On Communion

The Holy Supper is no common meal nor is it the banquet of an earthly king.  But, here we have, placed before us, the holy mystery of the body and blood of Christ, in which we are to participate.  Certainly, then, a worthy preparation is needful, that we may not, unworthily eating of it, find death instead of life and receive judgment instead of mercy.

How the holy patriarch trembles, how he fears, although so remarkable for the strength of his faith, when the Son of God, in human form, appears to him and announces the impending destruction of Sodom (Genesis 18.2).  But, here, the Lamb of God is set forth before us, and that not curiously to be gazed upon, but to be tasted and eaten.  When Uzziah rashly and inconsiderately drew near to the Ark of the Covenant, the Lord immediately smote him with leprosy (2 Chronicles 26.16).  What wonder that he who eateth of this bread and drinketh of this wine unworthily should eat and drink to his condemnation?  For, here, is the true ark of the covenant, of which the old was only a type.

From: Sacred Meditations by Johann Gerhard; translated from the Latin by C. W. Heisler; reprint (Malone, TX: Repristination Press, 1998), pp. 108-109 (from Meditation 20).  Reprinted from – Philadelphia: Lutheran Publication Society (1896).  Originally published in 1606.

Johann Gerhard (1582-1637) was a German Lutheran theologian, pastor, and author.

 

The Flesh of Christ is Life to the Soul

He is the true fountain of life.  Whosoever drinks of the water that Jesus will give him, it shall be, in him, a well of water springing up into eternal life (John 4.14).  “Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters, and he who has no money, come, buy and eat” (Isaiah 55.1).  Let all those who are athirst come, and you come, O my thirsty soul, who is tormented with the scorching heat of your sins.  What if you have no money, no merit of your own, to offer?  Then hasten all the more to this refreshing fountain.  If you have no merit of your own, then hasten all the more eagerly to the saving merit of Christ, your Savior.  Fly there, then, and buy without money and without price.  Here is the place of rest for Christ and the soul, from which our sins may not deter us nor will our merits help us to attain it.  But, what can our own merits do for us?  “Why do you spend money for that which is not bread and your labor for that which does not satisfy?,” says the prophet (Isaiah 55.2).  We cannot satisfy our souls by our good works nor purchase divine grace by our own merits.

From: Sacred Meditations by Johann Gerhard; translated from the Latin by C. W. Heisler; reprint (Malone: Repristination Press, 1998), p. 101.  The quotation is from Meditation 18, “The Saving Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ.”  Originally published as Meditationes Sacrae in 1606.  The Repristination Press volume is a reprint of an 1896 edition published at Philadelphia by the Lutheran Publication Society.

Johann Gerhard (1582-1637) was a German Lutheran theologian.  He was a professor at the University of Jena from 1616 until his death.  His major work is the Loci Theologici (1621), a complete exposition of Lutheran theology.