this world does not take a vacation but roams about day and night with his angels and assails both us and the people, detains, hinders, and makes us lazy and sluggish for every kind of worship. Where he is unable to suppress them completely, he tries at least to weaken baptism, the sacrament, the gospel, and all divine order. Since we are familiar with these tactics we should remember that we are the angels and watchmen of our Lord Christ who should daily guard the people against such angels of the devil. Therefore I am writing this treatise with diligence, complete earnestness, and in a brotherly spirit, as a plea both to myself and to all pastors and preachers that they, together with me, would diligently look after the people whom God has purchased as his possession through the blood of his Son and has called and brought to baptism and into his kingdom. He has entrusted them to us and will demand a strict accounting from us, as we well know. For if we, who have the office and the mandate, are sluggish and lazy in carrying them out, we will have to wait a long time before the people admonish themselves of their own accord and come to the Lord's Table, since they hardly come even when we are most persistent in our pleas. Of what use would the office of preaching and the ministry be if the people could teach and admonish themselves?
Let's be honest… If a person despises, ignores, or forgets something, that is a sure sign that he thinks nothing of it, believes nothing about it, and does not concern himself with it.
Do you have a pious heart… Without a doubt several pious hearts will accept this admonition and make amends. With regard to the others I want to be excused; let them take the consequences!
Do you have a good lodging for the Word?… A good word finds a good lodging..."My word will not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that for which I sent it." Isaiah 55:11
Are you ready to listen?… "Guard your steps when you go to the house of God; to draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools; for they do not know that they are doing evil." Ecclesiastes 5:1
Christ pleads in the words, "Take and eat…": Take and eat… "Behold, O sinful and condemned man, out of the pure and unmerited love with which I love you, and by the will of the Father of mercies, apart from any merit or desire of yours, I promise you in these words the forgiveness of all your sins and life everlasting. And that you may be absolutely certain of this irrevocable promise of mine, I shall give my body and pour out my blood, confirming this promise by my very death, and leaving you my body and blood as a sin and memorial of this same promise. As often as you partake of them, remember me, proclaim and praise my love and bounty toward you, and give thanks."
A Closing comment: Is there any possibility that there is a connection between the restlessness, emptiness, and frantic activity even within the churches, and the way we esteem His Supper? Is it possible that if we were being nourished from this Meal, we wouldn't have an appitite for so much junk food spiritually? Can it be that we are attempting to fill ourselves with so many activities from care groups and Bible studies to retreats and seminars, simply because we are starving to death spiritually? We know we are hungry and we think we are eating a well-balanced meal, but in fact we are slowly starving ourselves to death. Will you take Christ, the Son of God, at His word, and be well fed in the Supper He has provided? Will you be nurished in the words of sound doctrine?
Compiled by Tim Vance
