“If you want to engage in a marvelous, great worship of God and honor Christ’s passion rightly, then remember and participate in the sacrament.” Martin Luther What is the Sacrament of the Altar? It is the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ under the bread and wine, instituted by Christ Himself for us Christians to eat and to drink. Where is this written? The holy Evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke and St. Paul write: Our Lord Jesus Christ, on the night when He was betrayed, took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and gave it to the disciples and said:“Take, eat; this is My body, which is given for you.This do in remembrance of Me.” In the same way also he took the cup after supper, and when He had given thanks, He gave it to them, saying,“Drink of it, all of you; this cup is the new testament in My blood, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”
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What is the benefit of this eating and drinking? These words,“Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins,” show us that in the Sacrament forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation are given us through these words. For where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation.
ruest and purest worship is nothing more than faith. It abides in the hearts of the baptized. It receives all things from God. A disciple leans back with his shoes off while God kneels to wash his smelly feet, for our Lord came to serve. He is the Lord who gives, who heals, who restores, and who forgives.This is how He would rule in your life. It is how He would bring you through death and into His life. Truest and purest worship, then, is reception of God’s gifts. This is not usually how we think of worship. Why? It is because the English word “worship” means to give reverence to, to honor, or to respect someone or something. It is something we do. We honor men by serving them. When our British cousins address the governor as “Your Worship,” they mean he is worthy of honor and praise.They are submitting to him and placing themselves at his service. He gives them orders and they do his bidding. But what does it mean to worship God? Certainly God is worthy of honor and praise, but God is not like the men He saved. He is not honored and praised in the same way as human kings. He became Man to suffer and die, to give His life as a ransom, not to be served or to make us obedient.The most appropriate way to give reverence to Christ is to call upon Him to be God, to be our Savior.That is why it’s higher praise to say “God save us”—”hosanna”— rather than “praise the Lord”—”hallelujah.” We give up our hallelujahs during Lent, but we never give up our hosannas. Hosanna is greater praise than hallelujah because it is specific to who God is and rightly asks Him to fulfill His Word for us. He says His mercy endures forever and we hold Him to it. He loves to give Himself to men. He delivers, rescues, and redeems. His children harvest where they did not sow.They draw water
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from wells they did not dig. And they receive gifts they did not earn. God is gracious and loves to serve. We worship Him by being served by Him. We receive good things from God throughout the service on Sunday mornings. God forgives our sins in the absolution. He speaks to us in preaching and in His Word. He hears and answers our prayers. In all those things God feeds and nourishes our faith. But nowhere is His service to us more evident than when He gives Himself to us as food and drink. Jesus serves us, but this is not His humiliation. He took our flesh and became Man by His power. He humbled Himself in flesh so He could fulfill the Law and die for us. Now His humiliation has ended, but His humanity has not. He still has a body. He is risen in His body and soul. He joins Himself, true God and true Man, in the flesh, to our flesh, under bread and wine. As God and as Man, He serves us. He enters into us to make us His temple. He forms us into the place of His gracious presence and the seat of His mercy. Our worship is to receive Him. This Body given, this Blood shed is for you. It removes your sins. It proclaims His death. It witnesses His resurrection. It joins you to Him and to the saints in heaven and on earth. It is what He wants you to have, what He wants you to do. It is the worship He Himself has instituted. He is wellpleased with it. For in it, He bestows life and salvation, and restores the goodness of creation. In it, we worship by receiving. + + + The Rev. David Petersen is pastor at Redeemer Lutheran Church in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Luther Quote: The Great Confession, Luther’s works, vol. 38 : Word and Sacrament IV (J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald & H.T. Lehmann, Ed.). Page 106. Fortress Press: Philadelphia.
By Rev. David Petersen
God as Man to Serve Men
