Fifth Sunday of Easter (Rite of First Communion)
Matthew 26:17-30
May 18, 2025
Since today is the 1st Year Confirmation students’ first time receiving the Lord’s Supper, it’s only fitting that we think about and consider the Sacrament in all its splendor and sweetness so that, not only do our youth grow to a proper understanding, but we adults are reminded of its purpose, use, and worthy reception.
The Gospel reading today from Matthew 26 is the first, but certainly not only, time our Lord’s institution of the Sacrament is told. You can find the same institution in the Book of Mark chapter 14, the book of Luke chapter 22, and in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, chapters 10 and 11.
But the Lord’s holy supper wasn’t instituted in a vacuum; Jesus didn’t just pull bread and wine out of his hat entirely disconnected from the whole narrative of the faith and creation. We find sacramental theology starting as far back as the first chapter of Genesis where with the ingestion of food, the mercies and love and gifts of God are given by the eating of the Tree of Life. And as with the Lord’s Supper which not only offers forgiveness, life, and a strengthened faith, there was also a warning given to our first parents should they fall into impenitently eating of the wrong fruit, seeking to be as God.
We also find the sacramental nature of the Eucharist in Genesis 3 where God sheds the blood of an innocent in order to atone for or cover the sins of Adam and Eve. We see the substitutionary characteristic of the Sacrament as Abraham leads his beloved first born son Isaac up a high mountain and, at the Lord’s command, proceeds to sacrifice his son – that is until the Lord intervened, and a ram was sacrificed in his place. We, of course see the Sacrament in the Passover where our Lord killed all the first-born sons of Egypt while passing over the homes of the faithful who covered their doorposts in lamb’s blood.
Of course, there’s the blood that was poured first upon the priests and then upon the people, and finally upon the Ark of the Covenant, the innocent blood of an unblemished lamb, body broken and blood shed in place of the sinful people.
I could go on but suffice to say that the Sacrament of the Altar, the Lord’s Supper, the Eucharist, Communion, is truly the culmination of these ancient sacrifices and sacramental things which God created for His people. In the Sacrament we do not receive the blood of lambs or goats; we do not feast on the flesh of creatures, but we eat and drink the very body and blood of Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
Now this is confusing for a LOT of people, and particularly people who are infected by staunch, enlightenment, modern rationalism. They see bread and wine; they see with the eyes of reason and reject with the same eyes what our Lord says, that the bread IS His body and the wine IS His blood. These are not my words; these are not the words of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod; these are not the words of Luther or the Roman Catholics or the Eastern Orthodox or the Anglicans who all believe some way in the Real Presence. No, it is not “institutionalized religion” which says, “this IS” but God in the flesh, Jesus who holds up the bread to eucharist, to give thanks, and says, “this IS my body.” It is not traditions of men which say, “this IS” but Christ the Lamb of God who lifts the cup of wine, gives thanks, and says, “this cup IS my blood of the New Testament.”
What the Lord says, IS. When the Lord says, “Let there be light,” there is light even if human reason and rationalism says, “But there is no sun, no stars, to create it; it can’t be true.” God’s Word does what it says, and Jesus is the Word of God in the flesh, so Jesus’ word does what it says.
Faith…. faith does not say, “I will believe, but only if it makes sense and only if it fits my worldview and can be tested.” Faith says, “I believe, even when my senses defy it and my mind rejects it.”
The Sacrament of the Altar is the true body and blood of our Lord Christ in the bread and wine. It doesn’t matter that we cannot explain it rationally. Jesus says it so it’s true. It doesn’t matter that most American Christians do not believe it. Their lack of faith does not change our Lord’s words, and it offends Him deeply when someone stands and says, “I don’t believe what He says; I believe what the rationalists say instead; I believe what my own eyes see, but not what Jesus says.” Because they’re doing exactly what the pharisees did, the religious leaders. They’re letting human reason and tradition get in the way of our Lord’s words.
Baptism saves, not because the Lutherans say so, but because Jesus says so. Jesus’ true body and blood are present in the bread and wine, not because the LCMS insists upon it, but because Jesus says it.
Why does it matter? Can’t we each just believe whatever we want as long as we have the basics down? No, for you see, theology matters. What you believe matters. Christ has called His people to believe as He teaches; He did not call His people to believe as they please about what He teaches, and our Lord’s teaching does not change based upon the church body to which one belongs.
Now we have consistently taught two parts to worthy reception of the Sacrament. And these two things come from Scripture. They’re not Lutheran tradition or pastoral opinion.
But we must start by discussing a couple of matters pertaining to sacramental theology.
First, it is not the faith of the individual that makes a sacrament a sacrament; that makes it work. For example, baptism saves, not because the candidate being baptized believes it saves, or because the pastor doing the baptism believes it saves, but because of our Lord’s words. “Go and make disciples; here’s how you do it, you baptize in the Triune name, and you teach,” Matthew 28:19. Here our Lord Christ institutes the Sacrament of baptism, promising that disciples are made in the waters He charges us to use, combined with the holy name of God Father, Son, and Spirit. As Peter teaches us in 1 Peter 3, it’s not a normal washing that we might do in the bathtub or under the shower, but it is a conscience-cleansing baptism when the water is combined with the Word of Christ, His resurrection, His death, His teaching, etc.
Second, in the Eucharist, our Lord’s promises, in His own words, “given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins,” are offered in the bread and wine whether we believe it or not, whether or not I believe it when consecrating, or whether or not you believe it when receiving the elements. It is the Lord’s institution, His words, His table, His Sacrament. We merely receive what He says.
But He also warns us in many and various ways concerning a wrong reception of His Eucharist that if we receive it without faith in His Words, “given and shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins,” that we receive it to our own judgment. And we can certainly consider 1 Corinthians 11 where Paul says many were falling ill and dying on account of their abuse and lack of discernment in receiving, but it’s not the only place our Lord warns us of wrath should we approach Him without faith.
In fact, whenever we attempt to approach our Lord with our works and not by faith, we will always be rejected. The Sacrament of the Altar is, on earth, about as close as we get to the feast of eternal life in heaven, and only those who are worthy shall dine at that great table; only those who are worthy shall dine at this table.
This surely brings to mind the parable of the wedding feast, where one person got in somehow without the right wedding garment, and the master of the feast had him thrown out into the utter darkness. He came in thinking his own coverings made him a worthy attendee. But no, for the master provides the wedding garment – the garment of repentance and faith in the words, “given and shed for you.”
Worthiness is not about merit, it’s not about how good you are or how perfect you are or how obedient you’ve been. Worthiness to receive this true body and blood of your Lord is about acknowledging that you are NOT worthy to receive because of who you are, but it is Christ’s body and blood, His death on the cross, that makes you worthy.
Thus, you cannot approach this altar with your works, your goodness, your attempts at being godly, because this makes you unworthy. God is not interested in your works or how good you think you are; God wants your contrite, penitent, sin-confessing heart, and He wants you believing with that same penitent heart that what He offers is His forgiveness and salvation. The Lord’s Supper isn’t a right or an entitlement; the Lord’s Supper is a gift to be received by those who believe that what’s inside is precisely what He says, forgiveness of sins.
This is what it means when Luther writes in the catechism, “Fasting and bodily preparation are certainly fine outward training. But that person is truly worthy and well prepared who has faith in these words: ‘Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.’”
Worthy reception of the Lord’s Supper is simply this, that you believe in the Sacrament, Jesus’ body and blood is given and shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins. This means that you confess the faith rightly, and you approach the altar penitently.
We have a practice called Closed Communion in this congregation, a practice that the Christian church has kept for nearly 2,000 years, and most Christians still practice it today, though you wouldn’t think so with all the liberal churches and the non-sacramental churches seeming to throw the Lord’s Supper at anyone and everyone who walks in. Fact is that the only churches that practice Open Communion are those churches that reject the Real Presence and call the Lord’s Supper a symbolic meal or a memorial meal, or they’re very liberal churches who reject Biblical Authority and embrace worldly ideas and fads.
Closed Communion is built on 1 Corinthians chapters 1 and 10 through 11, it’s built upon our Lord’s own limiting of who was invited to the supper, that only the disciples were there and not the crowds of people, the extended family, the others who followed Him around. It’s built upon the many and various examples in Scripture where God opens doors and closes doors, limits access to certain places and things, and it’s built upon the teaching of community, communion, fellowship among the assembly, that we all agree, we all confess the same teachings, and we all share in a common cup rather than each person believing as he pleases.
So, if you’re visiting with us today and you read in our bulletin that you are not permitted to the Lord’s Supper until you speak to the pastor or go through a class, take no offense. It is truly for your protection, and for the protection of our little community here at St. Paul’s that we do it. I do not want, and I do not what this congregation to be responsible for bringing you spiritual harm should you receive the Sacrament unprepared. And so, as the Lord often says Himself, “Yes, but not yet.” We want you to share in this sacrament, but just not yet; let’s get you on the same page, confessing the same teachings with the rest of us first.
The nine confirmation students will make this confession in just a few minutes, and they’ve already confessed it in their final exam, demonstrating that they articulate the Sacrament correctly, among other things. They may not understand it completely, but that’s okay for the Sacrament is a mystery to be sure. And earlier, they, along with all of us, confessed their sins and received the joy of the Absolution that, in the stead and by the command of Christ, I forgive them their sins, just as I have spoken the same absolving Gospel to all of you and to myself. They are prepared.
It is my prayer, therefore, that they continue to come to this altar and receive the food and drink of heaven, that they always come prepared so that no judgment or wrath be put upon them, but only the grace and love of God in Christ who forgives them of all their sins and works tirelessly to prepare their place in the life to come. Amen.
