True
Christianity has always been maximalistic in Its belief. In recent
times there has developed an idea that It should, and must be
minimalistic. The nebulous line goes, “As long as you
believe Jesus is Lord.” What kind of Lord or God
becomes secondary to a degree. In fact one can get the impression
that not even God Himself is sure what to teach those who believe in
Him, one year He is speaking this, and then in a few years it
changes (again!), to the point that He even seems to tell different groups
radically different things!
Due
to this relativism of belief, many foundational tenets of Christianity
have been ignored or outright rejected by various groups. One such
vital and unalterable cornerstone is Holy Communion. It has been the
defining mark of True Christian worship since the very beginning. It
is abundantly clear that Christians from the earliest times knew Holy
Communion to be the Body and Blood of Christ. Not until the past few
hundred years did the idea arise that it is not in truth Body and
Blood, but only figuratively.
Let
us look briefly at Christian teaching.
Christ Jesus Himself instituted Holy Communion. All three synoptic
Gospels record a very similar command from the Lord, “Take, eat,
this is My Body … Drink from it, all of you, for this is My blood
of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins
… Do this in remembrance of Me” (Cf. Mat. 24:26-29, Mk.
14:22-25, Lk. 22:17-20). This is My Body and Blood. Most of
the time in the Gospels when Christ speaks in a parable
(figuratively) He goes on to explain to His disciples the underlying
meaning of the figure. Here He does not, He makes a simple statement.
But let us continue. In the Gospel according to John, we find a
very detail teaching by Christ on His Body and Blood. Since the
beginning this passage had been seen as Eucharistic, and not until
the past few hundred years has it been couched it in a figurative
light by those who refuse the very evident and literal intent of Christ's
words. Christ says, “Truly, Truly, I say to you, Moses has not
given you the bread out of heaven, but My Father gives you the bread,
the true one, out of the heavens. For the bread of God is the One
coming down from the heavens and giving life to the world … I am
the bread of life; the one who comes to me in no wise shall hunger;
and the one who believes in Me in no wise shall thirst at any time”
(Jn 6:32-35). Christ Jesus clearly identifies His very Self as being
life-giving bread. This is one of the many very purposeful I AM (Ego
Eimi) statements in St. John.
In
the following verse, Christ's Jewish listeners begin murmuring because
He has identified Himself as the bread from heaven (cf. Jn 6:41). At
this point the Lord begins to be even more explicit in His teaching,
“Truly, Truly, I say to you, the one who believes in Me
has everlasting life. I am (Ego Eimi) the bread of life. Your fathers
ate the manna in the wilderness and died. This One is the bread of
life, the One coming down out of the heavens, in order that anyone
might eat of it and not die. I am the bread of life, the living one,
the One having come down out of the heavens; if anyone should eat of
this bread, he shall live forever”
(Jn. 6:47-51a). Come … eat.
The Greek word here is
clearly, to eat (phago).
But, once again, Christ Jesus does not stop at the concept of eating.
He continues the teach them, “And indeed the bread that I
will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world”
(Jn. 6:51b). His listeners if not already confounded are even more
so, they wonder loudly and doubtfully how this could be (cf. Jn.
6:52).
At
this point, the Lord makes His strongest statement yet, “Amen,
Amen, I say to you, unless you should eat the flesh of the Son of Man
and drink His blood, you are not having life in yourselves. The one
who partakes of My flesh and drinks My blood has
eternal life; and I will raise him up on the last day. For My flesh
is true food and My blood is true
drink. The one who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me,
and I in him … the one who eats Me, even he shall live because of
Me” (Jn 6: 53-57, bold
highlights mine). Christ progressively reveals the
unfathomable truth He is speaking about, come and eat, eat My flesh,
drink My blood. In the Greek, the complete force of Christ's words is clearly evident. Unfortunately, some translations have softened this
force. True (bold in the quoted text) is aleethis, which
means as true as true can be, reality, most certainly, existent
truth, in other words right now Christ is emphasizing - I
am not speaking in figures. The
word 'partakes' is the Greek word trogo
which means quite clearly to gnaw, crunch, or masticate. This use of
partake/eat is clearly not figurative. An honest look at the context
of these verses reveals that Christ Jesus was very clear about the
need to receive His Body and Blood. The end result of this teaching
is that many of His disciples leave saying, “Hard is this
saying; who is able to hear it” (Jn
6:60)? The Lord does not at this point tell them, “Wait I am
speaking in figures! You do not really have to eat my Body or
literally drink my Blood. This is just an image of spiritual
communion with Me!” No. In fact, He is so serious about this
teaching that He asks the twelve if they would like to leave also.
The Lord also reveals that reception and belief in the mystery of
Holy Communion come by the Holy Spirit, “It is the
spirit that makes alive; the flesh profits nothing, the words I have
spoken to you are spirit and life”
(Jn 6:63).
The
very earliest Christian witnesses, outside of Scripture, confirm an unshakable belief in Holy Communion as the Body and Blood of Christ.
St. Ignatius of Antioch (a disciple of the Apostle John) says
regarding Communion, “Breaking one bread, which is the medicine of
immortality, the antidote we take in order not to die but live
forever in Jesus Christ.” And again he says, “Take care,
therefore, to participate in one Eucharist (for there is one flesh of
our Lord Jesus Christ, and one cup, which leads to unity through His
blood ….” Another witness of early Christian worship, St. Justin
Martyr, relates, “we
do not receive these things as common bread or common drink; but as
Jesus Christ our Savior being incarnate by God's word took flesh and
blood for our salvation, so also we have been taught that the food
consecrated by the word of prayer which comes from him, from which
our flesh and blood are nourished by transformation, is the flesh and
blood of that incarnate Jesus.” The list of testimony could go on, down until our own day, but there is not enough space here for that.
One
would do right to wonder why such a paramount belief has been
reduced, minimized, and even abandoned by so many groups who claim
Jesus Christ as Lord?
Orthodox
Christianity has held true to the vital Christian belief of Christ's true Body and Blood throughout
the years, it is indeed the foundation and apogee of true Christian
worship.
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