Let’s Take Jesus at His Word

By Rev. William Snyder

“This is My body... This is My blood.” Little else shows more clearly the amazing mental gymnastics that people must attempt in order to deny or misapply the clear words of Jesus than do the various interpretations of these two statements.

At the time of the Reformation, the Roman Catholic Church taught transubstantiation, that the bread and wine of Christ’s Supper are changed into His Body and Blood, only appearing to be what they once were. Luther and Ulrich Zwingli both rejected transubstantiation. But while Zwingli taught that the Supper was and remained bread and wine and that whatever consumption there was of Jesus was purely “spiritual,” Luther simply took Jesus and Paul at their word.

Both Rome and Zwingli had difficulty reconciling that we receive both earthly bread and wine and Christ’s own Body and Blood in Communion. Since such a teaching defies logic, they looked for answers in philosophy and semantics. Luther once said that he wished that he could have done the same, for that would have been a much easier path. But he could find no way to do so without rejecting the simple words of Scripture.

So rather than explain, Luther accepted and confessed. Oddly enough, both Roman Catholics and Zwinglians easily accepted the similar illogic of Christ’s incarnation and virgin birth and readily confessed the Trinity. Yet when it came to the Eucharist, they felt compelled to explore the mechanism rather than embrace the gift.

So while Rome stood firm in its medieval philosophical claims and Zwingli touted his fresh, new logical approach, Luther plodded along the Biblical path, looking neither left nor right but kept his eyes focused on the words of Jesus, the Word made-flesh.

Luther didn’t abandon human logic but he followed the course he’d set years earlier: Reason should always be used ministerially (in service of ) Scriptural teaching, never magisterially (ruling over and sometimes overruling) doctrine. So in clear, logical statements, he defended his acceptance of the seeming illogic of the presence of Christ’s Body and Blood in the Sacrament.

He refused to treat “this is” as metaphor because normally when Christ made such comparisons, He also used comparative language, such as the times He said, “The kingdom of heaven is like....” Luther didn’t refer as much to the “I am” statements in John. However, because they used a “being” verb, he never considered these to be mere simile or metaphor. To use just one example, when Jesus says, “I am the door” Jesus literally is a door, although not one of wood or metal, for He literally shuts out or welcomes through those whom He accepts or denies.

We would do well to take our cue from Dr. Luther. He was an intelligent man and an unparalleled Biblical scholar. The more he learned and pondered the Scriptures, the more he realized that he was also a simple, straightforward man—one convinced that God knew more and better than he did.

We’ll never devise a human philosophy capable of logically laying out how Christ’s Body and Blood can be present with bread baked and wine fermented by frail humans. However, we humans have already been given the philosophy that fits our need: “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.” (Proverbs 3:5) Or as He says in Isaiah 55:8, “‘My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the LORD.”

If we need to know the how of Holy Communion, God will tell us. But it’s not likely that this will happen some 2,000 years after we received this blessed sacrament from our Savior. However, God has clearly given us the so-called Five Ws of the Sacrament in Holy Scripture.

Who: Jesus—specifically His Body and Blood.

What: The eating and drinking of Christ’s Body and Blood in, with and under the bread and wine.

Where: Wherever Christians gather for the Feast.

When: As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup (those consecrated with Jesus’ words)

Why: In remembrance of Him; to be in communion with Him, His Father, and His Church; and, most of all, for the forgiveness of sins.

Additionally, not only does Scripture compel us to believe that we truly receive Jesus’ Body given and Blood shed on the cross, it also leads us to confess that His disciples received the same even before He suffered and died. A seeming temporal inconsistency? Yes, but no more—or less—confusing than Jesus’ statement to the Jews in John 8: “‘Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.’” (v. 56) This sounded impossible. “The Jews said to him, ‘You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?’” (v. 57) Jesus then uttered that well-known but still baffling response, “‘Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.’” (John 8:58)

And so it stands. Scripture’s internal logic leads us to abandon human logic: We truly receive Christ’s Body and Blood even as we receive the bread and wine. When Jesus says, “I AM,” you can be sure that He is. When He says, “This is,” it “truly, truly” is. To believe and teach otherwise is to make Christ a liar, Scripture a sham, and our faith a futility. But with those words of Jesus come gifts to us in the Sacrament of the Altar: the gifts of forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation!

Rev. Walter Snyder has been a parish pastor and a hospice chaplain. He’s written Higher Things Reflections and sermons, Portals of Prayer devotions, and Lenten material for Concordia Publishing House. He took a group to the first Higher Things conference in Laramie, Wyoming and has been a presenter at other HT events. He enjoys hiking, reading fantasy and science fiction, and hymn writing and is working to improve his skills as a photographer. Currently living in Concordia, Missouri, he would like to return to full-time parish ministry should the Lord call him.