Theology of the Church, Mentor's Guide, MG03

5 6 /

T H E O L O G Y O F T H E C H U R C H

a. Matt. 26.26

b. John 6.53-60

By the miracle of the loaves and the fishes and the walking upon the waters, on the previous day, Christ not only prepared his hearers for the sublime discourse [of John 6] containing the promise of the Eucharist, but also proved to them that he possessed, as Almighty God-man, a power superior to and independent of the laws of nature, and could therefore, provide such a supernatural food, no other, in fact than his own Flesh and Blood. ~ Joseph Pohle. “Eucharist.” Readings in Christian Theology . Vol. 3. Millard Erickson, ed. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1973. 2. Consubstantiation is the belief that the bread and wine become the literal body and blood of Jesus without ceasing to be bread and wine. This is the view of the Lord’s Supper held by Lutheran churches. This view accepts the basic idea discussed above that the real body and blood of Jesus is present in the Lord’s Supper but has a different explanation of how they are present together. 3. The third view is the Reformed view. Presbyterian and Reformed churches teach that the body and blood of Christ are given to us in the Supper, not physically, but spiritually through the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. This tradition would point out that in the John 6 passage that as Jesus teaches about eating his flesh, he goes on to emphasize this as a spiritual truth: John 6.60-63 - On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?” Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you? What if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.”

2

page 232 18