The Supper: Christ's spiritual presence

The table the Lord set

On the night he was betrayed, at the Passover meal, Jesus gave his disciples a new meal, the Lord's Supper.

While they were eating, Jesus took bread, spoke a blessing and broke it, and gave it to the disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is My body.” Then He took the cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

Matthew 26:26-28

Paul passed on what he had received from the Lord: the command, "do this in remembrance of Me" (1 Corinthians 11:24), and its meaning, "you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes" (1 Corinthians 11:26). Elsewhere he goes a step further.

Is not the cup of blessing that we bless a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ?

1 Corinthians 10:16

The word translated "participation" is koinōnia (κοινωνία), a sharing or communion. Paul does not say only that the bread reminds us of Christ's body; he says that sharing it is a participation in his body. Reformed teaching on the Supper holds on to that word. That sacraments are signs and seals of the covenant of grace was set out in The sign of the covenant: baptism and infant baptism.

Feeding on Christ by the Spirit, through faith

The Westminster Confession states the Reformed teaching with great care. Worthy receivers, outwardly partaking of the bread and wine, "do then also inwardly by faith, really and indeed, yet not carnally and corporally, but spiritually, receive and feed upon Christ crucified, and all benefits of his death" Westminster Confession 29.7. Christ's body and blood are then "as really, but spiritually, present to the faith of believers in that ordinance, as the elements themselves are to their outward senses." This is what is meant by ‘spiritual presence’: not a less real presence, but presence by the Holy Spirit.

The Heidelberg Catechism makes the comfort personal. As surely as I receive the bread and cup from the minister's hand and taste them with my mouth, so surely Christ feeds my soul to everlasting life with his crucified body and shed blood. To eat his body is not only to believe in his sufferings and so receive forgiveness, but also to be united more and more to his body by the Holy Spirit, who lives both in Christ and in us; so that although he is in heaven and we are on earth, we are flesh of his flesh and bone of his bones Heidelberg Catechism, Q. 75–76. The Belgic Confession likewise confesses that Christ remains seated at the Father's right hand in heaven, yet does not cease to give himself to us through faith Belgic Confession, Art. 35.

In his Short Treatise on the Holy Supper (1541) Calvin taught that in the Supper believers truly partake of Christ's body and blood through the Holy Spirit Calvin, Short Treatise on the Holy Supper, and in the Institutes he found the key to the mystery in the Spirit. Christ's body is in heaven and we are on earth, but the Spirit truly unites what is separated in space. So we should not try to draw Christ down into the bread; rather, as the ancient liturgy called the church to lift up its hearts (sursum corda), we are to rise in heart to Christ in heaven Calvin, Institutes 4.17, as the Genevan order of worship also urges before the Supper Genevan Form of Prayers. Paul points the same way: "strive for the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God" (Colossians 3:1). When the crowd in John 6 stumbled at the thought of eating Christ's flesh, Augustine explained that Jesus answered their mistake by telling them "that He should ascend to heaven whole and entire" Augustine. In 1549 Calvin and Heinrich Bullinger of Zurich set out a common understanding of the sacraments in the Consensus Tigurinus Consensus Tigurinus, and many historians see it as the agreement that let the Swiss Reformed churches speak with one voice on the Supper.

Alongside other traditions

The Catholic Church takes "this is My body" (Matthew 26:26) at its word, reads "My flesh is real food" (John 6:55) in the same way, and teaches that at the consecration the substance of the bread and wine becomes the body and blood of Christ, while their appearances remain Council of Trent, Decree on the Eucharist. The Reformed confessions reject transubstantiation (Westminster 29.6). Among their reasons: Scripture still calls it bread after the blessing: "as often as you eat this bread" (1 Corinthians 11:26). A sign must remain a sign if it is to point to the reality it signifies; as the Heidelberg Catechism puts it, the bread is no more changed into Christ's body than the water of baptism is changed into his blood (Q. 78). And Christ's human body is in heaven, for "Heaven must take Him in until the time comes for the restoration of all things" (Acts 3:21). Lutherans, also taking the Lord's words at their plain sense, confess that Christ's true body and blood are present in, with and under the bread and wine; part of their difference with the Reformed concerns how the ascended Christ's human nature is present. It was over the Supper that Luther and Zwingli parted at Marburg in 1529 (see The story of the Reformation).

On the other side stands the memorial view, commonly linked with Zwingli and held by many Baptists (Reformed Baptists, with the Second London Confession, confess the spiritual feeding described above): the Supper is a meal of remembrance and proclamation. Scholars describe Zwingli's own position in different ways, but the view takes "do this in remembrance of Me" seriously and guards against superstition. The Reformed treasure remembrance too, yet confess more. The Supper is not only recalling an absent Christ; it is sharing in the living Christ who feeds us now by his Spirit. The doctrine course's lessons ‘Baptism and the Lord’s Supper’ and ‘The ascension and Christ’s reign’ set the traditions side by side.

Coming worthily

Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. Each one must examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup.

1 Corinthians 11:27-28

To come worthily does not mean to come perfect. The Heidelberg Catechism says the Supper is for those who are truly displeased with themselves because of their sins, who trust that these are forgiven for Christ's sake, and who desire more and more to strengthen their faith and amend their lives (Q. 81). Matthew Henry is just as pastoral: "But fearful believers should not be discouraged from attending at this holy ordinance" Matthew Henry. Self-examination is meant to bring us back to the table in repentance and faith, not to keep us away from it.

Calvin wished the Supper to be celebrated often, ideally every Lord's Day Calvin and Farel, Articles of 1537, but Geneva's council, it is generally reported, settled on four times a year. Reformed and Presbyterian churches today vary in how often they come to the table. Wherever they do, the meal makes them one: "Because there is one loaf, we who are many are one body" (1 Corinthians 10:17). Augustine saw this in the elements themselves: "Bread is made of many grains, wine is produced out of many berries. Herein the Lord Jesus Christ signified us, and hallowed in His Own table the mystery of our peace and unity" Augustine.

Practice