Eucharist: The Nature of Sacrifice

Mark 14:12-31
1 Corinthians 11:27-32

“We believe the Sacraments, ordained by Christ, are symbols and pledges of the Christian’s profession and of God’s love toward us. They are means of grace by which God works invisibly in us, quickening, strengthening, and confirming our faith in Him. Two Sacraments are ordained by Christ our Lord; namely Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.”

“We believe the Lord’s Supper is a representation of our redemption, a memorial of the sufferings and death of Christ, and a token of love and union which Christians have with Christ and with one another. Those who rightly, worthily, and in faith eat the broken bread and drink the blessed cup partake of the body and blood of Christ in a spiritual manner until He comes.” UM Book of Discipline, Article VI – The Sacraments

Part of the heritage of the United Methodist Church is the union of Methodists with the Evangelical United Brethren Church in 1968, creating what came to be known – and is still known – as the United Methodist Church. The portion from the Discipline that I share with you this morning is from the United Brethren statement regarding the Sacraments celebrated by United Methodists only because it states the United Methodist position a bit more concisely, in my opinion, and cuts straight to the heart of what this Commemoration is all about.

Recall last week that I shared with you my anxiety about considering the Passion of the Christ as any sort of “miracle” or divine act because there just cannot be a presence of the HOLY God in what I consider to be an extremely un-holy act. However, we must also be mindful of Jesus’ words about what was to take place and what it would come to mean for the Church. We must also consider Paul’s admonishment to the Corinthians before we can share the meal together.

Even more distressing than considering this Memorial to be worthy of “celebration” is the division that this Eucharist has created among Christians even today. While we argue about the “right” way to do it or whether Christians from another denomination can participate in "our" Meal, we lose sight of everything this Sacrifice is all about. In doing so, we live according to what Paul wrote of what is so worrisome about our useless arguments:

“In the following directives I have NO PRAISE for you, for your meetings do more harm than good. In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and to some extent I believe it.” 1 Corinthians 11:17

Believe it, St. Paul, that the divisions are alive and well here in the 21st Century. In spite of Paul’s admonishment, we still have divisions among ourselves as to what is proper, what is right, what should be our focus as we come to share in this Meal, and who can and cannot participate in this gathering. And believe me when I tell you that the Bible contains no such warnings that Catholics, Methodists, or Baptists cannot or should not participate in one another’s Eucharistic gatherings. Quite the contrary; this seems to be the nature of the divisions Paul warns the Corinthians about; the will of man vs. the will of God.

Of course the Catholics are going to insist that they are “right” and of course the Baptists are going to insist that they are “right”, but the United Methodist tradition and practice seems to suggest that they are both right, at least to a point: those who are not baptized into the faith should refrain from participating in the Meal. The Catholic and Baptist traditions of a “closed” Communion do teach and testify to a profound theological statement: there is indeed a “brokenness” that must be healed though I do not think that “brokenness” from one denomination or another is the kind of “brokenness” that Paul feared among believers, at not not as we teach it and preach it today.

The “brokenness” that existed in Paul’s day and still exists today is the separation from what we must necessarily be focused on when we choose to come forward to receive this Meal. The early Methodist warning against the Catholic doctrine of “transubstantiation” as giving rise to particular superstitions is appropriate to a point, as well, because having grown up in the Catholic Church, I can see and still do see even in the United Methodist Church as well as in other denominations that some believe the mere act of eating the bread and drinking of the cup is some magical, mystical act through which all is forgiven and we are made whole again.

I don't think so. Something must come before that. Just as the Crucifixion of the Lord must come before the Resurrection, so must something come even before we step forward to receive the Body and Blood of the Messiah.

“A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and rinks judgment on himself.” 1 Corinthians 11:28-29

What does this mean for us exactly? What kind of examination must we undergo before we can consider ourselves “worthy” to partake of this Meal? To “recognize” the Body of the Christ, I think, is to recognize the very ugly nature of the Crucifixion and what it tells us about the entire salvation story. In the movie “The Passion of the Christ”, we are given an extremely graphic, vivid, and obscene portrayal of what sin really looks like and the very destructive nature of sin itself while the physical body of Jesus takes such a beating. When we read the Gospel accounts of the Passion, we are invited to see – indeed, compelled to see – the sin in our lives, the sin for which Jesus Himself stepped forward to take upon His blessed shoulders for our sake. To see anything less and to consider anything less does, in my humble opinion, render us “unworthy” because of what choosing to partake in the Meal really means.

Jesus tells us in John 6:53: “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.”

We know Jesus is not talking about cannibalism. What He is talking about is becoming completely one WITH Him as well as IN Him, and He in us. This means that we are choosing to separate ourselves from this life and this world and spiritually ingest Him so that He resides within us. In order to become worthy of such an act requires REPENTANCE. That is to say, sin that so overwhelms and overtakes and DESTROYS must be completely and entirely rejected and a total commitment made to become one in Christ. And we should know that we cannot enter into the holy presence of the Lord if we are unholy – that is to say, unclean.

To do anything less is to completely reject the Sacrifice that is made in our behalf. It is as if we might choose to be thankful that Jesus would make this Sacrifice for us, but we are unwilling to do anything for Him; that we are unwilling to “take up our own cross” and follow Him.

This is not some liturgical act we “just” do because we are expected to; this is a very spiritual act we “must” do in order to be made whole again. This is something we “must” do in order to be reconciled with Him. This is something we “must” do in order to fully appreciate why Jesus compels us to forgive those who have wronged us “seventy times seven”; because the Lord our God is willing to do the same for us.

IF we are willing to receive it.

AMEN.