Spiritual or Physical Flesh & Blood?

Catechism Class. Lord’s Day 28 Q76 – 

We’ve been looking at the catechism’s teaching on the sacraments, – we’ve come to Lord’s Day 28, Q76, where the catechist asks us,  What does it mean to eat the crucified body of Christ and to drink his shed blood? Our reply should be…

First, to accept with a believing heart all the suffering and the death of Christ, and so receive forgiveness of sins and life eternal. 

Second, to be united more and more to his sacred body through the Holy Spirit, who lives both in Christ and in us. Therefore, although Christ is in heaven and we are on earth, yet we are flesh of his flesh and bone of his bones, and we forever live and are governed by one Spirit, as the members of our body are by one soul. 

READ the words of our Lord Jesus, when he said, in John 6:54-56  Let’s ask the question, What does it mean to eat the crucified body of Christ and to drink his shed blood?

The first Christians lived in a deeply pagan society, a society with multiple pagan gods and deities, but the Christian Church stood out as different from every other religious group. They came to the attention of the authorities, and found themselves accused of three specific ‘crimes.’ – Atheism, incest, and cannibalism. How strange! It was this third accusation and charge that really concerns us here. The Roman authorities were convinced that these Christians, had a ceremony, in which they eat human flesh and drink human blood. What they were actually doing was having a communion service! They were simply reciting the words of Jesus,  “This is my body which is broken for you, this do ye as often as ye eat it, in remembrance of me…” The pagans took this literally, and the charge of human cannibalism was levied against Christians.  

The Catechist is writing to present a statement of faith to which both the reformed and the Lutheran Christians in the German Palatinate can subscribe, but on this he is firm, both in LD18, and here in LD28. The presence of Christ in the elements is SPIRITUAL, not BODILY. So what did Jesus mean in John 16:28, and what does it mean to eat the crucified body of Christ and to drink his shed blood? In his commentary on the catechism, Zacarius Ursinus notes four spiritual truths that are implied in the words of Jesus. To eat his body and drink his blood is to:

1. To have faith in Christ’s sufferings and death for our sins on the cross.
2. To believe that our sins are forgiven.
3. To be in union with Christ, through the indwelling Holy Spirit
4. To be regenerated by the same Holy Spirit, quickened and given new life, in Christ.

In the catechism itself, he expresses it this, “To accept with a believing heart all the suffering and the death of Christ, and so receive forgiveness of sins and life eternal.”  Like every biblical text, the words of Jesus in John 6 need to be placed in context. Before Jesus talks about eating his body, he explains the meaning of what he is about to say in John 6:51  I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. Jesus is simply using the analogy of bread to illustrate the essential nature of his importance to humanity, – he is to the soul, what bread is to the body, the giver of life.  

And this spiritual ‘body and blood’ represented in the bread and wine speak to us of our continuing part in his body, which is his invisible church.  READ: John 6:55-56  1 Corinthians 12:13  We are, says the catechist, “Flesh of his flesh and bone of his bones,  and we forever live and are governed by one Spirit, as the members of our body are by one soul.” Paul references this eternal aspect of our union with Christ in 1 Corinthians 11:26  and in  Colossians 3:1  

Ursinus in his commentary concludes, “It is plain therefore, that neither the doctrine of transubstantiation, which the papists advocate, (sorry – his words) nor a corporeal presence of Christ and the eating of  his body in the bread with the mouth, which many defend, can be established from the language which is employed in reference to the supper, which promises the eating of Christ’s body.” We therefore believe that Christ’s words, “This is MY body” implies a spiritual, and not a physical reality. 

We should note Lord’s Day 28, Q77, which asks “Where has Christ promised that he will nourish and refresh believers with his body and blood as surely as they eat of this broken bread and drink of this cup?” The catechist, in reply to this question directs us to two texts in 1^st Corinthians, chapter 11:23-26, and chapter 10:16-17. You should read those passages, and make yourself familiar with them.

Martin Luther, in moving away from the Catholic Church, did not shake off all of its beliefs around the doctrine of communion. Luther did not believe in transubstantiation, like the Catholics, but he did believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Bread and Wine. His argument was that Christ’s body is ubiquitous, – he is ‘everywhere’ – and so he MUST be ‘in the bread and wine…’ It is a doctrine that is held by Lutherans to this very day – they take the words ‘This is my body’ literally. We have already looked at it, when we asked the question, “Where is Jesus now?” In LD18  We learned then that Jesus is not physically present in this world.  Not in the bread and not in the wine, and that the elements of the sacrament remain no more than bread and wine – for the resurrected body of Christ cannot be in two places at once.  When the women came to the empty tomb the angel told them, “He is not here, for he is risen!”   Jesus is physically in heaven, and present on earth through the Holy Spirit.  READ: John 16:28  

Bob McEvoy 2023