Monday Devotional: A Meditation on Holy Communion (Mark 14:22-24)

Yes, Christ is really and truly present

While they were eating, he took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.” Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, and all of them drank from it. He said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. Truly I tell you, I will never again drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God” (Mark 14:22-24)

There is power in Jesus’ body and blood. In those last moments with the Twelve, Jesus instituted a practice that has nourished Christians across the ages. He has given us the opportunity to affirm and participate in the new covenant he established in his death, and in so doing given us a foretaste of the age to come.

The Passover meal that Jesus eats with his disciples is sandwiched between his prophecy of Judas’s betrayal (vv. 17-21) and his prophecy of the disciples’ abandonment (vv. 26-31), including Peter’s denial. Such positioning of material is typical of Mark’s rhetorical style. He puts side-by-side episodes he wishes the reader to interpret together. In this case, Jesus’ reference to his body and blood point forward to his passion and death. Both his betrayal and his abandonment are part of the suffering that will begin that very evening. Like other victims of crucifixion, Jesus’ suffering was not just physical. The terror of the cross resulted in the isolation of the victim, even from trusted friends and family. One who died on a Roman cross died utterly alone.

The Passover meal recalls God’s deliverance of Israel from Egypt (see Exodus 12). It is a celebration of God’s covenant faithfulness, providential care, and mighty works of salvation. During this Passover meal with his disciples, Jesus appropriates all of these themes. He brings them together with the concept of the “blood of the covenant” from Exodus 24, which describes the ratification of the Mosaic Covenant. He reinterprets all of these themes collectively in terms of his own suffering and death. The bread of the passover meal is his body. The wine is not just the blood of the covenant, but “my” blood of the covenant. It is poured out not just for Israel, but for “many,” phrasing that recalls 10:45, when Jesus says that he came to give his life as a ransom for many.

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The sacrifice of Jesus’ body and blood will be liberative. It will be a ransom. It will be a sacrifice that sets many free from the power of sin, death, and the devil. The spilling of his blood will establish a new covenant. It does not cancel out God’s covenant with Israel, but extends it to “the many.” The aspects of the Mosaic covenantal law that set Israel apart from other nations, such as food regulations and other forms of ritual purity, no longer apply because through the blood of the covenant God is opening the way for the Gentiles to experience salvation.

Jesus is the passover lamb, but he is more than this. Likewise he is the sacrifice for sin, but he is more than this, as well. He is the means by which God will make a new covenant that will extend to every tribe, tongue, and nation, and he is even more than this. As the Messiah, he is the fulfillment of every saving work and promise throughout Israel’s salvation history. He is the culmination and fulfillment of all of God’s saving work.

Jesus tells the Twelve, “Truly I tell you, I will never again drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.” The bread and the wine, his body and blood, point forward to an eschatological reality. Put differently, they give us a foretaste of the age to come, when sin and death will be no more and we will live in undisturbed harmony with God. To taste of Jesus’ body and blood is to participate now in a reality that will be fully present in the future.

Within the elements of the Lord’s Supper, Christ is truly, spiritually present. I will not go so far as my Roman Catholic friends to affirm transubstantiation—the belief that, while the bread and wine still have the appearance of such, after consecration their substance changes into the body and blood of Christ. If others believe this, I don’t condemn them. It’s just not my belief, nor is it the belief of most Protestant Christians. Nevertheless, Christ is truly present by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Exactly how he is present is a mystery. When we speak of mystery in Christian theology, we aren’t just talking about something we don’t understand. I don’t understand how airplanes get off the ground, but I don’t consider that a mystery. Rather, theologically speaking, a mystery is a belief so profound that it exceeds human understanding. The three-one God is a mystery. The two natures, divine and human, united in Christ and yet unconfused, present a mystery. The presence of Christ in the Lord’s Supper is likewise a mystery. We may not understand entirely how Christ is present, but we affirm that he is present nonetheless.

When we receive the real presence of Christ in the Lord’s Supper, God works in our lives to change us. There is healing power in the body and blood of Christ. The elements become a means by which we receive God's transforming grace. John Wesley, in reference to the practice of the early church, wrote that the Lord's Supper is the “the grand channel whereby the grace of his Spirit was conveyed to the souls of all the children of God” (“Upon Our Lord's Sermon On the Mount: Discourse Six,” Sermon 26). Christ heals our sin-sick souls, our distorted minds, and even our bodies. Thus the Lord’s Supper is not just a celebration and remembrance of Christ’s saving work, but a ritual of salvation and healing, an active participation in the new covenant that Christ established in his death, and a foretaste of Christ’s eternal reign.

Prayer: God, thank you for the saving gift of Christ’s death. Thank you for allowing us to receive his body and blood in the Lord’s Supper. Through these elements, work in my heart to make me into the person you want me to be.

Questions:

1. What do you think Jesus’ disciples thought when he told them that the bread and wine were his body and blood?

2. How do you understand the presence of Christ in the Lord’s Supper?

3. What happens to us when we receive Christ’s body and blood?