The Medicine of Immortality

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Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!

What is the benefit of eating and drinking a bit of bread and a sip of wine? To most people it sure doesn’t seem like much. In fact, for most people, it’s a complete waste of time.

And so, people stay away. But not you. You hear the Lord’s words. And with His words, He comes right before you and speaks to you. There is His command: “Take this bread. Eat it.” “Take this cup of wine. Drink from it.” And with His words, He tells you what it is: “This is My Body. This cup is the new testament in My Blood.”  

And with His words, He gives you a promise. His Body and Blood in the bread and wine is for you for the forgiveness of your sins. Forgiveness won for you by His Good Friday dying. With His words that do and give what they say, Jesus bestows that Good Friday forgiveness. And it’s for you in the Sacrament of the Altar. “Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins.”

“For the forgiveness of your sins.” Where there is the Lord’s forgiveness, there are sinners. Jesus came for and died for sinners. He offered His Body and His Blood as the only atoning sacrifice for sinners on the Cross. Sinners like Judas who betrays the Lord with a kiss for some quick cash. Sinners like Caiaphas and Annas, and the Pharisees who seek to put Jesus to death. Sinners like Peter, who make promises they won’t keep. Sinners, like Peter, James, and John, who can’t stay awake even to pray. Sinners like you and me, who fail to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, who fail to love our neighbor as ourselves.

Jesus’ Body and Blood are given “for the forgiveness of your sins.” Your sins. All of them. Not just some of them. No matter what the sin. No matter what sin you have done. No matter what sin has been done to you. Jesus leaves none of it out of His dying. He excludes none of your sin from His promise: “given and shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins.”

Scripture says, “The blood of Jesus . . . cleanses us from all sin,” (1 John 1:7). The Blood of Jesus shed on Good Friday cleanses us from all sin. And the Blood of Jesus given in the Sacrament cleanses us from all sin. And so, “where there is forgiveness of sins there is life and salvation” (Small Catechism).

Your sins are forgiven. Jesus says so. And so, you are saved for eternity. All of you. The whole you. Jesus not only saves your soul, but He also saves your body! Have you ever stopped to consider that? That’s why the pastor dismisses you communicants from the Table with this blessing: “The Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ strengthen and preserve you in body and soul to life everlasting.”

Jesus saves both your body and soul! Jesus didn’t just create your soul; He also created your body. Jesus didn’t just redeem your soul; He also redeemed your body. He loves and cares for all of you: body and soul! And for the whole of you Jesus gives you the Sacrament of the Altar.

In his Large Catechism, Martin Luther calls the Lord’s Supper a “pure, wholesome, soothing medicine that aids you and gives you life in both soul and body. For where the soul is healed, the body is helped as well.”

Sin is a poison in your system. Left unchecked, it will kill you—both your body and your soul. So Jesus gives you His Body and Blood as an antidote against your sin. “Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins.”

The Lord’s Body and Blood are never nothings. They are fruitful and full of help for sinners. With just the touch of His hand Jesus restored the ear of Malchus that Peter sliced off. His Body and Blood are full of His divinity and power. With His Body and Blood, He conquered the power of Satan and death. In His Body and Blood Jesus rose from the dead. And with His Body and Blood He bestows life to our bodies. Jesus Himself says: “My flesh is food indeed. He who eats My flesh will live forever” (John 6:55, 58).

With a prayer from His mouth Jesus could call down twelve legions of angels from heaven to fight for Him. With His mandate and institution words He bestows His Body and Blood with the bread and wine for you for the forgiveness of your sins. And from this your body receives tremendous benefits.

The antidote of sin’s paycheck (death) is the Lord’s Body and Blood. The Sacrament of the Altar is “the medicine of immortality, the antidote that we should not die, but live forever in Jesus Christ,” (Ignatius, Epistle to the Ephesians).

Jesus will not abandon you in the grave. Your flesh that receives His Body and Blood in the Sacrament is nourished for eternal life. Jesus Himself gave this promise: “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the Last Day,” (John 6:54).

Dr. Luther put it this way: “The mouth, the throat, the body, which eats Christ’s body, will also have its benefit in that it will live forever and arise on the last day to eternal salvation. This is the secret power and benefit that flows from the body of Christ in the Supper in our body, for it must be useful, and cannot be present in vain,” (LW 37:134).

We confess this with great joy in one of our contemporary hymns, which is in the Lutheran Service Book, entitled, “The Infant Priest.”

The veil is torn, our Priest we see,

As at the rail on bended knee

Our hungry mouths from Him receive

The bread of immortality.

The body of God’s Lamb we eat,

A priestly food and priestly meat;

On sin-parched lips the chalice pours

His quenching blood

That life restores. (#624: 5-6 LSB)

The Lord’s Supper is the medicine of immortality, the antidote that we should not die, but live forever in Jesus Christ. In the Sacrament, you receive eternal life and salvation for your body and your soul. As often as you eat and drink His Body and Blood, until the day He returns to bring you home with Him, you may do so in full confidence that you are forgiven of all of your sins. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.