Sermon(Mt 26:26-29): Jesus' flesh and blood

The original Korean text: https://blog.naver.com/stevision/50025286739

 

>> 26 Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” 27 And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “drink of it, all of you; 28 for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. 29 I tell you I shall not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.” (Mt 26:26-29) <<

>>For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. (Jn 6:55) <<

 

You know 'filioque', which means 'and from the Son also'. The doctrine of filioque tells us that the Holy Spirit proceeds (comes) not only from the Father but also from the Son. The filioque controversy caused the Eastern and Western churches to separate from each other. Eastern Church believed that the Holy Spirit proceeded only from the Father, while Western Church (Catholicism, and later, Protestantism) believed that the Holy Spirit proceeded both from the Father and from the Son. (Filioque is a doctrine of Western Church.) Like this, sometimes a doctrine separates one church from another. I think filioque seems to be right. It is natural for the Holy Spirit to come from the Son as well, if we believe that the Son has the divinity equal to that of the Father in all respects.

 

There are several doctrines about the Communion (the Eucharist) and the Sacrament (the bread and the wine, or the Elements). (The Eucharist, in Catholicism, also refers to the Elements transformed into the substance of Jesus' body by the priest's declaration, "This is my (Jesus') body.") In addition to today's text, the words of John, New Testament, are very important in relation to the Communion. >>"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh." ... So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed." (Jn 6:47-55)<< Another element that is essential to the Communion is the Apostles' Creed: "... he ascend into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty ... ." Previously, the former believers of our faith believed that they would gain the eternal life Jesus promised them, by taking part in the Communion and eating the bread and drinking the wine. They thought that just as man needs a loaf of bread to live a life of a day, so he needs the bread and wine of the Communion to live the eternal life.

 

However the questions is what the bread and wine of the Communion is. We confess that the resurrected Jesus ascended to heaven and now is sitting at the right hand of God. But the opinion divides into several cases according to how people think about the relationship between the Jesus in heaven and the bread and wine of the Communion. The Roman Catholicism insists on the transubstantiation. They say as follows: When a priest says toward the bread and wine at Mass, "This is my (Jesus') flesh, and this is my blood," the bread and wine changes into the real flesh and blood of Jesus while its appearance remaining the same. (That is, the substance of the bread and wine has changed into the substance of the body of Jesus. So it looks like bread and wine but, in fact, is the body of Jesus.) Therefore the bread and the wine are the real flesh and blood of Jesus, so he who eats the bread and drinks the wine really eats the flesh of Jesus and drinks the blood of Jesus. Moreover, in Roman Catholicism, the priest offers up the flesh and blood of Jesus, which has been changed from the bread and wine, to God as a sacrifice at Mass. However people might think that the bread and the blood can be worshiped for they are real body and blood of Jesus. Like this, believers of Catholicism think they can gain eternal life by eating the real body and blood of Jesus. But the Protestantism calls the Communion (the Eucharist) of the Catholicism an idolatry, and does not approve priests' repeating the priestly ministry of Jesus at Mass, for Jesus did the ministry once for all by offering himself up to God at the cross. So Catholicism regards the bread and wine of the Communion as the substance of the flesh and blood of Jesus who is at the right hand of God now.

 

Luther, the forerunner of the Reformation, refused the transubstantiation of Catholicism. His theory of the Communion is called consubstantiation. He says that the attribute of Jesus' divinity and that of his humanity can be communicated (transmitted), one to the other. It is called 'change of properties (communicatio idiomatum)'. Just as, when we see a human being Jesus, we can call the man Jesus the eternal God the Son, that is, just as the invisible divinity of God is expressed through the humanity of Jesus, so his humanity can be expressed through his divinity. The typical attribute of divinity is omnipresence. Or, God is everywhere at the same time. If Jesus' humanity is expressed by this divinity, the humanity of Jesus who is sitting at the right hand of God is present in all the space at the same time. Of course, it is another story whether this 'change of properties' is true indeed. I'm saying this because Luther's theory of the Communion presupposes transmission of one attribute of Jesus to the other. So Luther says that Jesus' flesh and blood, or his humanity, coexists with the bread and wine in the same space. Luther says that this humanity of Jesus that is coexisting with the bread and wine is connected to the real bread and wine, that the saints eat the flesh of Jesus and drink the blood of Jesus and obtain the eternal life, when they eat the bread and drink the wine. Catholicism says that the bread and wine changes into the real flesh and blood of Jesus, having only the appearance of bread and wine, while Luther says that the substance and the attributes of the bread and the wine themselves never change.

 

Next, Zwingli's theory of the Communion. He believes that the humanity of Jesus, who is now sitting at the right hand of God, never comes upon the bread and wine of the Communion. He says that the bread and wine symbolizes the flesh and blood of Jesus, that we commemorate Jesus' death on the cross when we eat the bread and drink the wine. Therefore he says that, when we eat the bread and drink the wine, there can't be other meanings for us than the commemoration of his death for us. Of course, he does not deny that Jesus is present in the Communion by his divine spirit because his divinity is omnipresent. He says that his humanity, however, never exists beyond the limited place, the right side of God. His theory of Communion is that Jesus' divinity is present in the place of Communion while his humanity has nothing to do with the bread and wine ontologically.

 

Calvin objected to Zwingli's theory of Communion that, when the saints eat the bread and drink the wine at Communion, they do not experience the real flesh and the real blood of Jesus but have them as the symbol of the flesh and blood of Jesus, just commemorating Jesus' death on the cross. Calvin also denies that the humanity of Jesus sitting at the right hand of God is really moved to the place where the bread and wine exists. So he refuses transubstantiation of Catholicism and consubstantiation of Luther. However he uses metaphor. He says that, when the saints eat the bread and drink the wine, they have the result that they would have if they really ate the flesh of Jesus and really drank the blood of Jesus. He notes that the Holy Spirit descended like a dove on Jesus when he was baptized. The dove itself is not the Holy Spirit, however it surely represents the presence of the Holy Spirit. Metaphor is an expression like 'My heart is a lake.' In fact, the lake is not my heart, but it expresses the phenomena of my heart well. Although the dove itself is not the Holy Spirit, the presence of the dove brings about the same effect as the presence of the Holy Spirit does. It can be said that, where there is the dove, there is the Holy Spirit also there. The Holy Spirit has really come upon Jesus on whom the dove is. Calvin says that, just as the dove is the Holy Spirit metaphorically, so the bread and wine is the presence of the humanity of Jesus who is at the right hand of God, metaphorically. Therefore he could say that the saints really had the result (the efficacy) of the eating of the real flesh and blood of Jesus when they ate bread and wine. There could not be such an efficacy if the bread and wine was just a symbol as Zwingli said. Calvin says that the bread and wine not only represents the flesh and blood of Jesus to us but also presents it to us. Transubstantiation is Catholicism's, consubstantiation is Luther's, commemoration (or symbol) is Zwingli's, then 'metaphoric presentation' is Calvin's. 'Metaphoric' refers to the thought that the bread and wine represents the flesh and blood of Jesus, while 'presentation' refers to the thought that the bread and wine presents (brings) the humanity of Jesus who is at the right hand of God to the saints.

 

Everyone except Zwingli associated the bread and wine of the Communion with the real humanity (flesh and blood) of Jesus. And our former believers had the belief on the Communion that they really ate Jesus' flesh and drank his blood and gained eternal life thereby when they ate the bread and drank the wine. However, I wonder if today's saints eat the bread and drink the wine at Communion, in connection with their eternal life.

 

Transubstantiation does not match with the present times, I think. Luther's consubstantiation is also practically impossible as long as it tells of the coexistence of the humanity of Jesus (in the space of the bread and wine). Zwingli's commemoration told about the Communion too superficially, considering Jesus' saying, "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood will live forever. (Jn 6:52-59)" Calvin presents us a theory of Communion which denies the change of the substance of the bread and wine, but which tells of the efficacy of the Communion (the gain of the eternal life); so it can be a decent theory of Communion for us today.

 

Jesus' words are not mere parables or mere moral admonitions. In fact, many departed Jesus when he said, "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood will live forever." Nevertheless he said so. Because it is a truth. He said so even if many people departed him, because it was a very serious truth. >>After this many of his disciples drew back and no longer went about with him. Jesus said to the twelve, "Do you also wish to go away?" Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. (Jn 6:66-68)"<< As a matter of fact, how many people felt appalled when Jesus said such sayings? Bread and wine primarily mean the Jesus on the cross. Bread and wine say that the death of Jesus on the cross was indeed the sacrifice for us. Anyone who believes that Jesus' death on the cross was for himself will obtain eternal life.

 

What does it mean to eat the flesh of Jesus and to drink the blood of Jesus? First, we can know from it the love of God the Father for us. The Father gave us his only Son's flesh and blood for food for our living of eternal life. It's a shame to be others' food. It's a shame for a strong lion to be a prey to man. And a prey lies in a low status compared to the predator. Humans are higher than cattle, for they eat the cattle. God the Father sacrificed the Son, because he loved us. He gave his Son to us for food. We do not actually eat his real flesh or drink his real blood, but at least Jesus meets us with the thought that his flesh and blood is food for us. He came into the world to sacrifice himself and to serve humans.

 

Think of a woman with a suckling. She gives it her flesh as she suckles her baby. Feeding her baby, the mother embraces her baby with infinite love. Likewise, Jesus always deals with us with the heart of a mother suckling her baby. He feeds us words of God and gives the Holy Spirit so that we may grow up well. Both the word and the Holy Spirit come from him. In fact, we even now walk in the path of eternal life with spiritual food from Jesus. The Communion shows Jesus' great love for us well. The love Jesus shows us at Communion is that of a woman suckling her baby. Through the Communion, we can see Jesus' great love for us.

 

Therefore we entirely belong to Jesus. Jesus bought us for his own blood and fed us his own flesh and blood. Just as a child is the child of the parents who gave it their flesh, so we're Jesus' own. We've become extremely holy and noble. A larva which has eaten royal jelly becomes a queen bee. How much more holy and noble we would be, who have eaten the flesh and blood of the Son! You are far more precious than you think. The flesh of us who have eaten Jesus' flesh and blood is holiness itself. The Devil can never approach us because of the brilliance and scent of our flesh. Devil even can't touch us. Whenever we eat the bread and wine of the Communion, we should give true thanks to the Father and the Son, thinking of the love of the Father for us and the love and sacrifice of the Son for us. And if we think how glorious we are, we cannot but love Jesus the more.

 

(Qin Shi Huang, a Chinese king, ordered his servants to seek for the herb of eternal youth, but failed to get it and died a common man. The herb of eternal youth is too valuable and rare even for a king to obtain. Of course, there is not such a herb in the world. But we Christians are ones who eat Jesus' flesh and blood to live forever. There is the herb of eternal youth right here! We are noble human beings who eat the flesh and blood of the God to live the eternal life, who are much nobler than Qin Shi Huang that couldn't find the herb of eternal life but died. When we know about us rightly, we realize how glorious and noble we are! Hallelujah!)

 

May the love and grace of Jesus on the cross cover your life.

 

Chong Tack Kim

                               - Dongtoma Sunshine Church -