Reflections on Communion
On the body of Christ unifying the Temple and sacrifices.
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
– Romans 12:1
Leonardo da Vinci, “The Last Supper” (c. 1495-98). Tempera on gesso, pitch, and mastic.
Everyone believes in God’s omnipresence: that He is everywhere and anywhere at all times (Jeremiah 23:24). Everyone believes in God’s local presence: that when two or more are gathered in Christ’s name, He will be among them (Matthew 18:20). Everyone believes in God’s personal presence: that God’s Holy Spirit indwells true believers (1 Corinthians 3:16-17). Everyone disagrees, however, on God’s Real Presence: Is God in the bread and wine? Or rather: Is the Eucharist, Lord’s Supper, or Communion truly, verily, and substantially the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ?
Thresholds of Holiness
As already suggested, there are outer to inner circles of increasing divine presence that indicate thresholds of hierarchal holiness—think of it like a target—further separating the common from the holy. This is well-established throughout Old Testament. Circles of holiness tighten inward from the world to the Holy Land, then to the Israelite camp (its peoples and culture as a holy nation and royal priesthood), then to inside the Tabernacle Courtyard, then to the Holy Place (outer chamber) inside the Tabernacle, and then to the Holy of Holies or Most Holy Place (inner chamber) where God’s presence rests on the mercy seat above the Ark of the Covenant—bullseye.
Though anachronistic, I think this target analogy may be helpful in understanding why the archery term sin is used so often as opposed to, say, evil. Sin means “to miss the mark” and directly corresponds to the aimlessness of the human condition without God’s actual presence (especially the rejection of it). Not only that, but sin, and sinners alike, could not enter the Tabernacle, especially the Most Holy Place, and participate in the immediate presence of God lest they perish (Leviticus 16:2; cf. 1 Corinthians 11:27-32). If I recall, the high priest’s ephod acted as holy armour, a “breastplate of righteousness” if you will, that protects the priest from dropping dead in the all-holy presence of God.
Now, what is very plain in low church ecclesiology—Baptist, Pentecostal, Charismatic, Non-denominational, et cetera—is that it will typically have a different bullseye from high church ecclesiology—Anglican, Lutheran, Catholic, Orthodox, et cetera. In broad strokes, the bullseye for low church ecclesiology is the congregation of believers—who the bread and wine is for. The bullseye for high church ecclesiology is the bread and wine—who the bread and wine is from. In a low church setting, then, the focus and emphasis seems to shift from something we receive to something we do, which is why Communion is served, say, once a month in plastic wrap as opposed to daily in sacred ritual.
Upon Christ’s death however, the veil separating the Holy of Holies from the people of God was torn (Matthew 27:50-51). The bullseye expanded, and the inner holy circles of the Temple (or Tabernacle) became one with the holy nation and royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:9; Exodus 19:5-6; Isaiah 61:6). That is why everyone believes in the words of Paul: that true believers are individually and collectively the Temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:16-17, 6:19-20, 2 Corinthians 6:14-18). Everyone further believes that true believers are individually and collectively supposed to present their bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, as their proper spiritual worship (Romans 12:1). The sacrifice and Temple, therefore, have unified under the real presence of the Holy Spirit.
But what differentiates a Baptist from, say, a Lutheran, or even, say, an Anglican from a Catholic, are questions of priority: Is our proper worship to present our bodies as a living sacrifice to God with Christ living through us or is it to partake in His sacrifice presented as the “true drink and true food” of Jesus Christ our Lord? (John 6:55) In other words, does the flesh and blood of Christ’s once for all sacrifice, presented as bread and wine, take priority over the body of Christ, the Temple of true believers who are presenting their bodies as living sacrifices? Which is the Church to emphasize: Communion as the sacrifice or you as the sacrifice? Is Communion supposed to only point to Christ’s once for all sacrifice or is Communion the embodiment of it? Or, in each case, is it a both/and? And how does that work, exactly?
We’ll get there.
Christ’s Presence (Sacrifice) Emanates Outwards
It goes without saying that these modes of sacrificial worship are not necessarily mutually exclusive. There is no actual dichotomy. It has become fractured due to, say, abuses at the pulpit, exegetical deviation, or doctrinal accretions. Be that as it may, the point is that if you take the bullseye to be Communion, or if you take the bullseye to be the congregation, then you’re wrong either way. The bullseye is God’s presence, who is a mystery above all things. So it is important to remember in these discussions that everyone believes God is really locally present in the sanctuary, and that God is indwelling true believers as His Holy of Holies, and that God’s once for all atoning sacrifice is the basis of salvation—it is just a matter of understanding how God’s sacrifice is locally present in and/or by the bread and wine. Historically, a denomination’s doctrinal position on Real Presence boils down to the way it emphasizes sacrifice, its covenantal purpose and function under Christ in relation to the cross and our own cross to bear (Luke 14:27; Philippians 1:29).
It is very clear that Communion is the sign of the new covenant (Luke 22:19-20). It is also very clear that the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is the purpose of the new covenant (Ezekiel 36:26–27). Both are forms of Communion established by Christ. The former at Passover and then His crucifixion, and the latter after His ascension at Pentecost. If we apply that targeting system, so to speak, to the new Temple where the presence of God reigns, that is, the body of Christ (believers), it becomes clear that there are, indeed, sacrifices made in the new Temple with all thanksgiving. To get there, we need to get our bearings straight: If we are the new Temple, both individually and collectively, what are the new sacrifices? Peter gives us a glimpse:
As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
– 1 Peter 2:4-5
We are to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ, examples of which are sprinkled throughout the Scriptures.
Spiritual Sacrifices
There are different kinds of spiritual sacrifices explicitly articulated in the NT, albeit non-exhaustive, broad-sweeping, and seemingly in tandem with the fruit of the Spirit.
As I already mentioned, Paul echoes the words of Peter and urges believers “to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” (Romans 12 :1) But he also tells us the Romans the way to discern what is an acceptable sacrifice before God. “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (v.2) We are to be conformed to Christ’s image, in body and soul, in humility and reverence, to discern acceptable spiritual sacrifices. In other words, not only is a believer’s body a sacrifice but our faith, too, is a sacrificial offering to God:
Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all.
– Philippians 2:17
Our faith is a sacrifice, and faith is a gift from God. It should come as no surprise, then, that Paul compares the love of Christ working in and through us as our true sacrifice. To the Ephesians he advocates:
And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
– Ephesians 5:2
More than love and faith and worship, the apostles also categorize the simplicity of praising God’s name, doing good works, cheerful giving, and suffering for Christ as kinds of spiritual sacrifices:
So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.
– Hebrews 13:12-16
Participating in the life of Christ through the fruit of the Spirit entails suffering, the likes of which offers a pleasing aroma before God. Paul also makes periodic remarks throughout his epistles about our vocation to spiritual sacrifices, as a typological suffering servant here on earth, “For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake,” (Philippians 1:29) for “all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Timothy 3:12). Paul elsewhere says that he endures suffering so “that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.” (Philippians 3:8-11). Peter echoes Paul:
Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God.
– 1 Peter 4:1-2
A faithful life devoted to self-sacrificial love is the priority of the new covenantal sacrifice, established by Christ on Calvary, which now happens in His new Temple—the body of Christ. Communion with the Holy Spirit entails sacrifice:
For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life.
– 2 Corinthians 2:15-16
Paul and Peter do not stop there. Believe it or not, they include evangelism as a spiritual sacrifice. In 1 Peter 2, Peter continues to exhort that a spiritual sacrifice is to live like Christ through full-embodied evangelism:
As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ…. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light…. For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps…. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
– 1 Peter 2:4-5, 9, 20-21, 24
Full-embodied evangelism, in word and in deed, is a form of sacrifice. In sum, our bodies, our breath, our words, our wealth, our witness, our worship, our whole life is a spiritual sacrifice—a living sacrifice.
Paul ever so slightly touches on full-embodied evangelism in 1 Corinthians 11 when he chastised the Corinthian believers for partaking in Communion in an “unworthy manner”, confirming that some were found “guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord”(v.27), and so, in a twist of divine irony, had actually died because of it (vv.27-32). The sacrifice of the Passover lamb, the typological earmark of Christ’s atonement, is supposed to mean that death has passed over. Paul likens the twist of fate to God’s discipline, a severe warning to avoid a worse death: condemnation (v.32). Anyway, Paul explains that by actively partaking in Communion, you are actively participating and proclaiming that once for all sacrifice Christ made on the cross, which is why the Lord’s discipline was so severe. For what does Paul say? “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.” (1 Corinthians 11:26)
Communion is a form of evangelism—perhaps even the highest form—and evangelism is a form of sacrifice! It is the gospel. Proclaiming the crucifixion (and descension), resurrection (and ascension), and return of Jesus Christ is part of our vocational and sacrificial duty as members of God’s holy nation and royal priesthood, with Christ as both our High Priest and final sacrifice.
Is the Bread and Wine a Sacrifice?
To get to the main point: Is Communion a sacrifice?
Yes and no.
First, there is no mention in the NT that the Communion bread and wine is a propitiatory sacrifice in and of itself. Yes, it is obvious that Communion truly points to Christ’s once for all sacrifice as the narratival continuation of the Passover meal, and in that way it is a memorial sacrifice, and Communion does fall under Peter and Paul’s criteria as a spiritual sacrifice, but nowhere is it explicitly recorded in the NT that Communion is a repetitive physical sacrifice that propitiates sins each time a believer receives Communion, however trivial the sin might be. Quite the opposite, in fact. Hebrews makes it abundantly clear that there is no need for repeated sacrifices. Christ’s single sacrifice on the cross has sanctified every true believer “once for all” (Hebrews 7:26-28, 9:25-28, 10:10-14). Not only is suffering a spiritual sacrifice, He suffered only once—not repeatedly—to forgive and sanctify believers:
For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself…. And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.
– Hebrews 9:24-26, 10:10-14
If any ecclesiological system of Communion teaches Christ is re-sacrificed in the elements, it has severely over-stepped the Scriptures. That is not to say Communion is merely typological and memorial, either. Communion may very well embody the Real Presence of our Lord. Real Presence does not necessarily mean Christ is re-sacrificed each Mass or Sunday service. Communion is more than a memory aid; I am convinced of that. The NT clearly emphasizes spiritual sacrifices, and what constitutes propitiation and sanctification of believers is the once for all sacrifice of Christ working in and through their lives. Only Christ’s body can receive Christ’s body. As Paul says, “The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.” (1 Corinthians 10:16b-17) Tertullian also makes note of this mutual relationship: “[W]e ought therefore to desire Him in order that we may have life, and to devour Him with the ear, and to ruminate on Him with the understanding, and to digest Him by faith.” (On the Resurrection of the Flesh, Chapter 37) Communion is truly spiritual, and the spiritual is interwoven with the physical, however mystical or indiscernable. Presenting our bodies as living sacrifices is our spiritual worship, after all. That is the ecumenical key moving forward: There are still sacrifices happening.
While Paul heavily contrasts eating Communion with eating sacrifices offered to idols, he does so to emphasize our participatory role in the sacrifice of Christ, not that the bread and wine are independent propitiatory sacrifices typified in the Old Testament: “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) Therefore, “I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons.” (vv.20b-21) The emphasis is in our sacrificial participation in Christ’s once for all sacrifice, which is a way to “flee from idolatry” (v.14) and to help others with weak consciences avoid stumbling blocks (vv.28-30, cf. 8:9-13). It is Christ’s atoning work in and through us. It is not the food in and of itself that propitiates, as he says regarding food offered to idols, “Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.” (1 Cor. 8:8-9) It is about spiritual sacrifices first and foremost, the circumcision of our hearts. That is why full-embodied evangelism—proclaiming the Lord’s death—is a form of sacrifice. Which may also help explain why Paul compares evangelism to priests being sustained by the Temple sacrifices, “Do you not know that those who are employed in the temple service get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in the sacrificial offerings? In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.” (1 Corinthians 9:13-14) Living on sacrificial offerings in the Temple is a direct parallel to living on the gospel! Evangelists are employed in the body of Christ (the new Temple) and serve at the new heavenly altar, eating new spiritual food and sharing in the sacrificial offering of Christ.
The bread and wine are not repetitive propitiatory sacrifices per se. It is about a leavening and outpouring of Christ’s atoning work in and through us—a full-embodied gospel. “For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!... For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them.” (1 Cor. 9:16b,19) Paul is sincerely worried about the newcomers to the faith coming from idolatrous cultures as much as he is concerned with the present weak in faith stumbling into idolatry (cf. 1 Cor. 8:8-13; 1 Cor. 10:27-33). The food itself is less of a concern.
So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved.
– 1 Corinthians 10:31-33
Final Thoughts
Here is where I am at: The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us (John 1:14). Christ’s body is the Temple, and the Temple is the sacrifice (John 2:18-22). The veil has been torn, the two have become one. Likewise, we are the body of Christ, and so we are the sacrifices. For from the Holy Temple of Christ’s body flows living waters, that is, the Holy Spirit (John 7:37-39; cf. Ezekiel 47:9,12). Since the Holy Spirit indwells true believers, and we are called to be a living sacrifice and to suffer like Christ through gospel-centric, full-embodied evangelism, that is to embody Christ’s active atoning work in and through our lives, to go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured, so that our body and blood is like an image of Christ’s body and blood manifest here on earth. We are to be like Christ. God’s love for us is the essence of our sacrifice.
Even so, the body of Christ is also the bread, and the blood of Christ is also the wine. Communion is a spiritual sacrifice and truly evangelistic. It is to be taken by believers of all stripes, nominal and faithful alike, because one of its prime functions, according to Paul, is to proclaim the gospel: the defeat of death and the everlasting kingdom of Christ until He returns. And to do so wrongly, is to proclaim such falsely. Communion, then, participates in bodily evangelism.
In conclusion, low church ecclesiology is certainly not wrong in emphasizing believers as the sacrifice, which I find is heavily de-emphasized in, say, Roman Catholicism. You are the body of Christ—that is integral to Real Presence. That being said, it is also not right in de-emphasizing the holiness of Communion, either. Again, while I think the Evangelical priority, or emphasis rather, is (mostly) right, the question of Real Presence is not refuted therein, nor should it be. There are still too many loose ends.
One final note: Communion as a spiritual sacrifice of evangelism is compatible with Real Presence.
Matlock Bobechko | September 14, 2023 – 9:00 AM EST. Revised on September 22, 2023 – 2:45 PM EST
The ephod as the breastplate of righteousness is not something I’ve ever thought of before. And tying the definition of sin as an archery term to the bullseye is interesting and helpful. Where people have no vision, they perish.