A Church History Series: Through the Lens of Today - Eucharist

Eucharist: Real Presence, Covenant, and the Faith of the Ancient Church

From the earliest days of Christianity, the Eucharist has stood at the very center of Christian worship. Far from being merely symbolic, the historic Christian faith has consistently affirmed the Real Presence of Christ in the Lord’s Supper—that Christ is truly and substantially present in, with, and under the bread and wine. This is not metaphor, not poetry, and not psychological symbolism. It is sacrament: God acting through created means to give His people sanctifying grace.

Only in the last few centuries did some groups begin treating the Eucharist as symbolic only.

Who Affirms This Historic View?

The Real Presence in the Eucharist has been taught across the Christian world from the beginning and continues today in:

• The Apostles and apostolic fathers

• Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches

• Oriental Orthodox Churches

• Lutheran, Anglican, Presbyterian, Methodist, and Reformed traditions

Who rejects it?

Groups arising 1,600, 1,800, or even 2,000 years after Christ’s lifetime: Interpret Holy Communion as merely symbolic or memorialist, rather than the Real Presence and a means of grace.

This raises an unavoidable question:

Did God give 17th–19th-century Christians a revelation about The Eucharist that He withheld from the Apostles and their successors for nearly two millennia?

To support the idea that Holy Communion is merely a symbolic act, one must assume precisely that—and disregard the consistent witness of the early church, which was far closer to the apostles in language, culture, and teaching.

Logical Implications of Rejecting the Real Presence

To claim the Eucharist is only symbolic, one must accept a startling implication:

• The apostles misunderstood Jesus.

• Their own disciples misunderstood them.

• The entire global Church misunderstood the Eucharist for nearly two millennia.

• Only post-Reformation Western thinkers finally “got it right.”

  
  

This is historically and linguistically implausible. The early Church Fathers lived in the culture of the New Testament, spoke its languages, and received the apostles’ teachings directly. They unanimously affirmed that the Eucharist is not a symbol.

Luke 10:16

¹⁶ “He who hears you hears me, and he who rejects you rejects me, and he who rejects me rejects him who sent me.”

Furthermore, after His resurrection Jesus breathed on the apostles and said:

“Receive the Holy Spirit.” (John 20:22)

This impartation prepared them for teaching at Pentecost, the writing of the New Testament, for the establishment of Christ’s first churches, and for training their successors. These Holy Spirit-guided apostles, and the Church that they built unanimously understood Christ’s words—“This is My Body...This is My Blood"—literally.

The Real Presence in Scripture

1. The Words of Institution

Jesus’ words are unequivocal:

“This is My Body…This is My Blood.”

(Mark 14:22–24)

He does not say, “This represents My body.”

The grammar is simple.

“is” means “is”

2. Passover Typology

The Eucharist fulfills the Passover.

In the Passover meal:

• The lamb is slain.

• The lamb is eaten.

• The Cup of Redemption is drank from.

Jesus explicitly connects Himself to the Passover Lamb:

“This is My blood of the covenant, poured out for many.”

Just as the blood of the Passover lamb covered Israel, the blood of Christ covers believers. And the Passover lamb was not merely observed—it was consumed. The antitype demands fulfillment.

When 21st-Century American Christians hear the word sacrifice, they often think only of the killing of the animal. But there are a few stages.

Old Testament sacrifice:

• Offertory aspect:

  • People bring the thing to be offered (to the priest)

  • The priest presents the thing to be offered (to God)

• Killing of the animal

• Eating of the animal

In the Passover Festival, the eating of the lamb is explicitly included as a part of the Passover sacrifice. With the sacrifice, it's not enough that the animal dies. To incorporate the sacrifice of the lamb to yourself, you had to actually eat the flesh of the lamb. (Not just a symbol of the lamb, or a memory of the lamb.)

• According to the Mosaic Law, a Jewish family with limited means was not required to supply a lamb of their own. Families were permitted to share a lamb provided by someone else.

• So imagine your neighbor supplied a lamb, brought it to be killed, and offered it as the Passover sacrifice. You had no role in providing it, nor in killing it. Up to this point, you haven’t contributed anything. How, then, does that sacrifice become connected to you?

BY EATING THE FLESH!

Christ's sacrifice:

• Offertory: Last Supper

  • Jesus offers His body and blood "Take, eat..."

• Killing: Good Friday. Death on cross

• Eating: Holy Communion

So, by eating the Lamb's body and blood (Holy Communion), we are receiving Him and participating in His sacrifice on the cross.

3. Participation, Not Symbolism

Paul writes:

“Is not the cup… a participation in the blood of Christ?”

(1 Corinthians 10:16)

Participation (koinōnia) means real sharing, not symbol.

4. Consequences for Receiving Unworthily

Paul warns:

Whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup unworthily is guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.

(1 Corinthians 11:27)

This is the language of homicide in Scripture.

To be “guilty of blood” means to be guilty of shedding actual blood—not a mere symbol. Paul says that to partake unworthily is to be guilty of Christ’s body and blood. That only makes sense if Christ’s body and blood are truly present.

If someone shoots a photograph of a person, they are not “guilty of blood.” If someone shoots the real person, they are.

Symbolic objects and mementos cannot be “sinned against” in this way.

5. Jesus’ Bread of Life Discourse (John 6)

This is Christ’s longest and clearest teaching on the Eucharist (John 6:25-70).

When the Jews ask:

“How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

Jesus does not correct them. He intensifies His teaching:

• “My flesh is real food.”

• “My blood is real drink.”

• “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."

  • Here, Jesus is referencing Old Testament teaching

• “The one who feeds on me will live because of me.”

  
  

This is not metaphor.

Jesus lets disciples walk away from following Him, rather than softening His meaning.

John 6 → Leviticus 17

In Jesus’ Bread of Life Discourse, He was referencing their Old Testament teachings on the role of blood and atonement, soul, and life. Leviticus 17:11 is a clear illustration of this. See clear connection below:

John 6:53-56

53 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; 54 he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. 56 He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.

Leviticus 17:11

11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it for you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement, by reason of the life.

Again, this is the language of physical sacrifice, not metaphor.

The Early Church Understood This Perfectly

The apostolic Church Fathers—living within a generation of the apostles—taught:

• The bread is the body of Christ

• The wine is the blood of Christ

• Participation in the Eucharist is participation in Christ Himself

• Receiving the Eucharist unworthily brings judgment

  
  

This is not a medieval invention. It is the original Christian teaching. Christ’s body and blood are really present “In, with, and under” the bread and wine.

Conclusion: The Eucharist Is the Heart of Christian Worship

The Real Presence of Christ in Holy Communion is not an optional idea. It is the faith of the ancient Church. It is rooted in Scripture, in covenantal theology, in Jewish Passover typology, and in the very words of Christ Himself.

The Eucharist is:

• Christ’s body and blood

• Given for the life of the world

• A real participation in Christ

• A means of grace

• A covenant meal that unites believers with God and one another

  
  

To reduce this sacred mystery to mere symbolism is to step outside the stream of historic Christian faith and into a much newer, distinctly modern reinterpretation—one unknown to the apostles, the early Church, and the global Christian tradition for nearly two millennia.

Read The Early Church Fathers in Their Own Words:

***Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist***

Ignatius of Antioch (Taught by John and Paul. 2nd Bishop at Antioch (successor of Peter))

I have no taste for corruptible food, not for the pleasures of this life. I desire the bread of God…which is the flesh of Jesus Christ…

(Letter to the Romans [A.D. 110])

Ignatius of Antioch (Taught by John and Paul. 2nd Bishop at Antioch (successor of Peter))

They [who are of a different opinion] abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they confess not the Eucharist to be the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ…It is fitting, therefore, that you should keep aloof from such persons, and not to speak of them either in private or in public, but to give heed to the prophets, and above all, to the Gospel, in which the passion [of Christ] has been revealed to us, and the resurrection has been fully proved. But avoid all divisions, as the beginning of evils.

(Letter to the Smyrnaeans [A.D. 110])

Justin Martyr

As we have been taught, the food which has been made into the Eucharist by the Eucharistic prayer [Christ’s words of institution] set down by him…is both the flesh and the blood of that incarnated Jesus.

(First Apology [A.D. 155])

Irenaeus (Taught by Polycarp, who was taught by John)

If the Lord were from other than the Father, how could he rightly take bread, which is of the same creation as our own, and confess it to be his body and affirm that the mixture in the cup is his blood?

(Against Heresies [A.D. 189])

Clement of Alexandria

‘Eat my flesh,’ [Jesus] says, ‘and drink my blood.’ The Lord supplies us with these intimate nutrients. He delivers over his flesh and pours out his blood, and nothing is lacking for the growth of his children.

(The Instructor [A.D. 202])

Origen of Alexandria

Formerly, in an obscure way, there was manna for food; now, however, in full view, there is the true food, the flesh of the Word of God, as he himself says: ‘My flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink’.

(Homilies on Numbers [A.D. 248])

Cyril of Jerusalem

The bread and the wine of the Eucharist before the holy invocation of the adorable Trinity were simple bread and wine, but the invocation having been made, the bread becomes the body of Christ and the wine the blood of Christ.

(Catechetical Lectures [A.D. 350])

Augustine of Hippo

What you see is the bread and the chalice, that is what your own eyes report to you. But what your faith obliges you to accept is that the bread is the body of Christ and the chalice is the blood of Christ.

(Sermons [A.D. 411])

Theodore of Mopsuestia

When [Christ] gave the bread he did not say, ‘This is the symbol of my body,’ but, ‘This is my body’.

(Catechetical Homilies [A.D. 405])

Cyprian of Carthage

He [Paul] threatens, moreover, the stubborn and forward, and denounces them, saying, ‘Whosoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily, is guilty of the body and blood of the Lord’ [1 Cor 11:27]…violence is done to his body and blood; and they sin now against their Lord more with their hand and mouth then when they denied their Lord.

(The Lapsed [A.D. 251])

Cyril of Jerusalem

Do not, therefore, regard the bread and wine as simply that; for they are, according to the Master’s declaration, the body and blood of Christ. Even though the senses suggest to you the other, let faith make you firm. Do not judge in this matter by taste, but be fully assured by the faith…

(Catechetical Lectures [A.D. 350])

Gregory of Nysa

The bread again is at first common bread, but when the sacramental action consecrates it, it is called, and becomes, the Body of Christ.

(On the Baptism of Christ [A.D. 395])

Hilary of Poitiers

As to the verity of the flesh and blood there is no room left for doubt. For now both from the declaration of the Lord Himself and our own faith, it is verily flesh and verily blood.

(On the Trinity [A.D. 359])

St Ambrose of Milan

Perhaps you may be saying, ‘I see something else; how can you assure me that I am receiving the body of Christ?’ It but remains for us to prove it. And how many are the examples we might use! . . . Christ is in that sacrament, because it is the body of Christ.

(The Mysteries [A.D. 390])

J.N.D Kelly

Eucharistic teaching…was in general unquestioningly realist…the consecrated bread and wine were taken to be, and were treated and designated as, the Saviour’s body and blood.

(Early Christian Doctrines [A.D. 1950])