REAL PRESENCE OF JESUS CHRIST AT EUCHARIST UNDERSTOOD AS OATH, SACRAMENTUM.
It is impossible in a short space to convey all that should be said on this subject. It would be easy, for me to be misunderstood, because I can only express part of my understanding of this subject in a short space. So note that what is said here is only part of the story. This is the beginning of a discussion on the many meanings inherent in the Eucharist.
This piece, in regard to real presence is to be viewed as a discussion of the meaning of sacrament as sacramentum or oath, by viewing the historic situation in which the Lord’s Last Supper happened.
I. CONSIDER THE JESUS’ USE OF LANGUAGE, THE IDIOMS HE USED.
Jesus said, “This is my body . . . .This is my blood.”
Earlier he had also said, I am the Vine, you are the branches.
He also said, “I am the door of the Sheep . . . .”
He also said, “I am the good shepherd.. . . . “
Jesus was a carpenter, not a shepherd. When a follower of Jesus is called a sheep, we know the language is figurative. Likewise when we call Jesus the Carpenter a Shepherd, we understand the metaphor.
We understand very well what Jesus was saying when he used metaphors and parables.
We get tangled up in trying to make sense of Jesus’ statement at the Last Supper because we read back to the Lord’s Last Supper meanings that the Chuch came to understand later. “This is my body“ is misunderstood because the teachers at various times in Church History have lifted the Lord’s Supper out of its historic context. I am not saying that fuller understandings of the event after His Resurrection are not warranted, I am saying that failing to see clearly what the Disciples would have seen and heard and understood at the Last Supper robs that scene of its power.
So we begin with the proposition that Jesus being a masterful teacher could use symbol, parable, metaphor and figurative language for a purpose. Our first chore in coming to understand the Eucharist is to try to get at the understanding those at the Last Supper had of the significance of the event. That is the first and crucial meaning of the event.
II. THE CONTEXT IN WHICH JESUS SPOKE.
The mid-east, in Jesus day was controlled by an alien, despised power. The subjugated nation into which Jesus was born longed for a leader to drive out the hated Romans.
Only a few days before the night in which He was betrayed, Jesus Himself had been hailed as a deliverer of Israel, a Savior King who would unite the Jews and throw out the Romans. Jesus had rejected this view of the purpose of his life. He was not bringing in the Reign of God by raising an insurrection against Rome.
Earlier on, he had challenged his followers with words that explain clearly the meaning he attached to the Eucharistic Cup on that Passover Eve.
In Mark the 10th chapter is recorded an event when one approached Jesus and said, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit the aionian, the eternal life?”
Jesus said, “You know the commandments, keep them.” The man said, “I have done that from the time I was a youth.” Jesus looked at him, and loved him, and said, “You lack one thing. Sell all that you have, give it to the poor, then you will have treasure in heaven and come, follow me.” The man turned away, for he was wealthy. Jesus said, “Children, how hard it is to enter the Kingdom of Heaven!” Some versions say, “Children how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” With or without trusting in riches it is hard. Riches are only one obstacle. Pride is another, and fear another.
Remember, when Jesus called the first disciples, he called them from their livings, from their work. Peter, James and John had to give up the fishing nets and boats. Levi had to leave his position at the tollbooth collecting taxes.
It was after Jesus said to the young man “Sell all you have, give it away, and come follow me” that Peter said to Jesus “What about us? We have left everything to follow you.”
Jesus said, “Truly I tell you; there is no one who has given up home, brothers or sisters, mother, father or children, or land, for my sake and for the gospel who will not receive in this age a hundred times as much – houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and land – AND PERSECUTIONS BESIDES; and in the age to come, eternal life.“
Persecution, a threatening word that, when promising rewards for discipleship. Jesus said to his 12, “Many who are first will be last, and the last first.”
In Mark 10:32 we find they were on the road to Jerusalem. Jesus led the way, and the disciples were filled with awe while those behind were afraid.
And well they should be afraid, because they understood they were being challenged to endure persecution and hardship in following Jesus.
Once again, Jesus took the 12 aside to tell what is going to happen. “We are now going to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and scribes; they will condemn him to death and hand him over to the Gentiles (the hated Romans.) He will be mocked and spat upon, and flogged and killed; and 3 days afterwards, he will rise again.”
Then an astonishing thing happened: James and John, the sons of Zebedee came forward to ask a favor of Jesus. Jesus said, “What is it you want me to do for you?”
They answered “Allow us to sit with you in your glory, one at your right and the other at your left”. Jesus said to them, “You do not understand what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?”
“We can,” they answered. Jesus said, “The cup that I drink you shall drink, and the baptism I am baptized with shall be your baptism.” And it was so. Those two, like their Master, died as martyrs. James’ death is recorded in Acts 12:2. He died under the reign of Herod Agrippa about 44 AD. John likewise died at the hands of the Jews, possibly before the fall of Jerusalem. It is likely their deaths had occurred early, else why would Paul’s amanuensis Mark, who was a companion of Paul in Rome in the 60’s, emphasize this?
“Can you drink the Cup that I drink?”
At the very outset of his ministry, when he was calling his disciples to follow him, Jesus said the Messiah would suffer. Peter said “Not so.” Jesus said, “Get behind me, Satan! You think as men thinks. Not as God thinks.”
Then He said, “Anyone who wants to be a follower of mine must renounce self; he must take up his cross and follow me. Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and for the gospel’s will save it.”
So Baptism and the Cup become important symbols in Jesus’ teaching and in the early Church. Significantly, Paul says of Baptism in Romans 6 that we are baptized into Christ’s death and rise with Him to new life. He says of the “Cup of blessing, that it is a participation in the Blood of Christ.”
What I am saying to you is, that in the context of Jesus’ teaching and in the context of the understanding of the early Church, these rites we call Baptism and Eucharist were closely tied to a sacrificial life, the giving up of self and following the martyrs path. To eat with Jesus and drink the cup at His last supper was to take a blood oath to follow Him and His Way, even to the end of the Age.
III. THE LORD’S LAST SUPPER
Now, let us look at the immediate context of the Last Supper. The events of that night will reveal clearly the meaning Jesus attatched to the Cup and how the Disciples understood his words, "This is my body . . .this is my blood."
In Mark 14:10 we are told how Judas Iscariot went to the chief priests to betray Jesus. The priests were glad to give him money in exchange for information about where to find Jesus alone so he could be seized without interference from the crowd.
It was the time of the Passover meal, the significance of which may be the subject of another study in relation to the Eucharist.
As the Passover meal begins, Jesus announced, “One of you here will betray me.” Attention is turned to the fact that his prediction of his suffering is coming to pass. Jesus changed the ritual of this ceremonial meal by referring again to his earlier teaching. This time he does not ask “Can you be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with,” or ask, “can you drink the cup I drink?” Instead, He took a cup, gave thanks and passed it around, saying, “This is my blood of the New Covenant shed for many. I will not again drink it until that day when I drink it new in my father’s kingdom.” This is a blood oath, a covenant in blood, requiring commitment by all parties to the contract. We are going together. “I will be with you on the Way,” is Jesus’ commitment. “We will go with you all the way” is the commitment of the Disciples.
Luke recorded that after giving thanks, Jesus broke the bread and gave to them saying, “This is my body”. And then He said, “Even now my betrayer is here, his hand with mine on the table.”
According to Luke a dispute broke out about whom would be the greatest in the Kingdom and Jesus said, “The greatest must be the servant of all. I am among you like one who serves.” A servant is not above His Lord.
Jesus turned to Peter and said “Simon, take heed: Satan has been given leave to sift you like wheat. I have prayed for you Simon, that your faith may not fail; and when you are restored, give strength to your brothers.”
Peter said, “Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death.” And eventually, he did. He understood the blood oath, and having been forced to give up his swords, had some inkling that under the Reign of God his warfare was to be fought with something other than the tools of violence.
So they at the table came slowly to realize this was no ordinary Passover. This was the beginning of something new. It was indeed, a new contract between God and His people, a sacramentum, an oath.
Now with that back ground, would they have thought, as one of the Church Fathers said later, that Jesus was handing himself over to them as he passed the bread and the cup? Would there have been any thought in their minds that some alchemy was taking place that changed bread to flesh and wine to blood? Would they have been thinking as late medieval people did that under the apparent “accidents” of bread and wine was the real “essence” of Christ’s body and blood? Would that have been their understanding of the event prior to the Cross?
Was not the sharing the cup and the bread at the Lord’s Last Supper rather an affirmation that, as Peter said, ”Jesus we will go with you to prison and to death, we will share this martyr’s faith, we will live out this servant role?” Wasn’t that the essence of the supper to them?”
Jesus own words recorded in Mark 14:36 reaffirm the view that to Jesus “the Cup” meant the ultimate offering of self in sacrifice. He prayed as He contemplated his journey to the Cross, “Father. . . .take this cup from me. . . .”
He warned his disciples that they should pray lest they be put to the test.
St. Paul said, “Behold Israel’s practice. ( I Cor 10:18) are not those who eat the sacrificial meal partners in the altar?
He said it is the same way with Christians. He said in I Cor 10:12, “If you think you are standing firm, take care, or you may fall. So far you have faced no trial beyond human endurance. God keeps faith and will not let you be tested beyond your powers, but when the test comes He will at the same time provide a way out and so enable you to endure.” Then Paul said, “When we bless the cup of blessing, is it not a means of sharing in the blood of Christ? Because there is one loaf, we though many, are one body; for it is one loaf of which we all partake.”
In his eucharistic teaching Paul goes on to say (I Cor 11:23), “the tradition which I handed on to you came to me from the Lord himself: that on the night of his arrest the Lord Jesus took bread, and after giving thanks to God broke it and said ‘This is my body, which is for you; do this in memory of me.’ In the same way he took the cup after supper, and said; ‘This cup is the new covenant sealed by my blood. Whenever you drink it, do it in memory of me.’ For, every time you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord, until he comes.”
Paul goes on to say we must examine ourselves. The teachers of religion since the middle ages have made this a time of confession of sins, penance and absolution. These are good things, but let us not obscure the original lesson here.
Paul said everyone should test himself before eating. Since he also lived in a time of great persecution and eventually died a martyrs death, I cannot help but believe he meant the same type of testing as Peter underwent a generation earlier when Jesus said, “Simon Peter, you will be sifted like wheat. . . .but I will pray for you that your faith not fail.”
The self-examination Paul speaks of is the same as when Jesus asked, “Can you undergo the baptism of fire? Can you drink the martyrs cup? Will you take up your cross and follow me?” In St. Paul’s time it would have been easier to dine at the altars of the idols and demons than to take the blood oath with Jesus the Christ.
John the Revelator has many allusions to the Eucharist. He taught at a time of fierce persecution, and relayed the words of Jesus, “Be thou Faithful until death and I will give thee the crown of life.” Those words are consistent with the earliest teaching of Jesus when He called His disciples saying, “Take up your cross daily and follow me.”
Every call to communion is an altar call in a very evangelical sense. Am I willing to follow Jesus Christ to prison, to death, to self-sacrificing service? Am I willing to take up my cross daily and follow him? Am I willing to live simply as a servant following the example of my Master?
Through this is figurative, symbolic, very powerful language, am I denying the real presence of Jesus Christ at eucharist? No! I do believe He is at every celebration to share the cup with us, for He promised, “Where two or three of you are gathered in my name, I am in the midst.” He also blessed his disciples as he ascended to the Father saying “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
He daily sends the Holy Spirit to guide and comfort us. In fact this Holy Spirit is identified in the New Testament as the Spirit of Jesus. He said, “I will go away, but I will come again to you.”
The mystery and miracle of the new birth is transforming our lives in ways we only dimly apprehend. We are joined with the people of God in all times and places as we take the blood oath to follow Jesus the Christ. We are encouraged to live the servant life following Jesus, the holy band of martyrs, and all the saints both living and those watching us from heavens gate.
The blood oath that we take at Eucharist is first of all a promise from us to follow Jesus on His Way and He promises to be with us always to strengthen and guide.
Grace and Peace,
Charles+
Charles R. Scott
Dean of the Midwest
Anglican Province of America
