A Lutheran Theology Of The Lord's Supper

A distinctive Lutheran theology of the Lord's Supper arises out of Luther's evangelical understanding of sacrament as well as two specific matters of controversy in the sixteenth century—the sacrifice of the Mass and the presence of Christ at the Supper. Luther's own writings and the Lutheran confessional documents of the sixteenth century are the principal sources for this theology.

A Sacrament of Promise and Command In Lutheran theology, the Lord's Supper is one of two chief sacraments (together with baptism). In opposition to the medieval scholastic theology of sacrament, which understood the supper as an efficacious sign of grace (efficax signum gratiate) working by means of the ritual action of the Mass (ex opere operato), Luther and his followers formulated a theology of the Lord's Supper within a concept of the sacrament determined by an emphasis on the activity of God's Word and the role of faith. The Word of God in the sacrament is both a word of command and a word of promise. The words of Christ, recorded in Scripture, provide the mandate for what Christians do at the Lord's Supper; they also proclaim the promise of God which lies at the heart of the supper. Moreover, the word of the sacrament is, as Augustine said, a visible word. At the Lord's Supper, it is the earthly elements of bread and wine in the context of the entire sacramental action that give visibility to God's Word. Corresponding to the activity of God's Word in the sacrament is the sacrament's reception by faith. Faith receives what God promises in the Supper, and in this conjunction of the Word of God and faith the sacrament has its effect. Thus, the sacrament of the Lord's Supper is a means of grace. In its deepest sense, the Lutheran interpretation of the Supper as a sacrament under the categories of the Word of God and faith understands the Lord's Supper as a means by which the living Christ, who is God's Word, encounters faithful people of God. Sacrifice Rejected, Yet Real Presence Affirmed Other characteristic features of Lutheran theology of the Lord's Supper emerged from the controversy with Rome over the sacrifice of the Mass. Luther condemned the idea of the sacrifice of the Mass for two specific reasons. In the first place, it had allowed the Mass to become a particular kind of work by which people sought God's favor and assistance through the performance of religious ceremony. In keeping with the doctrine of justification by faith, Luther taught that the Lord's Supper is an exercise of faith, not a ceremonial work to obtain some benefit from God. In the second place, the Mass as a sacrifice misconstrued the very nature of the Supper as sacrament. It is a benefit (beneficium), not a sacrifice (sacrificium). The Supper is a gift to be received by faith, rather than an offering made to God by the priest for the spiritual well-being of the living and the dead. It is the gift of forgiveness. The Supper contains and visibly enacts God's promise of forgiveness in order that it might be faithfully received. It is also the gift of communion in Christ through the reception of his body and blood. The sacramental elements are received in faith, not presented to God as an offering. In accordance with the Lord's own command, the bread is for eating and the cup is for drinking, not for sacrifice. Lutheran theology of the Lord's Supper is also characterized by the doctrine of the Real Presence of Christ. Luther rejected the doctrine of transubstantiation for a number of reasons. First of all, he argued that the Scriptures are clear that bread and wine remain genuine bread and wine; their substance is not changed. Luther also questioned the notion of a change in the elements of bread and wine because this belief was linked with a claim about the power of the priest to bring it about. Furthermore, Luther insisted that Christ's presence at the Supper was a mystery and that transubstantiation as the official teaching of the church violated that mystery because it made a specific explanation—one that relied on Aristotelian categories of thought—binding for theology and faith. Despite these concerns about the doctrine of transubstantiation, Luther did not give up the belief that at the Supper the bread and wine are the true body and blood of Christ. This insistence on the Real Presence of Christ at the Supper emerged fully in debates with the Zurich Reformer Zwingli, which divided the adherents of the Reformation. The classic Lutheran position states that the true body and blood of Christ are present "?in, with, and under?" the elements of bread and wine. This presence exists through the power of God's Word, which proclaims and promises Christ's presence to those who receive the sacrament. Lutheran adherence to the Real Presence seeks to protect the mystery of Christ's presence at the Supper without prescribing a specific explanation (and, for this reason, the Lutheran position should not be labeled consubstantiation). The scriptural foundation for this teaching lies in Christ's own words from the institution narrative ("?This is my body?"), which Luther felt constrained to take quite literally. Although the Real Presence cannot be explained, it can be understood with the help of Christological categories. The personal union of the human and divine natures of Christ itself provides a fitting analogy for the sacramental union of Christ's body and blood with the elements of bread and wine. Three Latin tags further delineate the Lutheran doctrine of the Real Presence, particularly in relation to Reformed theologies of Christ's presence at the Supper. The manducatio oralis (oral eating) affirms that Christ's body and blood are received orally in the eating and drinking of the sacramental bread and wine and not in some spiritual or incorporeal way. The manducatio indignorum (eating of the unworthy) assures the objectivity of Christ's presence in its claim that Christ's presence is not dependent upon faith; even those without faith receive the body and blood of Christ. Finally, there is the Lutheran interpretation of the early church's theology of communicatio idiomatum (the communication of attributes between the divine and human natures of Christ). In response to the attempt of Reformed theologians to dismiss the Real Presence with the claim that the humanity of Christ is located in heaven and consequently cannot be present in the sacramental elements, Luther and his followers argued by referring to the communicatio idiomatum that Christ's humanity now shares the omnipresence (or ubiquity) characteristic of his divinity. Thus, it is possible for Christ's body and blood to be present at earthly altars. Through the Word of God, this presence becomes a saving presence to be received by faith.