Eat His Flesh and Drink His Blood (John 6:52-59; LD 28)
The sacrament of communion communicates the one-time sacrifice of Christ. This might seem to be a contradiction considering Christ literally calls us to eat his flesh and drink his blood. This might sound as if we are literally consuming Christ. This could mean that the bread and the wine literally change into Christ’s body and blood. This would mean that in order for us to literally have life we would need to truly consume Christ.
The reality is that we do consume Christ in a sacramental sense. This means that as the bread and wine represent the body and blood of Christ so Christ is united to these elements. Yes, there is a reality that the words of institution do call us to remember Christ. We do see before our eyes the sacrifice of Christ pictured there.
However, we do not just take the sacrament to be some sentimental sign. Christ literally says that we need to consume him and be nourished by him. The Belgic Confession puts it this way, “that, as certainly as we receive and hold this sacrament in our hands, and eat and drink the same with our mouths, by which our life is afterward nourished, we also do as certainly receive by faith (which is the hand and mouth of our soul) the true body and blood of Christ our only Savior in our souls, for the support of our spiritual life.” (BC Article 35). This simply means that we cannot divorce the symbol of life from the giver of life. So, the Lord mysteriously feeds us by His Spirit as we commune with him by the Spirit and faith.
So, when Christ uses his strong language in John 6 he is simply communicating that the manner which nourished Israel in the wilderness is the same nourishment we receive in the sacrament. It is not a different grace or a different God. It is the same God giving us a visible sign of resurrection life and empowerment. He is the God who overcomes death and secures true everlasting life. Let us not look to the Lord’s supper superstitiously, but let us see the God who nourishes by His grace.