In a simple way in which the head of a house
is to present it to the household98
What is the Sacrament of the Altar? Answer:
It is the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ under the bread and wine, instituted by Christ himself for us Christians to eat and to drink.
Where is this written? Answer:
The holy evangelists, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and St. Paul write thus:
“Our Lord Jesus Christ, on the night in which he was betrayed, took the bread, gave thanks, and broke it and gave it to his disciples and said, ‘Take; eat; this is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’
“In the same way he also took the cup after the supper, gave thanks, and gave it to them and said, ‘Take, and drink of it, all of you. This cup is the New Testament in my blood, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’”99
What is the benefit of such eating and drinking? Answer:
The words “given for you” and “shed for you100 for the forgiveness of sins” show us that forgiveness of sin,101 life, and salvation are given to us in the sacrament through these words, because where there is forgiveness of sin, there is also life and salvation.
How can bodily eating and drinking do such a great thing?102 Answer:
Eating and drinking certainly do not do it, but rather the words that are recorded: “given for you” and “shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” These words, when accompanied by the physical eating and drinking, are the essential thing in the sacrament, and whoever believes these very words has what they declare and state, namely, “forgiveness of sins.”
Who, then, receives this sacrament worthily? Answer:
Fasting and bodily preparation are in fact a fine external discipline, but a person who has faith in these words, “given for you” and “shed for you for the forgiveness of sins,” is really worthy and well prepared. However, a person who does not believe these words or doubts them is unworthy and unprepared, because the words “for you” require truly believing hearts.
98 Woodcut: The distribution of the Lord’s Supper. Above the altar is a depiction of the Last Supper with Christ communing Judas. A pastor wearing a chasuble offers the bread to a kneeling man and an assistant the cup to a kneeling woman. On either side of the altar others are waiting to receive the elements. Caption: “This figure is recorded in Matthew 26[:26–28*].”
99 A conflation of texts from 1 Corinthians 11:23–25*; Matthew 26:26–28*; Mark 14:22–24*; Luke 22:19f*. Cf. LC, “Sacrament of the Altar,” 3. This text conforms neither to the Words of Institution found in The German Mass and Order of Service (1526) (WA 19:97, 12–99, 4; LW 53:80–81) nor to the LC, “Shorter Preface,” 23.
100 In this and the succeeding questions the words “for you,” stated only once in the German, apply to both phrases.
101 Beginning with the 1536 edition of the SC and in the Book of Concord, “sins.”
102 Beginning with the 1540 edition of the SC and in the Book of Concord, “great things.”