The Lord’s Supper: The worthy recipient

Sermon for the Festival of St. Matthias

Small Catechism Review: The Lord’s Supper, Part 3

We’ve talked about what the Lord’s Supper is: It is the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, under bread and wine, instituted by Christ Himself for us Christians to eat and to drink. And the benefit? The forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. And who receives the benefit? Whoever believes these words: Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. Lastly, we want to consider the question: Who receives this Sacrament worthily? It’s an important question, because St. Paul writes this to the Corinthians: Whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. So, Who receives this Sacrament worthily?

Fasting and bodily preparation is certainly a fine outward discipline, but he is truly worthy and well-prepared who has faith in these words: “Given and shed for you, for the forgiveness of sins.” But whoever does not believe these words or doubts them is unworthy and unprepared. For the words “for you” require nothing but believing hearts.

Fasting and bodily preparation is certainly a fine outward discipline. You need to know why Luther talks about fasting here, and bodily preparation. At times in the Church’s history, people were required to fast before receiving Holy Communion. They were supposed to receive the Lord’s Supper on an empty stomach. If you didn’t, if you ate anything before going to the Sacrament, you were told that you were unworthy and unprepared. The truth is, there’s nothing wrong with fasting before Communion. It can be a “fine outward discipline.” Setting aside some quiet time before the Divine Service begins can also be a helpful form of discipline. Turning off the phones and the screens an hour before church starts (or Bible class) can have a similar effect. It may be a very good idea, even.

But Scripture certainly doesn’t require it for a person to be considered worthy to receive the Sacrament. Manmade rituals and formulas can never become required for any Christian to stand before God as worthy, just as our works can never make us worthy to stand before God. Only faith in Christ and His promise of free forgiveness makes a person worthy to stand before God, and, as Luther rightly says, only “faith in these words: Given and shed for you” makes a person worthy to kneel before the Communion rail to receive the body and blood of the God-Man, Jesus Christ. “For you” Christ came into the world. For you He lived a perfect life. For you He gave His body and shed His blood. For you He has sent forth His ministers into the world, to preach repentance and the forgiveness of sins to you, to baptize you, to teach you to observe all things that He has commanded you, including the special Meal of His body and blood. For you He has done all these things. Everyone on earth should believe that, because it’s true for all people.

But not all people do believe it. Some openly reject that Christ has done all these things for them. Such people would never approach the Lord’s Table. Others may not know that Christ has done all these things for them. Such people should not approach the Lord’s Table. Others may know what the Gospel is and may become Christians, but there is such a thing as “unbelieving Christians,” that is, people who are Christians in name only, people who don’t actually trust in Christ Jesus alone for the forgiveness of sins before God, including Christians who have fallen into mortal sin—that is, sin of which they refuse to repent. None of these should dare to approach the Lord’s Table. Why not? Because these are the ones who are unworthy. As Paul says, “they eat and drink judgment on themselves, not discerning the Lord’s body.”

So, what do we do to be as sure as we can that a person goes to the Sacrament worthily? Well, first, we teach them to examine themselves, as Paul says. “Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.” Do you know who God is? That’s not a simple question. It involves knowing quite a bit of background from Holy Scripture, where the true God reveals Himself to us. Do you know what God’s Law commands? Do you know and believe that you’re a sinner? Are you sorry, are you penitent for your sins? Do you know who Jesus is and what He’s done for you and what He now promises you and where and how He promises to give it? Do you believe in Him, that His body was given and His blood was shed for you? Do you believe that He is giving you His true body and blood with the bread and wine, making you a partaker in His once-for-all sacrifice for sin?

Those are examples of the questions with which a person should examine himself. Similar questions are found at the end of the catechisms I published a few years ago, prepared by Luther to help Christians examine themselves before going to the Sacrament. To help Christians get to the point that they can ask and answer those questions, we have the Small Catechism itself. And we have catechism class with the pastor, and a Confirmation rite simply to “confirm” that a person has learned enough of the Christian faith to be able to examine him or herself, and to give that person an opportunity to confess that faith before the congregation, as we hope two of our young Christians here will do in just a few short weeks.

What about those who are not members of our congregation, those who might visit our church on a Sunday morning? Are they worthy recipients of the Lord’s Supper? Well, in most cases, we don’t know. If they haven’t been examined in the faith by the pastor, the pastor doesn’t know. If they haven’t made a confession of their faith before the congregation, then the congregation doesn’t know.

In some cases, they may well be worthy recipients of the Lord’s Supper. They may know the true God, and be sorry for their sins, and trust in Jesus’ sacrifice for them, and they may know and believe that Jesus’ true body and blood are given in the Sacrament. A Roman Catholic, for example, may be a worthy recipient of the Lord’s Supper in their church. Or a Lutheran who belongs to a different communion than ours may be a worthy recipient in their church. But that still doesn’t mean they should receive the Lord’s Supper here, together with us, or we in their church together with them. Why not? Because, if they belong to a different church that’s not in fellowship with ours, it’s almost certainly due to a difference in doctrine between our churches, a difference in how we confess the teachings of Christ. There’s almost certainly some doctrine of which their church says, “Christ teaches this!,” and of which we say, “Christ certainly does not teach that!” And so one of us may be right in that confession, and the other is wrong. Now, being wrong in one’s understanding and confession of certain doctrines doesn’t necessarily mean a person is no longer a Christian. It means that, in that place where they’re wrong, in that area where they believe and confess falsely, they are not following Christ. And that’s always dangerous, because all false doctrine is like leaven that eventually leavens the whole lump, as St. Paul says. All false doctrine attacks the very faith that makes a person a worthy recipient of the Lord’s Supper, even if it doesn’t destroy the faith. And so, if we believe we’re right and they’re wrong about some teaching of Christ, then, out of love for Christ, out of love for the truth, out of love for that person, and out of love for the rest of the believers here, we can’t come together visibly as one bread and one body and pretend that this or that area of not following Christ isn’t important enough to have a division over. His Word has to be that which unites us. It has to be the thing over which we will not compromise.

And so, by remaining outwardly divided in our celebration of the Sacrament, by practicing Closed Communion, we issue a simple warning in love, “Attend to those things that we confess differently! Learn what they are! Learn what the Scriptures say about them! And join us in our confession of these things before joining us in the joint confession we make in receiving the Lord’s Supper together.”

There is always more we could say about the Lord’s Supper, just as there’s always more we could say about any of the teachings of Scripture. But let this be enough for now, having reviewed all Six Chief Parts of Luther’s Small Catechism. We won’t leave the Catechism entirely, though. We’re going to spend the Lenten season looking at the Table of Duties at the end of the Catechism. And next week Wednesday, which is sometimes referred to as Ash Wednesday, we’ll consider together those questions that Luther prepared to help Christians examine themselves before going to the Sacrament. May the Lord bless our study of His Word. Amen.