As we continue our study of the Lord’s Supper, we read what Jesus said during the institution of it and what Paul writes regarding it.

23 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. (1 Corinthians 11:23-26)

In the Lutheran Confessions found in the Book of Concord the Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration teaches us,

43 Concerning our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, as our only Teacher, this solemn command has been given from heaven to all people, “listen to Him” [Matthew 17:5]. He is not a mere man or angel, neither is He just true, wise, and mighty, but He is the eternal Truth and Wisdom itself and Almighty God. He knows very well what and how He is to speak. He can also powerfully effect and do everything that He says and promises. He says, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away” (Luke 21:33); “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me” (Matthew 28:18).

44 Consider this true, almighty Lord, our Creator and Redeemer, Jesus Christ, after the Last Supper. He is just beginning His bitter suffering and death for our sins. In those sad last moments, with great consideration and solemnity, He institutes this most venerable Sacrament. It was to be used until the end of the world with great reverence and obedience ‹humility›. It was to be an abiding memorial of His bitter suffering and death and all His benefits. It was a sealing ‹and confirmation› of the New Testament, a consolation of all distressed hearts, and a firm bond of unity for Christians with Christ, their Head, and with one another. In ordaining and instituting the Holy Supper He spoke these words about the bread, which He blessed and gave: “Take, eat; this is My body, which is given for you,” and about the cup, or wine: “This is My blood of the new testament, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.”1

75 Jesus Christ’s true and almighty words, which He spoke at the first institution, were effective not only at the first Supper. They endure, are valid, operate, and are still effective. So in all places where the Supper is celebrated according to Christ’s institution and His words are used, Christ’s body and blood are truly present, distributed, and received, because of the power and effectiveness of the words that Christ spoke at the first Supper. Where His institution is observed and His words are spoken over the bread and cup ‹wine›, and the consecrated bread and cup ‹wine› are distributed, Christ Himself, through the spoken words, is still effective by virtue of the first institution, which He wants to be repeated there through His word. 76 As Chrysostom says in his Sermon about the Passion:

Christ Himself prepared this table and blesses it. For no man makes the bread and wine set before us into Christ’s body and blood, only Christ Himself, who was crucified for us. The words are spoken by

1 McCain, P. T. (Ed.). (2005). Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions (pp. 569–570). St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House

the mouth of the priest. But by God’s power and grace, by the word, where Christ says: “This is My body,” the elements presented are consecrated in the Supper. The declaration “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” [Genesis 1:28] was spoken only once. But it is ever effective in nature, so that it is fruitful and multiplies. So also this declaration ‹,This is My body; this is My blood,› was spoken once. But even to this day and up to His second coming it is effective and works so that in the Supper of the Church His true body and blood are present.

77 Luther also writes ‹concerning this very subject in the same manner›:

This command and institution of His have the power to accomplish this, that we do not present and receive not simply bread and wine but His body and blood, as His words indicate: “This is My body, this is My blood.” So it is not our work or speaking but the command and ordinance of Christ which make the bread the body and the wine the blood, beginning with the first Lord’s Supper and continuing to the end of the world, and it is administered daily through our ministry or office. [Luther’s Works 38:199]

78 Also:

Here, too, if I were to say over all the bread there is, “This is the body of Christ,” nothing would happen, but when we follow His institution and command in the Supper and say, “This is My body,” then it is His body, not because of our speaking or our declarative word, but because of His command in which He has told us so to speak and to do and has attached His own command and deed to our speaking. [Luther’s Works 37:184]2

2 McCain, P. T. (Ed.). (2005). Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions (pp. 574–575). St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House.

In summation, When Paul says, “This is my body,” he is declaring that we receive “this” bread and, at the same time, Christ’s body, which was given for us on the cross. In the same way, we receive the wine in the cup and, at the same time, the blood of Christ, which He shed for us on the cross. The “new covenant in Christ’s blood” means that when the Lord gave the cup to his disciples, they received His blood as the sacrificial blood that ushered in the new covenant God made with humanity. The Lord’s Supper places us into the very heart of our bloodbought redemption won for us by Christ’s death on the cross.

Each time we receive the Lord’s Supper we proclaim to both Christians and non-Christians that Christ gave his body and shed his blood to redeem all mankind. We remember His death, that pivotal, crucial event upon which the salvation of every man, woman, and child depends.

~ Pastor Webb