A-Ha Moments from Calvinism to Lutheranism Pt. II

My next “a-ha” moment came when I was challenged to take the Scripture in Matthew 26:26-27 plainly: "Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said,“Take, eat; this is my body.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins”

Now, all of evangelicalism – including the Reformed – do not take this as a literal body and blood meal of Christ. They either take it as a memorialist (or Zwinglian) view (evangelicals), or a spiritual meal (the Reformed). Why do this? It all goes back to the dispute between Luther and Zwingli, which caused an inevitable wall between Lutherans and the rest of evangelicalism that has never been breached. I must admit I believed the “spiritual presence” view as a Reformed believer. And I did so without reflection or study, because it all seemed so “rational and reasonable”. After all, Christ's physical body must be in heaven, at the right hand of the Father, and can't be in two places at once. Right? Well, not so fast. There's this small issue of God doing anything He wants in accordance with His Word. And since we take Scripture at its face, unless the genre or context demands otherwise, then we have no reason not to accept the plain statement that the body and blood of Christ that is served in Communion is indeed the true body and blood of Christ. When I realized that I was engaging in a gross rationalization by denying the plain language of Scripture, I changed from a spiritual presence, Reformed view of the sacraments to a Lutheran, real presence view of the sacraments. If you're looking for a more complex explanation than that, I don't have one. Maybe someone does. We can even talk about Eutychianism vs. Nestorianism. And there is a place for that discussion. I love theology. But this seems pretty simple to me.