| What is Holy Communion? In his Small Catechism, Martin Luther said “The sacrament of Holy Communion is the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ given with bread and wine.” Holy Communion is instituted by Christ himself for us to eat and drink. It’s for this reason, Lutherans consider Holy Communion to be a sacrament. Luther drew his ideas about Holy Communion from the bible. All four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John give an account of the meal Jesus and his disciples ate the night before he was crucified. During the meal, Matthew’s Gospel tells us that while they were eating, Jesus took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to the disciples, and said, "Take, eat; this is my body." Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
The names for communion are helpful. We have the Lord’s Supper which reminds us of the resurrection feast. Jesus coming to us. Being with us. We have Holy Communion in which Jesus is one with us and makes us one with one another. We take Jesus’ very body and blood into ourselves. We are taking Christ into our bodies so that Christ is at the center of our lives. So that we can become more like Jesus. Jesus makes us more like himself. We can understand Holy Communion like the manna in the wilderness. Or, like Elijah’s bread given by the Lord as he journeyed to Mount Horeb. Communion is kind of like God nourishing us to have strength for the journey. The journey of life and the journey of faith. The journey of discipleship. If we expand our understanding of communion and lift up all of the things that communion is, then communion becomes bigger and more important so that Christ is at the center of our lives.
Communion has always been central to the Christian faith. We see it in the institution. Jesus instituted the supper. We do it in obedience to Jesus command. We do it in remembrance  |
of him. We have echoes of the Eucharist in all of the meals of Jesus. And one of the ways that we can think about what the Eucharist is by looking scripturally at all of those meals. We have Jesus feeding five thousand. Maybe the Eucharist is a hint that God’s grace is sufficient. Maybe more. The Eucharist is a model of how the world should feed its people. We have Jesus meeting two disciples on the road to Emmaus. And is kind of the whole movement of the liturgy. Jesus meets them in their sorrow and proclaims the word to them so that it burns in their hearts, reveals himself to him at the table, and they are sent out to do mission in the world.
Is Holy Communion a symbolic ceremony that simply reminds us of the last supper, or, is it something more? The traditional Roman Catholic view, transubstantiation says that somehow, the bread and the wine becomes Christ’s body and blood. Whether it is turned into that or whether the bread and the wine is miraculously replaced by that we don’t know. On the other hand, there is this kind of symbolic representation that says, this is just kind of a reminder of Jesus last supper with his disciples and the biblical meals. Somewhere in the middle there is kind of the view that it is bread and wine but with the right discerning spirit it becomes the body and blood of Christ. Luther said, Christ’s body and blood, Christ’s presence, are truly there in the bread and the wine. In, with and under the bread and the wine. And how that is, is a mystery.
We believe that Jesus is present in with and under the elements of bread and wine. Exactly how that happens is truly a mystery to us. But that doesn’t mean that it is not true or that we don’t believe that. It is still bread and wine. But it also becomes for us the body and blood of Jesus. Because it is coupled with God’s word and God’s promise that Jesus says to us, “Take and eat. This is my body. Take and drink. This is my blood. Given and shed for you.” And through this sacrament, this means of grace, we receive those promises of God and have a profound encounter with God.
Source: www.elca.org
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