A Book Review from Books At a Glance
by Ryan M. McGraw
Christ instituted baptism and the Lord’s Supper to unite Christians (1 Cor. 12:13). Yet sadly, we have seen the opposite effect throughout church history, sporadically in the Middle Ages and pointedly following the Protestant Reformation. While differences will persist, those existing between Protestants are smaller than those between Protestants and Roman Catholics, though all Christians have generally recognized that Christ is present in the Supper in some sense, making bare memorial views an eccentric outlier. In this light, Reformed Christians engaging a Lutheran book on the Lord’s Supper carries both risk and promise. Risk in that we can scan a book like this one looking for expected differences and failing to hear points of commonality; yet promise in that we might learn some things that both reinforce and enhance how we understand the sacraments. This non-controversial reflective and devotional treatment of the Lord’s Supper is unitive rather than divisive (8). While real differences between Lutheran and Reformed explanations about how Christ is present in the Eucharist remain, Kleinig allows them to remain in the background, offering believers an edifying series of biblical reflections on how Christ presents himself to us in this sacrament. This book is an excellent introduction to the Lord’s Supper that should help Reformed believers listen to and learn from a Lutheran pastor to promote fuller communion with the Triune God and his church through the sacrament.
Every chapter begins with a leading Scripture text and concludes with a hymn, aiming to give readers “a foretaste of their glory in heaven” (10). In twelve concise, readable, and well-illustrated chapters, Kleinig leads readers from adopting the right orientation to meeting Christ in the Supper, through the significances of meals in Scripture, the institution of the Supper, the elements and order of administration, Christ’s self-giving at a “sacrificial banquet,” the meaning of the “new covenant,” Jesus as the host of the meal, personal engagement with Christ through remembrance, the Spirit leading us to share in Christ’s life, a foretaste of heaven on earth, and assurance of full remission of sins in the Savior. Though chapter eleven directly tackles the Lord’s Supper as a foretaste of heaven, the entire book emphasizes that coming to the Lord’s Supper is less like coming to a funeral than it is enjoying an inheritance as adopted children (e.g., 50). Taken together, the chapters progressively create a devotional bent toward Christ in heaven, doing good to the souls of all readers.
In addition to persistently driving Christians’ hope towards seeing Christ in glory, several other useful features stand out in this work. Seamlessly leading readers to the Lord’s Supper through Christ fulfilling all the Old Testament feasts, he demonstrates that the Supper is “the meal of meals, the feast to end all feasts” (20). Doing so greatly aids readers in viewing the Supper as pointing to Christ as the fulfillment of all of God’s promises throughout Scripture. Chapter six also showcases an oft-neglected fact about covenant theology. Sometimes it is common for people to reject Reformed covenant theology as a historical innovation. How can covenant theology be true if the church allegedly never taught it prior to the Reformation? However, we should never forget that the Lord’s Supper has always forced Christians to develop some kind of covenant theology because the words, “new covenant,” appear in Christ’s words of institution. Though Kleinig’s narrative does not present the same degree of unity in the covenant narrative of Scripture that Reformed theology does (e.g., 66-67), he shows that the Lord’s Supper pulls Christians together at the point that all of God’s promises are fulfilled and summed up in Christ’s death, inaugurating the new covenant. Kleinig’s treatment of six feasts in Luke, culminating in a seventh with Christ on the Emmaus Road (chapter seven), brilliantly illustrates Christ’s gradual self-revelation through a multi-stage story. Showcasing various aspects of Christ’s person and generosity as Messiah in each feast, Kleinig notes, “All these meals that Luke records in his gospel need to be taken together” (84). They climax in what he takes to be the first instance of the regular practice of the Lord’s Supper in Luke 24:13-35 (80), leading Christians to pursue regular fellowship with Christ at the Table as they too anticipate the marriage supper of the Lamb. Such thought-provoking insights direct readers to engage the biblical narrative deeply as they contemplate how and why Christ instituted the sacrament.
Kleing’s Lutheran view of Christ’s presence in the Eucharist is veiled, subtle, and ecumenical. The closest he comes to an overt statement is, “It did not just resemble his blood or represent it; it was his blood. His blood was in the cup and given with the wine” (63). Though Lutherans ordinarily dislike the term, this sounds like “consubstantiation,” in which Christ’s physical body and blood occupy the same space as physical bread and wine simultaneously. Yet most of the time, his statements are broad enough to make room for other viewpoints, such as, “The same body that Jesus sacrificed for us is given to us in the Lord’s Supper” (93). Exemplifying a Reformed summary of a real, though not physical, presence of Christ’s body and blood in the Supper, Westminster Larger Catechism 170 states,
The body and blood of Christ are not corporally or carnally present in, with, or under the bread and wine in the Lord’s Supper; and yet are spiritually present to the faith of the receiver, no less truly and really than the elements themselves are to their outward senses; so they that worthily communicate in the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, do therein feed upon the body and blood of Christ, not after a corporal or carnal, but in a spiritual manner; yet truly and really, while by faith they receive and apply unto themselves Christ crucified, and all the benefits of his death (emphasis added).
Christ being “spiritually present,” Reformed Christians do well to remember this statement asserts that Christ’s “body and blood” are offered to us in the sacrament “truly and really.” This fact picks up on Paul’s description of the Supper as koinonia, or fellowship with or participation in Christ’s body and blood: “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?” (1 Cor. 10:16, ESV). If Christ were not present in the word, then why should we hear it; and if we did not receive Christ through fellowship with or participation in his body and blood in the Supper, then how could it become an “effectual means of salvation?” (WLC 161). Kleinig’s ecumenical depiction of receiving Christ in the Supper should draw us together at this point rather than drive us apart. Reformed and Lutherans may differ over how they explain Christ’s presence in the Eucharist, but they should all seek and expect his presence through faith as they look forward to sitting at the table with him in the future with sight.
This important little book shows how Christ designed the Lord’s Supper to be a means of grace. Just as we need to hear Christ’s voice regularly in preaching, so we need to feast on him regularly in eating and drinking. Though Kleinig does not address how frequently the church should administer the Lord’s Supper (weekly, monthly, or otherwise), properly grasping the Lord’s Supper should make us wonder why the sacrament is not integral to weekly worship in most Reformed churches. Reformed Christianity has more compelling strengths, in my view, than any other branch of the Christian church. Yet no movement in historic Christianity is without weaknesses. We should recognize that administering the Supper less than weekly is eccentric in Christian history. Though the sacraments are adjuncts to the word, and sacramental signs mean nothing apart from the word, Kleinig shows by implication why we should want the sacrament frequently along with the word. Regardless of how often we receive the Supper, he leads us through the sacrament Christward and heavenward via edifying and thoughtful biblical reflection.
Ryan M. McGraw
Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary