Apologetics for the Masses #329 - The Eucharist and the Bible

The Eucharist and the Bible

The majority of non-Catholic Christians here in the U.S., and particularly in the South, believe the Eucharist, or the Lord’s Supper as it is often referred to, is merely a symbolic act in which we remember, in some manner, what Jesus did for us. For Catholics, however, it is much, much more. The Eucharist, for the Catholic, is the actual Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ. It is God Himself. So, the question is, who’s right? Is it symbol or is it Christ. Who’s to say? Well, why don’t we see what the Bible says about it? And, once again, let’s start with the Old Testament to see what it can teach us and how it can train us in righteousness.

Turn to Malachi, chapter 1, verse 11; it’s one of the last books of the Old Testament...if you have a Protestant Bible, it is the last book of the Old Testament - Mal 1:11, “For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name is great among the nations, and in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure offering; for my name is great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts.” Catholics should be very familiar with this passage because we hear it in the Mass every week!

When Malachi was written, some 450 years before Christ, God’s name was not great among the Gentiles. A pure offering was not made to Him in all the nations. So, this is a prophecy of times to come after Jesus Christ. Because it was only after Jesus Christ that the gospel was taken to the Gentiles and that God’s name was made great among the Gentiles.

As Catholics, we need to be very familiar with this passage and we need to introduce our non-Catholic brethren to this passage! Look at what it’s saying! At some future date, the Gentiles, the nations, will, from the rising of the sun to its setting offer incense and a pure offering. Hmmm...what could they be talking about here? Well, we see that the prophecy says that incense is to be a part of worship...something which most non-Catholic Christians do not believe and do not practice. And, we see that the prophecy says a pure offering will be made from the rising of the sun to its setting, among the nations. What is the only pure offering that has ever been made to God? His son, Jesus Christ, is the only pure offering. What do we do at the Mass?

We offer, we re-present, the offering, that Jesus Christ made on the cross to the Father in Heaven. And how often does the Mass take place in the Church? Every hour on the hour all day long...in other words...from the rising of the sun to its setting. And where does the Mass take place? All around the world in all the nations. This prophecy of Malachi 1:11 is a prophecy of the Mass. Most non-Catholic Christians, particularly Evangelicals, Fundamentalists, and non-denominationalists have no form of worship which can fulfill this prophecy. We need to make sure they read and study this passage.

Now, let’s turn to the New Testament. Turn to John 6, verses 53-55. Jesus says, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed."

Jesus says His flesh is real food and that His blood is real drink, and that we must eat His flesh and drink His blood to have life...to have life...in us. Catholics believe exactly what Jesus says. We take Him literally. Most non-Catholics do not take Jesus literally. We believe what the Word of God is very plainly telling us here. Amen, amen, we say!! And, put these passages from John together with what Christ said at the Last Supper: "This is My body...This is my blood"...which we find in Mt 26:26-28; Mk 14:22-24; and Luke 22:19-20. In all of these accounts of the Last Supper, Jesus uses the word “is”, not the words, "is similar to," or "is symbolic of", but the word is”. This “is” My Body. This “is” My Blood.

Now, keep one finger on John 6 and turn in your Bibles to what Paul says about the Eucharist in 1 Cor 11:23-29. Here we see Paul telling us that the Jesus Himself told Paul about the Last Supper. And Jesus, in His description of the Last Supper to Paul, again used the word "is". Now, putting all of these passages together, the passages from the four gospels and from 1st Corinthians, we get a pretty clear picture...from Scripture...that Jesus was talking not symbolically, but literally, when He said to eat His Body and drink His Blood. And listen to what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11:27, "Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord." How can you be guilty of the "body and blood of the Lord" if it isn't the body and blood of the Lord? And, in verse 29, Paul goes on to say, "For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body." Not "discerning" the Lord's body? How can you discern the Lord's body if the Lord’s body is not there? If it's only symbolic?

Now, turn back to John 6. The standard response you will get from someone when you begin quoting from John 6, is that Jesus was actually speaking symbolically because He says in verse 63, "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life." Amen, says the Catholic! I believe that 100%.

Yet, many non-Catholic Christians will say that this verse shows Jesus was speaking symbolically, because He says, “the words that I speak to you are spirit and they are life.” He uses the word “spirit”. “See”, they say, “He is talking spiritually, or symbolically, and not literally.” Well, I have to tell you, that I have not yet been able to understand why anyone...why anyone...would believe that the word "spirit" means the same thing as the word "symbolic". Is it the Father, Son, and Holy Symbolic? No! And I don’t say that to be sarcastic, but to get the point across that nowhere in Scripture...nowhere in Scripture... does the word "spirit" mean "symbolic". The spirit is as real as it gets. But, beyond that, if John 6:63...if John chapter 6, verse 63...shows that Jesus was speaking symbolically, then why did His disciples, who knew Him better than anyone, walk away from Him in verse 66, after they heard His supposedly “symbolic" explanation? If He was speaking symbolically, why did they walk away?

No, they understood Him literally, as did the Jews in verse 52, where they say, “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?” and as did the Apostles in verse 68, when Jesus asked them, “Will you also go away?” What did Peter say? Did he say, “Oh, no, Lord...we know you are only speaking symbolically.” No! Peter said, in verse 68, “Lord, to whom shall we go?” Peter and the Apostles understood that Jesus was speaking literally...they didn’t understand how what He was saying could be true...but they understood Him to be speaking literally...as do Catholics.

And, another question. If Jesus was not speaking literally, then why did He let so many of His disciples walk away without explaining to them that He was indeed speaking symbolically? And, why did so many of His disciples leave Him if He was speaking symbolically? Time after time after time after time, the Gospels show us that the disciples were clueless as to what the Master was teaching them. Did any of them leave because of it? No! What happens each and every time? The disciples either come to Jesus and ask Him to explain to them what He is talking about; or Jesus explains it to them without them even asking.

Just in the Book of Matthew we can find a dozen or so examples of this. In Matthew 13, 13:10, Jesus has just finished teaching the crowd using the parable of the sower and the seeds: some seed falls on rocky ground, some falls among thorns, some falls on good soil. In verse 10 it says, “Then the disciples came and said to Him, ‘Why do you speak to them in parables?’ And He answered them, ‘To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given...’” And, beginning in verse 18, what does Jesus do? He explains the parable to them.

In verses 24-33 of that same chapter, Jesus tells the crowds three more parables. The disciples didn’t understand the parables any better than the crowd did. So, what happens in verse 36? Do the disciples leave Him? No! They come to Jesus and ask Him to explain the parables.

In Matthew 15:15, and Matthew 17, verses 10 and 19, we see some more examples of the disciples asking Jesus to explain something to them. And there are a few other examples just in Matthew that I could use here, but I think you get the point. Whenever the disciples did not understand something, either they came to Jesus and asked Him to explain it; or He went to them, without them asking, and explained what He was saying. But that did not happen in John 6. Why? Because the disciples did not misunderstand Him. They knew He was speaking literally and they could not accept it...so they walked away. And, Jesus let them go.

Okay, coming back to John, chapter 6, let’s do something a little different. Let’s give what Jesus is saying in John 6 a “symbolic” meaning. A meaning which runs counter to what the Catholic Christian sees in John 6, but fits right in with what the non-Catholic Christian sees in these verses. And let’s see if this “symbolic” meaning for Jesus’ words makes any sense.

Let’s read verses 53-55 again. Jesus says, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed." Again, for the sake of argument, let’s say that Jesus is speaking symbolically. Okay, 1st problem, if He’s speaking symbolically, then what the heck was He trying to say? How do we symbolically eat His body and symbolically drink His blood? Is He saying we symbolically eat His body and blood by eating a piece of bread and drinking some grape juice? And, if we do that, is He saying that we will have eternal life because of it? I don’t think any Evangelical or Fundamentalist would admit that, but that’s the language He uses! “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life.” That is quite a promise! So, are the folks who say Jesus is speaking symbolically, are they saying that I am guaranteed Heaven...according to Jesus’ promise here...are they saying that I am guaranteed Heaven by symbolically eating Jesus’ Body and Blood?

And yet another problem. Verse 60. “Many of His disciples, when they heard it [when they heard Jesus say they must eat His body and drink His blood], “Many of His disciples, when they heard it said, ‘This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?’” If Jesus is speaking symbolically, then why is this a hard saying? Someone might say that, at first, the disciples misunderstood, but that Jesus cleared it up for them in verse 63 when He says, “It is the spirit that gives life, the flesh is of no avail; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” See, they say, Jesus says the words He has spoken are “spirit”; in other words, they are symbolic.” But, that goes back to the problem we mentioned earlier. If Jesus was explaining in verse 63 that His words were symbolic, then why did many of His disciples reject Him and leave Him in verse 66? An interesting side note here here, the disciples leave Jesus in chapter 6, verse 66...666. Hmmm.

Anyway, if this was a “symbolic” teaching, why would the disciples walk away. Why would they consider it such a “hard teaching” that they would walk away? If it were a symbolic teaching, it wouldn’t be any harder to accept back then than it would be to accept today. How many people leave Protestant churches after they have been “saved” because they are then presented with the teaching of having to “symbolically” eat Jesus’ body and blood by eating a piece of bread and drinking some grape juice? I would venture that no one...no one...has ever found this “symbolic” meaning to be a “hard” teaching as the disciples supposedly did.

And think about this. These same disciples who walked away from Jesus because of this teaching on eating His Body and drinking His Blood...what had these same disciples witnessed the day before. In verses 9-14 of chapter 6 we see that they had just witnessed the miracle of the loaves and the fishes. Jesus had just fed thousands of people with a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish. And what else did those same disciples witness the day before? Verse 19, “When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and drawing near to the boat.” They had just seen Jesus Christ walking on water! Walking on water! And you think they are going to walk away from Him because He just told them that they have to symbolically eat His body and blood? I don’t think so!

And, let’s think about what else they had seen. They had seen Jesus turn water to wine. They had seen Jesus cure the sick and heal lepers, the blind, and the lame. They had seen Jesus cast out demons. They had even cast out demons and healed the sick by the power Jesus had given them! And they walked away from Him because He told them they had to “symbolically” eat His body and “symbolically” drink His blood. I don’t think so!

And, again, if you say that they misunderstood Him... and that they even misunderstood His “symbolic” explanation in verse 63, then why didn’t He explain it to them until they understood, as He had on every other occasion of misunderstanding? And, why, if not a single person took Him to mean what He said as being symbolic; not a single one of the Jewish leaders and authorities; not a single one of His disciples; not a single one of the Apostles - people who had been with Him day in and day out since the beginning of His ministry and who knew Him better than anyone save His mother; if all of the people who were so close to Jesus took Him literally; then why does anyone today, 2000 years after the fact, believe that His words were symbolic?

Could it be because it is such a hard teaching? Because it is so difficult to understand how we could possibly be able to eat His body and drink His blood? Aren’t people today rejecting the real meaning of Jesus’ words, just as the Jews and many of His disciples rejected the real meaning of Jesus’ words 2000 years ago...because it is a hard teaching? Because it does require a tremendous amount of faith. A tremendous amount of trust in God’s word.
And let me point out one other thing here. Look at verses 30 and 31 in John 6. The Jews are asking for a sign and they refer to the miracle of the manna from Heaven which God gave the Israelites for food in the desert. And Jesus’ response to them in verse 32 and following makes it very clear that He is talking about something greater than...something greater than...the miracle of the manna in the desert. And in verse 62, Jesus says to his disbelieving disciples, “Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending where He was before?” Here Jesus is telling us that whatever it is He is talking about is greater than even the miracle of His ascension into Heaven!

Do you see what I’m saying here? Taking Scripture in context we see that Jesus frames His discussion about eating His flesh and drinking His blood with the miracle of the manna from Heaven on the one hand and the miracle of His ascension into Heaven on the other hand. And, He is clearly pointing to the fact that whatever it is He means by eating His body and drinking His blood... whatever He means by that, it is something that is more miraculous than manna from Heaven and His ascension into Heaven! I ask you, is eating a piece of bread and drinking some grape juice more miraculous than manna from Heaven? Is eating a piece of bread and drinking some grape juice more miraculous than Jesus ascending into Heaven in a cloud of glory? I don’t think so! But, is the bread and wine of the Eucharist being changed into the actual Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ...is that a greater miracle than the manna in the desert? Is the bread and wine of the Eucharist being changed into the actual Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ...is that a greater miracle than the ascension of Jesus into Heaven? I would have to say it is.

In other words, an interpretation of this passage from John 6; and the passages from the Last Supper; and the passages from 1 Corinthians; an interpretation which renders these passages as Jesus speaking symbolically... an interpretation which puts the words “is symbolic of” in Jesus’ mouth, when those words are nowhere to be found in these passages...just doesn’t make any sense. Everyone took Jesus literally because He was speaking literally...period!

Now, one last point. In John 6:58, Jesus says, "He who eats this bread will live forever." And, in verse 51 He says the same thing, "If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever." Now, what bread is He talking about? Well, He tells us what “bread” He is talking about in the second half of verse 51, "...and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world." Jesus is talking about the flesh that He will give for the life of the world. The question you need to ask is: “Was the flesh that Jesus gave for the life of the world real...or symbolic?” And, when did He give His flesh for the life of the world? On the cross. So, the flesh that Jesus wants us to eat and the blood He wants us to drink is the flesh that He gave for the life of the world...in other words, the flesh that was nailed to the Cross and the blood that was spilled on the Cross. That is the flesh that He wants us to eat and that is the blood that He wants us to drink.

The question I ask of you, and the question you need to ask of anyone who says Jesus is speaking symbolically in John 6 or that Jesus is speaking symbolically at the Last Supper, is this: “Was Jesus' death on the cross real...or symbolic?” Was the body on the cross...the flesh on the cross...real...or symbolic? Was the blood shed on the cross...real... or symbolic? If you believe Jesus is speaking symbolically in John 6 when He says eat my body and drink my blood, then the conclusion you come to is that Jesus did not really die on the cross...it was only a symbolic representation of the Body and Blood of Christ, not the real thing. Afterall, the bread He is talking about us eating is the flesh that He will give for the life of the world. If He’s talking about giving us His symbolic flesh to eat, then He is talking about giving us His symbolic flesh for the life of the world. Again, if you believe Jesus is talking symbolically in John 6, then you must also conclude that the flesh that Jesus gave on the cross for the life of the world was only His symbolic flesh. You cannot have it both ways...

This is my Body. This is my Blood.