Encore Post: Baptism is for everyone — every person of any place, color, class, race, country or age. God wants to save everyone. The Lord’s Supper, however, is for Christians only. (1 Corinthians 10:14-22) St. Paul tells us that sometimes even Christians should not receive this sacrament. (1 Corinthians 11:27-32) So… who is the supper for?
Sincere Christians have often worried much over whether they are worthy to receive the Lord’s Body and Blood. Did they sin too much? Did they forget to apologize for something or to forgive someone? Should they go to the altar or not?
Martin Luther takes this up in his Catechisms (Small Catechism 6.5, Large Catechism 7.75) “he is truly worthy and well prepared who has faith in these words: Given, and shed for you, for the remission of sins. But he that does not believe these words, or doubts, is unworthy and unfit; for the words For you require altogether believing hearts.” If you realize that you are a sinner, in need of forgiveness, believe that Jesus offers you that forgiveness with his body and blood and the bread and wine of the Supper, then it is for you.
St. Paul’s warning is for those who are sinning in the process of going to the Sacrament. If you really do not want forgiveness for some or all of your sins, watch out. You are, at best, treating trivially the very Body and Blood of your Savior, sacrificed on the cross for you. At worst, you mock the Lord’s Supper. This you would do to your peril.
This is why Christians take a moment to prepare to receive Holy Communion. Luther’s Christian Questions and Their Answers are very helpful when you do this. Remember your sins, your need for forgiveness, that Jesus desires to forgive you. Then joyfully go to the altar to receive the sacrifice he made for you, being united with him and your brothers and sisters in Christ.
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I thank God for every opportunity to receive his mercy.
The heretical understandings of the Lord’s Supper make us unprepared as well:
1)Hocus pocus-a corruption of Hoc corpus meus, “This is My Body,” is a reflection of transubstantiation, the teaching that overnight bread and wine turn into the Body and Blood of Christ, a direct rejection of “This IS My Body.”
2)What you see is what/all you get, namely bread and wine (simply not grape juice) symbolizing the Body and Blood of Christ. This is the teaching of all Arminian churches, denominational and non-denominational, another direct rejection of Jesus’ word “IS”.
3) Locked up in heaven- the Calvinist Reformed view that this Supper is partaken by rising in our souls to heaven, since Jesus’ Body and Blood are finite and incapable of the infinite, the omnipresent. This again is a human opinion that rejects Jesus’ “IS”.
THE Truth is that it is our Lord giving Himself as Supper, all He is as crucified, risen and glorified God and Man, as Body and Blood, as bread and wine. It is all Christ is, full-blast Gospel, full-blast Gift! This is most certainly true!