A spiritual banquet - 20 April 2009 |
|
Matthew Mason has written an excellent article on John Calvin’s theology of the Lord’s Supper. It was published in Churchman 117.4 (2003), pp. 329-346, and is now available online.
Here’s a potted version:
Whereas many believers neglect the Lord’s Supper (maybe because we’re [rightly] suspicious of Roman Catholic or Anglo-Catholic sacramentalism, or maybe because we [wrongly] regard it simply as a dispensable memorial), Calvin held it in high esteem, arguing that ‘the Lord’s table should have been spread at least once a week for the assembly of Christians’ (p. 329, quoting Calvin), since (contra Zwingli) it is not merely a memorial, but also ‘a banquet, whereby we feed on Christ’ (p. 334).
This doesn’t mean that we feed on Christ physically (contra Luther and Rome). Christ is seated in heaven; he’s not ‘in’ the bread and wine. Rather, ‘we are united to him by his Spirit,’ who ‘raises us up to heaven to feed spiritually on Christ’ (p. 337) by faith.
A double feeding takes place: ‘our souls are fed by the flesh and blood of Christ in the same way that bread and wine keep and sustain physical life’ (p. 337, quoting Calvin).
When we eat, we ‘participate’ in the body and blood of Christ. As the Apostle Paul says:
The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? (1 Corinthians 10:16)
| Tweet | Post comment via Facebook |
Posted by Steve Jeffery · Topics: Minister's Blog, Theology