Every Christian tradition has to address the same question about the Lord’s Supper: what exactly is happening? Understanding the views and the Scriptures that support the various positions can only deepen a person’s experience of the Lord’s Supper. Let’s consider the views of Rome, Zwingli, and Calvin.
The Roman Catholic view: The priest presents a sacrifice at the altar
The Roman Catholic view of the Eucharist (meaning “thanksgiving”), or Lord’s Supper, is that the minister acts as a priest, and the table becomes an altar. Once consecrated, the bread becomes Christ’s body and is offered as a participation in Christ’s once-for-all sacrifice. They point to passages like John 6:51, “And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
Against this, Reformers pointed to Hebrews 10:12, which says that “when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God,” and argued that any idea that the Lord’s Supper is a sacrifice and the minister is a priest at an altar contradicts Scripture.
Catholics also teach that the Lord’s Supper conveys grace “ex opere operato,” meaning “by the work performed.” The idea is that the Lord’s Supper has inherent power whenever it is rightly performed.
Historically, this created misunderstanding in many churches in Medieval Europe, with people gossiping, arguing, and conducting business during the Eucharist because they believed you’d get the blessing as long as you showed up. Even before the Reformation, this was widely criticized.
1 Corinthians 11 seems to directly address this. When the people were acting selfishly during the Lord’s Supper, Paul said “when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse” (1 Corinthians 11:17), even adding, “When you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat” (1 Corinthians 11:20). Far from suggesting that it had effect regardless of the attitude of the participants, he warned them of the guilt of “[eating] the bread or [drinking] the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner” (1 Corinthians 11:27) and urged them to self-examination to avoid eating and drinking judgment upon themselves (1 Corinthians 11:29).
Zwingli’s view: The church remembers Christ’s sacrifice
Ulrich Zwingli was one of the great leaders of the Reformation in Switzerland. He rejected the idea that the Lord’s Supper is in any sense a sacrifice of Christ’s body. He argued instead that “this is my body” (1 Corinthians 11:24) means “this signifies my body.” The Lord’s Supper then is a memorial of His death, and while Christ is present as His people remember Him, He is not present in the bread or the cup themselves.
He noted in particular the repeated references to “Do this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19; 1 Corinthians 11:24), and “Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me” (1 Corinthians 11:25). Zwingli’s position came to be known as the memorialist view, with the Lord’s Supper helping believers to remember Christ’s death on the cross for our sins.
It is impossible to ignore that the Lord’s Supper is intended to help us remember Jesus. The question is whether it’s more.
Calvin’s view: Believers share in Christ Himself
John Calvin also ministered in Switzerland during the Reformation, but Zwingli died when Calvin was only 22, so they never met. Calvin rejected the Catholic notion that the bread and wine become the body and blood of Jesus, but he taught that they genuinely “exhibit Him.” In that sense, they are “spiritual food” to the believer. Calvin’s position on the Lord’s Supper has come to be known as the “spiritual presence” view.
He pointed to verses like 1 Corinthians 10:16-18, which teach that the “cup of blessing” is “a participation in the blood of Christ” and “the bread we break” is “a participation in the body of Christ.” The word participation here is the Greek word “koinonia,” which is often translated “fellowship.” Paul seems to be describing something more than merely remembering Jesus. In the Lord’s Supper, through faith, we commune with Jesus as we reflect on all that the bread and the cup signify. In fact, he taught that by the Spirit, believers are lifted up to commune with the risen Christ.
Today, the Southern Baptist Convention and many independent Baptist statements of faith reflect Zwingli’s memorialist position, while many Reformed Baptist churches hold to the Second London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689, which affirms a view of the Lord’s Supper similar to Calvin’s.
The Fellowship Affirmation of Faith reflects this diversity, allowing for the spiritual presence view of Calvin while only explicitly affirming the memorialist position of Zwingli. It states:
The Lord’s Supper, or Communion, is the memorial wherein gathered believers partake of the two elements, the bread and the cup, which symbolize the Lord’s body and shed blood, proclaiming his death until he comes, and is a continuing means for strengthening the faith of the believer.
Have you begun to treat the Lord’s Supper as a ritual, or do you examine yourself, approach it in faith, and reflect on Christ’s sacrifice? Have you thought about the Lord’s Supper as a “participation,” or fellowship, in the body and blood of Christ? Let these historic debates drive you back to the Scriptures to better understand what God has given us in the Lord’s Supper.
In awe of Him,
Paul
