Calvin and Eucharist: nourishment requires union

I guess you know you're truly reformed when you spend hours reading Calvin on Eucharist just for fun. But the area of Eucharist in Calvin's theology is fascinating and enlightening as it says so much about his view of what the Christian life should be.

Among other things, Calvin says that we can get none of the benefits of Christ's work on our behalf unless we "own him." If we are not in Christ, participating in his work and ministry as we are empowered by spirit, then all the things Christ has done on our behalf are useless to us. Similarly, he says that unless we have already been "feeding on Christ," being nourished by him, there is nothing available to us in the Communion meal but bread and wine. He says sinners may eat the meal but all they will get is bread and wine. In other words, without our being united to Christ and drawing our spiritual nourishment and substance from him, Eucharist is an empty ritual and the elements are just so many calories.

When I read this, I was immediately reminded of John Chapter 6. Jesus feeds the 5000 and the people are following him--but for the wrong reasons. The author tells us that the people believe Jesus is sent by God because of the miracle and that Jesus discerns that the people wish to force him to be their earthly king.Jesus tells them that they haven't understood what he has been trying to teach them. That they are only there because of the bread in their bellies. He says they don't understand that the food he wishes to offer them is eternal. That he is the "bread of life come down from heaven" and that unless they eat his flesh and drink his blood, there will be no life in them. At this, the people argue and say "How can this guy say he's from heaven? Isn't that Joe and Mary's boy from down the street?" And since they refuse to see Jesus on God's terms and insist instead on plugging him into their categories, they can't hear his message and end up walking away from him by the thousands. Verse 6:66 (Ironic numbering) says "From that moment many of His disciples turned away and no longer walked with Him."

Jesus, no doubt feeling rather dejected and rejected, turns to the twelve who remain and ask if they, too, will desert him. But Peter, who sometimes really gets it and at other times fails miserably, gets it right in this case. He tells Jesus "Lord, where else could we go? Only you have the words of eternal life." The twelve realize that Jesus is offering eternal nourishment and that there is no other source. Without Jesus, there's only bread and wine and the constant nagging hunger that carbohydrates and alcohol can't begin to assuage.

Calvin and Peter remind us that Christians starve themselves unless they are continually drawing from the eternal food of Christ. And unless we are truly participating in him, ever seeking his Word and counsel and comfort, spending time in his presence, praying without ceasing, we condemn ourselves to starvation and empty ritual, taking in dry bread and sour wine in a fruitless attempt to fill what Augustine calls the "God-shaped hole in our souls."

So let us eagerly come to the Lord's table, feasting daily on the abundant love and grace he longs to feed us, grafted into his body and engaged in the ministry that he would do in the world. And, like beggars who have hit the mother lode, let us tell all the world of the abundance which we have shared in Christ and invite those starving for meaning and substance and true life into the feast Christ has prepared for the whole world.