Worship Notes – The Sacrament of CommunionJesus said, “This is My body which is broken for you.” We take this verse very seriously. We teach that during the Lord’s Supper we actually receive the real Presence of Jesus Christ into our lives. What a beautiful mystery. When we receive Holy Communion we are engaged in a profound act of worship. Through the ages Christians have tried to understand what Jesus meant when He said, “This bread is My body.” In other words, how does Christ become present to us in the Sacrament of Communion? It’s helpful to quickly review the main theories about Christ’s presence in Communion. Roman Catholics speak of transubstantiation. They teach that the priest during Communion miraculously transforms the bread and wine into the literal physical body and blood of Christ. The Lutherans talk of consubstantiation. They teach that the bread and wine don’t cease to be bread and wine, but the real, literal body and blood of Christ is physically present along with the natural elements. And both these views are a serious attempt to take seriously Jesus’ words…“this is My body.” At the other end of the spectrum there are some Protestant groups that understand Communion as merely a memory meal…that is, there is no specific supernatural reality encountered during Communion other than our just remembering what happened long ago on the cross. Our view, which is called the Reformed or Calvinist view, is that the bread and wine are sacramental symbols that point us to the literal body of our Risen Lord. Jesus was crucified in AD 33 but right now His Resurrection Body is in Heaven with God the Father. We believe that when we eat the bread and drink the wine we actually feed on Christ, we get connected right now with the spiritual reality of Christ’s living body because it’s our human spirit that’s feeding on Christ’s spiritual resurrected body, not on His earthly body. Return to home page
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