In this Supper we partake of bread and wine, representatives of the body and blood of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. This is representative of His sacrifice, of course, but it is also important to note that this rite underscores the fact that Jesus took on a body.
He did not do this right before His crucifixion, but rather three decades or more before. When Gabriel announced to Mary that she was going to conceive, he was marking the beginning of the Incarnation. That the point where Jesus took on a body. That was the point when blood began to flow in his veins.
His body was a true body. Jesus was no apparition, He was not a ghostly manifestation. Neither did He become human by just taking on the appearance of a man. The Lord was the Lord Incarnate—when He was conceived in His mother’s womb, He lived through the entire human experience.
He did not relinquish His Deity in this—not at all. But His Deity and humanity, perfectly combined in one person, were not co-mingled or confused. We must say that Jesus was God, and we must say that Jesus was a man, but we must never say that Deity is humanity. This is, of course, a great mystery.
But fortunately, it is not a mystery we are supposed to solve. Rather, we are supposed to eat and drink it. That is something we can do. Christ has taken us into His body, and we, here, are taking Him into our bodies. We are being knit together with Him and in Him, and God uses our faith to accomplish this great work.
So don’t puzzle over it. Don’t quarrel with fellow Christians over it—that really defeats the purpose. Don’t separate over that which is drawing you closer together. Come in faith, and let God do what God is doing. And remember, that at the very foundation of what God is doing in the world is the Incarnation—the point where He gave a body and blood to Jesus. And now, here, in a different way, Jesus is giving body and blood to us.