We Have An Altar. Yes We Do!

I'm going to break up my 5 part series on Lutheranism, Calvinism, and Arminianism with this posting. I was reading through the lectionary readings from Sunday (3 year, C) and as I was reading through Hebrews 13, this verse jumped out at me:

Hebrews 13:9-10: Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them. We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat.

And then:

Hebrews 13:14: For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.

How blessed and wonderful these things are! For we have an altar. This altar is precisely where our Lord Jesus Christ comes to us in the Eucharist with His true Body and Blood, to give us Himself in grace, strengthen our faith, bind us together in unity as we partake of the same Body and Blood, and forgive us our sins as Christ continually claims us and gives Himself to us at the Table.

As Christians, the Lord's Body and Blood is our lifeblood. Forget about the "victorious" Christian life, for the only victorious Christian life died on a cross and conquered sin and death. He distributes that very Body and Blood to us in the Sacrament of the Altar.

The author of Hebrews warns his audience to not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is better for the heart to be strengthened by grace. Immediately after this, he mentions the Altar of the Lord. Holy Communion is grace for you.

Dr. Luther, in the Small Catechism (SC, V) says this:

What is the benefit of such eating and drinking?

That is shown us in these words: Given, and shed for you, for the remission of sins; namely, that in the Sacrament forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation are given us through these words. For where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation.

How can bodily eating and drinking do such great things?

It is not the eating and drinking, indeed, that does them, but the words which stand here, namely: Given, and shed for you, for the remission of sins. Which words are, beside the bodily eating and drinking, as the chief thing in the Sacrament; and he that believes these words has what they say and express, namely, the forgiveness of sins.

 

As we partake of the Lord's Body and Blood, we look forward to the consummation, the Heavenly Jerusalem (cf. Heb 12:22-24, 13:14), even as we are residents and partakers even now.

 

So take and eat, this is My Body and Blood, given and shed for you, for the remission of sins.

Amen.