Our Comfort from the Lord’s Holy Supper

The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? (1 Corinthians 10:16).
God’s word is true and not false in any sense. We therefore insist that the above words that He recorded through His chosen writer St. Paul are clear and true. Nowhere in Scripture does the Lord say one thing but mean something else. So when Jesus said, “Take eat, this is my body,” what occurred was not that someone else’s body was joined with the bread; likewise, the same can be said of His blood. His very own body and blood are joined with the bread and wine by His word (see Matthew 26:26, Mark 14:22, Luke 22:19, and 1 Corinthians 10:21; 11:20; 11:23).
“Christ was the Word that spake it; He took the bread and brake it. And what His words did make it, That I believe and take it.” (Queen Elizabeth I, (1533-1603) responding when someone asked her opinion of the real presence of Christ in the Sacrament.)
Christ’s word brings about that which He says, nothing else. It is not our kneeling or eating or attitude, nor is it the pastor. The pastor simply speaks the words Jesus spoke and the Lord’s own powerful word brings His body and blood to His Supper.
Much scriptural evidence assures us that Jesus links His power with His word. Jesus cried out, “Lazarus come forth,” and he who was dead came forth from the grave (John 10:43). Again, our Lord speaks and there is an effect: “‘Ephphatha,’ and the blind man’s eyes were opened,” (Mark 7:34). Finally, the Gospel of Jesus’ sacrificial work for our salvation comes to mind: “The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation” (Romans 1:17).
In response to the temptations of Satan which would reject this truth, we may say to Satan: “If God demonstrates what light is, first by showing how it was created and then showing it to us every day, that’s what it is, it’s not something other than light, (Genesis 1:3–5). If He says through His chosen writers, all the heavens were made by Him, these didn’t come into being by blind fate or by someone else’s power (Psalm 33:6). If He says the blind can see, the blind do see. If He calls Lazarus from the tomb, Lazarus walks out of the grave. So, when the Savior teaches that by means of His Word He unites His body with the bread and His blood with the wine, then Christ is truly present as His words say. When Jesus gives us His blood “for the forgiveness of sins, then we can believe that His body and blood are given us in the Sacrament for our pardon of grace, and they are not something else. Our Lord is God and His gives us what His Word says.
How comforting this is in connection with the Holy Supper, because there we receive the very body and blood of God’s own Son, given and shed to redeem us, and the forgiveness of all our sins. We receive what He gives in the most intimate, personal, individual manner possible!  “Take and eat, take and drink…given and shed for you for the forgiveness of all your sins.”
A spiritual ancestor of ours, Cyril of Alexandria, (b. 376) unfolds comforting meaning in paraphrasing Christ’s words: “I who have come from life which is Mine by nature and have been made man, have filled My body with life, so that he who eats My flesh will live because of Me,” (Martin Chemnitz, The Two Natures in Christ; tr. By J.A.O. Preus; CPH, 1971; p. 467).
May we use the Holy Supper as frequently as possible for the pardoning Grace of God and for the strengthening of our faith in Christ!
James Olsen is an ELS pastor emeritus living in Ontario, Wisconsin.