How can bodily eating and drinking do such great things?
Certainly not just eating and drinking do these things, but the words written here: “Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” These words, along with the bodily eating and drinking, are the main thing in the Sacrament. Whoever believes these words has exactly what they say: “forgiveness of sins.” (Small Catechism: Sacrament of the Altar)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. This is no parlor trick. Nor is it a simple meal of remembrance, as we would think about the word “remembrance.”  For when God remembers His salvation, it is not just that He thinks back in time to the day of the Red Sea crossing or deliverance from Babylon or Good Friday. He is outside of time, so to Him such an idea of “remembering” doesn’t even exist. When God remembers, or when He calls us to remember, it is an incorporation into the actual event of salvation.

In the same way that the people were incorporated in the daily sacrifices of the temple (receiving the slaughtered animal’s flesh, taking it home, cooking it, and eating it) so, too, are we incorporated into the sacrifice of the Cross. We don’t just remember with our mind, but we remember with our mouths. We take and eat the Body of our Lord. We take and drink His Blood poured out for us.

This is the way of our Lord. He gives with real blessing, real life, real Jesus, real forgiveness in and with real things. There is no remembering the Cross at communion that doesn’t also include receiving the Cross. And therefore there is no remembering Jesus and His sacrifice in the Sacrament without receiving Jesus, His sacrifice, and all that He won on the Cross.

And so, in receiving the Sacrament you receive the forgiveness of sins. With the forgiveness of sins you receive life and salvation as well, because with all sins forgiven, eternal life and eternal salvation are yours forever.

How is this all possible? Christ your Lord said it is. And His Word is not just descriptive, it is prescriptive, it is creative. His Word gives exactly what His Word says. And so yes, when you participate in the Sacrament you receive the forgiveness of sins, and you receive Jesus, because He said so. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

O Lord, we praise Thee, bless Thee and adore Thee, In thanksgiving bow before Thee. Thou with Thy body and Thy blood didst nourish Our weak souls that they may flourish: O Lord, have mercy!
May Thy body, Lord, born of Mary, That our sins and sorrows did carry, And Thy blood for us plead
In all trial, fear, and need: O Lord, have mercy! (“O Lord, We Praise Thee” LSB 617, st.1)

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Duane Bamsch