Luther: The Lord's Supper

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by Corina Forcey0 views·Updated Feb 26, 2021
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Sources Kittelson, James M., and Hans H. Wiersma. Luther the Reformer: The Story of the Man and His Career, Second Edition. 2nd ed., 1517 Media, 2016. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1b3t7ps. Accessed 23 Jan. 2021. Russell, William R., and Timothy F. Lull, editors. “The Babylonian Captivity of the Church—Part I (1520).” Martin Luther's Basic Theological Writings: Third Edition, 3rd ed., 1517 Media, Minneapolis, 2012, pp. 196–223. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt22h6s70.29. Accessed 23 Jan. 2021. Russell, William R., and Timothy F. Lull, editors. “The Small Catechism (1529).” Martin Luther's Basic Theological Writings: Third Edition, 3rd ed., 1517 Media, Minneapolis, 2012, pp. 322–339. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt22h6s70.38. Accessed 23 Jan. 2021.

Audio TranscriptAuto-generated

  1. Hello. Welcome to Luther, the Lord's Supper.
  2. What it is and what it is not today.
  3. We're gonna focus on what it was that Luther saw
  4. wrong with the way that the church was experiencing the
  5. Eucharist and what Luther taught that the Lord's Supper is
  6. so, first of all, we want to take a look
  7. at what Luther identified as being wrong with how it
  8. was currently being celebrated, being taught, being experienced by the
  9. church and by the people.
  10. First of all, the Lord's supper is not a sacrifice
  11. or a good work.
  12. The Catholic Mass, which was the service that was really
  13. focused around the Eucharist, the act of communion, the sacrament,
  14. um, was considered it and still is in the Catholic
  15. Church, considered a sacrifice and a good work.
  16. And the biggest issue that Luther had with this is
  17. that it was necessary to understand that the sacrament of
  18. communion was a gift, a gift that we reach Onley
  19. through a faith that is given to us by God.
  20. Therefore, it is not a work of our doing or
  21. by any human doing.
  22. Therefore, it is not a good work on our part
  23. or a sacrifice on our part, and Luther thought that
  24. this was this was crucial to understanding sacraments.
  25. It was crucial to understanding God and crucial the understanding
  26. faith. So, first of all, the Lord's Supper is not
  27. a sacrifice or a good work.
  28. Second of all, the Lord's Supper is not for priests
  29. alone. Now I want to clarify.
  30. Here, the Catholic Church did not teach that the Lord's
  31. supper was for priests alone.
  32. What they did, however, practice was that the blood or
  33. the wine was on Lee.
  34. For clergy, it was not for the lay members.
  35. And so when the lady experienced communion, they would Onley
  36. receive the bread or the host if they received anything
  37. at all.
  38. They also practiced, um, what was eating with their eyes
  39. or experiencing communion just by watching it take place on
  40. by watching the priests partake in the blood and the
  41. body. So Luther specifically says there is.
  42. There is nothing scripturally that says that we should be
  43. limiting the the consumption of the blood from anyone.
  44. Instead, both the blood and the body are shed for
  45. all, as the words in Scripture read.
  46. So these were the two important things among some other
  47. things that Lou they're very specifically wanted his followers to
  48. understand. This is not the case.
  49. This is not what the Lord's supper is.
  50. So then we want to know what the Lord's supper
  51. is. So we're gonna highlight two things here specifically that
  52. Luther focused on.
  53. First of all, it's a sacrament.
  54. Now understand that in the Catholic Church it is also
  55. a sacrament.
  56. But the understanding of what a sacrament is in the
  57. Catholic Church and according toa Luther or 22 different things.
  58. Um, so we're gonna focus on what Luther expresses as
  59. a sacrament.
  60. And what Luther expresses as a sacrament is, um it's
  61. an act where we take an element, unearthly element in
  62. this case, the element of wine and bread.
  63. And we pair it with the words of God.
  64. And so you'll notice in the image.
  65. Here we have scripture open up, right.
  66. We have the word of God, and the words of
  67. God are also what we call the words of institution.
  68. This is my body broken for you, so that makes
  69. it a sacrament.
  70. So that's an important thing.
  71. There are only two sacraments.
  72. According to Luther, Baptism is one of them and communion
  73. or the Lord's Supper is the other one.
  74. So it was a big deal that this was one
  75. of them.
  76. As the Catholic Church holds seven sacraments, Luther claimed that
  77. there were only two, and this is one of them
  78. now. The second part of this that's that's crucial to
  79. Luther's teaching of the Lord's supper is that within the
  80. bread and the wine, the body and the blood is
  81. the true presence of Jesus Christ.
  82. Now this is confusing because he argued that this was
  83. different from what the Catholic Church was teaching.
  84. The Catholic Church teaches something called trans substantiation, and the
  85. transubstantiation means that by the act of the words of
  86. the priest, the body or the wine and the bread
  87. turn into the blood and the blood and the body
  88. of Christ and are eternally those elements now.
  89. That's not exactly how Luther teaches it, but what he
  90. says is that with the word of God so not
  91. because of the word of God or after the word
  92. of God has spoken, but with the word of God.
  93. The presence of Christ is in with and under these
  94. elements, so they don't change into something they're not.
  95. They're not eternally turned into something else after these words
  96. have been spoken, but rather the elements with the word
  97. are the true presence of Christ.
  98. Now that's how it differs slightly from the Catholic understanding
  99. of this.
  100. But more specifically, Luther was faced with pushback from many
  101. of the people who agreed with many of the doctrines
  102. that he was teaching but differed on this particular one.
  103. And one of the one of the people who was
  104. prominent in that was a man by the name of
  105. Swingley and the church in hopes of kind of, um,
  106. building up alliances together or holding strong together and building.
  107. One church wanted Luther and Swingley to agree, and on
  108. most accounts they could agree.
  109. And what it all came down to was what The
  110. Lord's Supper?
  111. Waas and Swingley thought that the Lord's Supper was a
  112. wonderful practice, an important practice that is commanded for us
  113. in Scripture, and it is a great symbol that points
  114. to the cross, and Luther would not agree with that
  115. statement. Luther was strong and holding to the fact that
  116. it is not a symbol, and the sacrament of communion
  117. does not point to Christ, but rather the sacrament is
  118. the presence of Christ.
  119. So this is an important teaching of Luther as it
  120. really separated Luther from not only the Catholics but also
  121. from many other evangelical movements that that occurred because of
  122. the Reformation.
  123. So hopefully now you have a better understanding of exactly
  124. what Luther's teachings were in accordance to the Lord's supper
  125. based on his scriptural studies.