May 17, 2021
Dear friends,
Imagine for a moment that you are desperately hungry. You could eat a horse. You’re starving, even. You have a hard day of work ahead of you, and if you don’t get some food in your body, you’ll collapse before the day is done.
Think of how glad you’d be if someone showed up and fixed you an enormous breakfast. Eggs, bacon, fresh fruit, pancakes, coffee.
Even better, imagine this is not just some random person, but a 5-star chef. These are the best eggs, bacon, pancakes, fruit and coffee you’ve ever seen. He made them just for you, and he said: “Eat up!”
You’d have to be out of your mind to skip this meal. It’s the best meal you’ve ever had, and it is just what you need to make it through the day without fainting.
Even if you weren’t really that hungry to begin with, you’d be hard-pressed to say, “No thanks.” The meal itself would make you hungry. Maybe you’ve had a meal like that before. You weren’t hungry, but then you saw the spread and your appetite showed up.
Really, there are just a few reasons why you might not eat. Maybe you’d rather find a vending machine and gorge yourself on little bags of Doritos and cans of Pepsi. Maybe you don’t trust the chef – you think there’s some catch or he’s out to poison you. Maybe you don’t feel hungry, even though everyone can see that you’re malnourished and sickly, that you’re not going to last much longer.
This is how it is with the Lord’s Supper. It is the richest food that ever was – Jesus’ own body and blood, which forgives your sins. He sets a table before you, the cup overflows, and he says, “Eat. Drink.” He looks at you in your sin and weakness, and he says, “Let me nourish you with the bread from heaven. This will restore your soul.” He sees your enemy, the devil, prowling around like a lion, and he says, “Let me strengthen you by this feast, so that you can endure temptation and fight back against the devil by faith.”
Anyone who does not desire this meal must be a fool. Perhaps he would rather gorge himself on the junk food of false comfort and the things that keep him busy in this life. Perhaps he does not trust his good and gracious Savior who wants to give him life, abundantly and freely. Perhaps he does not feel sick with sin and plagued by death, even though everyone can see that he’s never going to make it out of here alive.
For such a person we should pray that the Holy Spirit would give a hunger and thirst for righteousness!
And you, when you find that you are cold towards the Sacrament, when you find that you do not desire this food, that is all the more reason for you to come. For surely you have believed a lie, you have believed that you are quite fine on your own. Repent of your false belief and receive forgiveness, life, and salvation through the body and blood of Jesus!
To awaken this desire for the Lord’s Supper is our main goal in teaching our children, for desiring the Lord’s Supper is nothing other than hearing, believing, and obeying Jesus himself. A desire for the Lord’s Supper comes from an understanding of sin and its wages. It comes from trust in the mercy of Jesus. It comes by the Holy Spirit through God’s Word.
When we teach our children about sin and grace, about forgiveness and the new life, they will desire all on their own to eat and drink Jesus’ body and blood just as readily as they desire to dig into a delicious meal set before them after a hard day of play.
If they do not desire it, if they are not chomping at the bit to be fed by Jesus, perhaps we are underselling it. Perhaps we have not spoken highly enough of Communion. Perhaps we have not shown them how precious it is. Perhaps we ourselves have taught them to crave junk food instead.
Let’s rather talk all the time about this wonderful gift! Let’s show them that this is a meal not to be missed! Let’s tell them what it does for us and how it helps us every day! Let’s teach them when they sin that the body and blood of Jesus were given and shed on the cross to forgive their sin, the same body and blood that we receive in Communion! Let us encourage them to hear the words of Jesus, to believe and obey!
God bless and keep you,
Pr. Buchs