Is communion just symbolic?
Question 09064
The question of whether communion is “just” symbolic often arises from a sense that something deeper ought to be happening at the Lord’s Table than the passing of bread and grape juice. Behind it lies a genuine instinct: if the Lord’s Supper were nothing more than a nostalgic re-enactment, it would be difficult to explain why Paul treats its abuse with such gravity. Yet the answer is not to abandon the symbolic understanding but to recover a proper sense of what a biblical symbol actually is.
What Jesus Said at the Table
The words of institution are recorded in the Synoptic Gospels and in Paul’s account in 1 Corinthians 11. Jesus took bread, broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me” (1 Corinthians 11:24). He then took the cup and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me” (1 Corinthians 11:25). The phrase “in remembrance of me” is central. The Greek anamnesis carries the sense of an active, deliberate calling to mind, not a vague sentimentality but a purposeful recollection of Christ’s death and its significance. The Lord’s Supper is a memorial, instituted by Jesus Himself as the means by which His church would remember and proclaim His death until He returns.
The question is what “This is my body” means. Roman Catholicism takes it as a literal transformation of the elements (transubstantiation). Lutheranism takes it as a real, physical presence alongside the elements (consubstantiation). The memorial view, which Baptists and many evangelicals hold, understands “is” in the same way it functions throughout Scripture when Jesus says “I am the door” (John 10:9) or “I am the vine” (John 15:5). No one supposes Jesus is a literal door made of wood. The bread represents His body; the cup represents His blood. The elements are signs, not the things they signify.
Why “Just” Symbolic Sells the Ordinance Short
The word “just” is where the problem lies. In Scripture, symbols are not lesser realities. They are God-appointed means of conveying truth and engaging faith. The Passover lamb was symbolic; no Israelite thought the lamb was literally the angel of death passing over. Yet no Israelite thought the Passover was trivial. It was the God-appointed sign of deliverance, commanded to be observed perpetually, and freighted with the memory of what God had done. The Lord’s Supper stands in that same tradition. Jesus instituted it at Passover, deliberately connecting His death to the Exodus deliverance and establishing a new memorial for a new covenant.
Paul’s language in 1 Corinthians 10:16 speaks of “participation” (koinonia) in the blood and body of Christ. This is not the language of empty ritual. The bread and cup are not transformed into something they are not, but neither are they bare tokens with no spiritual weight. They are the appointed means by which the believing community actively participates in the benefits of Christ’s death, publicly identifies with Him, and proclaims the gospel to one another and to the watching world. The elements do not become the body and blood of Christ, but in taking them, the believer is genuinely participating in what Christ’s body and blood accomplished.
The Gravity of the Ordinance
Paul’s warning against unworthy participation (1 Corinthians 11:27-30) confirms that the Lord’s Supper is no empty ceremony. If it were “just” symbolic in the dismissive sense, it would be difficult to explain why God disciplined the Corinthians with illness and death for treating it carelessly. The seriousness of the ordinance flows not from the elements themselves but from what they represent and the relationship they express. To eat the bread and drink the cup while treating the body of Christ with contempt, whether through unconfessed sin or through division within the fellowship, is to contradict the very thing the ordinance proclaims.
So, now what?
The Lord’s Supper is symbolic, and that is not a lesser category. It is a God-given, Christ-instituted, Spirit-empowered act of remembrance, proclamation, and participation. The bread and cup do not become the body and blood of Jesus. They do not need to. What they do is far richer than any physical transformation could achieve: they engage the faith of every believer at the table, drawing each one into active, personal communion with the crucified and risen Lord and with every other believer who shares in His death. The proper response is not to wish for something more but to come to the table with the reverence, the self-examination, and the gratitude that such an ordinance deserves.
“For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” 1 Corinthians 11:26