What did Jesus mean when he took bread at the Last Supper and said, ‘Take and eat; this is my body’? What did he mean when he took the cup and said, ‘Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins’? Jesus said something just as shocking a year previously: ‘Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you’ (John 6:53).
Both Roman Catholics and Lutherans try to take Jesus as literally as possible here, holding that the body and blood of Christ are physically present in the bread and wine – so much so that even atheists or Muslims could eat the flesh and blood of Jesus if they took the mass, and so much so that the consecrated host can receive worship as Christ himself. Evangelical and Reformed believers reject this position as it undermines the true humanity of Jesus.
