| 23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. |
Now, you can not be guilty of sinning against the BODY and BLOOD of the Lord if you actually only Bread, no matter how symbolic. This is confirmed in Paul's (1 Cor. 10:16)
27 So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord.
28 Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup.
29 For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves.
How clear can Paul get? "The bread IS a participation in the body of Christ" and "who eats the bread... will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord" This is not just mere bread and wine anymore. This is the body and blood of Christ.
6 Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ?
You cannot say that this was just bread and wine of that this is a metphor for coming and having faith in the Lord or some kind of metphor for believing in Christ because of the reaction of the Jews and the very language -- to eat one's flesh and drink the blood means to do violence on some one. You see it even in Hindi where a threat is "Mein tera Khoon pie jaongaa" or "I will drink your blood" -- and this is among vegetarians! To drink a persons blood means a serious threat of injury.
53 Jesus said to them, “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.
54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.
55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.
56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them.
57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.
58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.
5 When they went across the lake, the disciples forgot to take bread.So, Jesus DOES indicate when it is a metaphor and when it isn't and John 6 is NOT a metaphor -- He solemnly repeats it TWICE and even when the disciples leave, does not call back "oh, it's just a metaphor for fellowship"
6 “Be careful,” Jesus said to them. “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
7 They discussed this among themselves and said, “It is because we didn’t bring any bread.”
8 Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked, “You of little faith, why are you talking among yourselves about having no bread?
9 Do you still not understand? Don’t you remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered?
10 Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered?
11 How is it you don’t understand that I was not talking to you about bread? But be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
12 Then they understood that he was not telling them to guard against the yeast used in bread, but against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
Prior to placing faith in Christ, God the Father must draw us to Him, then He receives as we place faith in Him.
Without first being drawn to Him, the exercise is merely man made, an academic imagination.
Start by placing faith through Christ first, then consider the Eucharist.
Do not place faith first in the Church, then in what they provide to have access to God, but first in Christ, then in what God provides.
Do this in remembrance of Him. When we are doing this in remembrance of Him, we are exercising our mind, our soul.
When we think upon Him, His work at the Cross, and confess our sins to Him, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. We partake of the Eucharist while in fellowship with Him, not as a method of returning to fellowship, but the same process also occurs whenever we return to fellowship with Him.
Just as when we break bread and eat it, we are focusing on the Body being broken, namely our Lord Christ Jesus in the flesh, who gave Himself to be broken on the Cross and we consume, take part, focusing on accepting what He provided on the Cross, and intake from Him, the Bread of Life, being now part of the same Body.
Next we partake of the cup, the blood of sacrificial atonement for all sin by His death on the Cross, the New Covenant in His blood, his death on the Cross, which has paid the debt for sin, propitiated the wrath of God, and reconciled man to God.
We are not focused upon how His wrath is upon us, but how Christ and ONLY Christ has paid for that debt, such that we no longer are the object of His wrath.
While we are sinners, our perspective of God is facing His Perfect Justice, but in returning to fellowship with Him, our perspective is from the point of view of Perfect Righteousness,....through faith in Christ.
If we slip and approach Him as though we are guilty, fearing His wrath, we are not approaching Him from the perspective of faith in what Christ has already done on the Cross.