Sermon for
Trinity 12, August 23, 2026
1 Corinthians 10:16-17 16The
cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a communion of the blood of
Christ? The bread that we break, is it
not a communion of the body of Christ? 17Because
there is one bread, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the
one bread. (EHV)
This wine,
this bread, is the body and blood of Christ.
Dear fellow redeemed,
The
morning after Moses told the Children of Israel that God would provide food for
them in the wilderness, they came out of their tents, saw the heaven-sent
bread, and asked, “Manna?” Which means, “What
is it?” They had never seen such a food
before. They had never heard of flakes
of bread somehow just appearing in the wilderness overnight. Of course, this wasn’t a natural event. Yet, God continued to provide that manna six
days a week for forty years until the nation entered the promised land and
didn’t need that food any longer.
Today, we examine the
Lord’s Supper, the meal Jesus instituted on the night He was betrayed. It seems a bit astonishing that after
providing this food from heaven for nearly two thousand years, so many people
continue to ask, “What is it?” The
answer is just as simple as the words Jesus spoke the night He was betrayed, This
wine, this bread, is the body and blood of Christ.
To a congregation still
fending off the ideas of their former idolatrous ways, Paul wrote, “The cup
of blessing that we bless, is it not a communion of the blood of Christ?” The reason the concept of the bread and wine
possessing Christ’s very body and blood seems so hard to accept is that it is
completely unnatural. The true body and
blood of Christ is not found anywhere else in nature, nor will His body ever be
found in a tomb, so the wise men and scientists of our times will always be
tempted to scoff at this teaching.
The concept of the real
presence of Christ’s body and blood in the bread and wine is widely derided in
our times, and it is denied even among many supposedly Christian
denominations. However, to deny this
teaching sets a person at odds with Jesus.
To claim the wine only represents Jesus’ blood, indicates a rejection of
Christ’s very words, and to reject God’s Word is to reject God Himself. No one can have it both ways when Jesus is
the Word of God. (John 1:14)
This portion of Paul’s
letter to the Corinthian congregation comes immediately after he summarized the
many ways in which the Israelites had fallen prey to idolatry after God rescued
them from their slavery in Egypt. In the
same way, immediately before our sermon text, Paul says, “Therefore, my dear friends, flee from
idolatry.” (1
Corinthians 10:14) It is idolatry to
deny the real presence of the body and blood of Jesus in, with, and under the
bread and wine. It is idolatry because
it denies what the Lord Himself has testified.
Now, some might say, “But
how can this be?” Many boldly argue that
Jesus’ body is in heaven so how can it be here on earth or wherever the Holy
Supper is administered? But the question
really doesn’t need to be how can this be?
The question must always be, “What has God said in His holy Word?” You see, we don’t have to know how. God doesn’t have to defend Himself in these
things. He doesn’t explain to us how He
made the world in six days through only His spoken Word. He doesn’t tell us exactly how His Son could
come down from heaven to earth and take on human flesh. He doesn’t tell us how He is the One true God
in three persons, but to deny any of these things is to make God a liar and our
enemy. May the Lord God through the
power of His Holy Spirit in the Word keep us from such a false fate.
The reality is that God
has provided us with great and lasting comfort through this gift. Again we read, “The cup of blessing that
we bless, is it not a communion of the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a
communion of the body of Christ?”
Through the eating and drinking of this sacramental miracle, God blesses
us with a fellowship with Jesus that unites us in faith. The perfect trust in His heavenly Father that
Jesus lived and demonstrated on our behalf, is now ours through the connection
He brings in this meal. We don’t need to
know the how only the what.
Because of God’s great
love for you and me, He sent His Son Jesus to be the redeeming sacrifice that
reconciled the world with God. Then,
just as the sacrifices in the temple were partially consumed by the people, so
we get to partake of His sacrificed Lamb as certain and sure proof that Jesus gave
His life in exchange for our guilt.
While the fourteen hundred years of sacrifices in the temple could not purchase
removal of guilt from the people, those sacrifices pointed forward to the one, final
sacrifice of His Son that God would make on our behalf.
Therefore, whenever
someone tries to argue against the real presence of Christ’s body and blood in
the bread and wine, we need not try to argue them into the correct
understanding. Rather, it is to their
benefit, and ours, that we simply repeat what Jesus declared the night He was
betrayed when He said, “This is my body, which is given for you.” (Luke
22:19) And, “This is my blood of the
new testament, which is poured out for many.” (Mark 14:24) Jesus’ words may well defy human logic, but
just as the Israelites couldn’t explain how that manna showed up outside their
tents every morning for forty years, even though it fed them life-giving food
for as long as they wandered in the wilderness, so too, though we cannot
explain how it can be so, the body and blood of our Lord is in the bread and
wine of the Sacrament, and consumed by faith in His promise it keeps our souls
fed unto life everlasting.
We receive another
tremendous benefit because This wine, this bread, is the body and blood of
Christ. The same living food that
unites us with Christ Jesus also unites us with each other and with all other
truly believing Christians. Again, this
can lead us into some hard to understand areas.
We practice close or closed communion because the Scriptures instruct us
in the proper reception of the Sacrament.
There are those who would turn the instructions around and pretend that
simply eating the bread and drinking the wine together in the supper unites us. However, we can only truly be united with
Christ and with each other, if we hold to the same teachings.
If we should pretend
agreement with those who deny Jesus being truly present in the bread and wine,
we are not united with Jesus but with the false teaching which leads away from
our Savior. If we should pretend that
this is only an individual decision that shouldn’t deter us, we are rejecting
the very Scriptures that tell us to love and care for our fellow believers, and
really, for every neighbor whether in agreement in doctrine or not.
By His spoken testimony,
Jesus confirmed that God wants us in His presence, not as sinners but as
forgiven souls won for Him by Christ Jesus.
This morning, we again partake of the Lord’s Supper. In this Sacrament, Jesus invites us to be His
special guests at His table, in His house, in communion with our Creator
forevermore. In this communion with
Jesus, we are refreshed with life and peace everlasting.
This communion brings
together all the pieces of the puzzle.
If you looked around the table the night Jesus established His holy
communion, it would look like a rather motley crew. There with the Lord were fishermen, a tax
collector, a zealot, one who would become known as a doubter, some timid,
others more ambitious or impetuous. What
brought them together is Jesus.
As we look at faithful
Christianity, we see a wide variety of backgrounds, various skin colors,
speaking a multitude of languages, men and women from all around the world
brought together as one body in Christ.
In this world, we may not seem to have much in common. We might have differing political views and
social status, different opinions on how to dress, where to live, and a host of
other variables. Yet, one thing is
certain, we are all sinners who needed reconciliation with God, and with His
body and blood in the bread and wine of this Supper, Jesus gives us the blessed
forgiveness we need and the perfect righteousness He lived on our behalf.
Dear friends, there are
many in our world who would gladly mock us for accepting the teachings of the
Sacrament of the Altar and the real presence of Jesus’ body and blood given to
you and me there. Some of those mockers
are believers in Jesus who have been misled into mixing human reason with the
divine truth of Scripture. Others are
blatant despisers of God’s Word, even if some of them willfully quote portions
of it out of context to confuse the weak.
However, you and I have, by God’s grace, the simple, sure, and honest
truth that gives us life and eternal healing of the soul. For, when you partake of this holy meal given
to you from Jesus’ hand, you receive His true body and blood and along with
that heavenly food, you receive forgiveness of all sin, true righteousness, and
life everlasting, because in, with, and under This wine, this bread, is the
body and blood of Christ. Amen.
Now
may the God of hope fill you with complete joy and peace as you continue to
believe, so that you overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
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