På Martin W.Hansens nyeste tjenestes websted “Gode nyheder for lutheranere”, kan man læse og høre en gengivelse af et foredrag af en Joseph Mizzi om Johannesevangeliet kapitel 6 og nadveren.
Foredraget synes at forudsætte, at lutheranere tror, at Johannesevangeliet kapitel 6 (særligt vers 48-58) handler om nadveren. Det er dog interessant, at det lutherske bekendelsesskrift, Konkordieformlen, er ganske enig med Mizzi i, at Johannes 6 ikke handler særskilt om nadveren. Den spisen og drikken, der tales om i Johannesevangeliet kapitel 6 er troen, som stoler på evangeliet, hvad enten dette gives i ordet, dåben eller nadveren.
Mizzis/Martin W. Hansens eksegese af teksten er altså ikke så langt fra sandheden, som den kunne være.
Problemet er den fejlslutning, at fordi Joh 6 handler om en åndelig indtagelse af Jesu legeme og blod ved troen, så findes der ikke en legemlig modtagelse af Jesu legeme og blo med munde.
Det er en grundlæggende forkert hermeneutik, at ville bygge en lære på skriftsteder, der handler om noget andet. Desværre er det typisk for reformert kristendom. Faktisk skyder denne argumentation netop den klassiske reformerte indvending mod nadveren i sænk. For når Johannes 6 ikke handler om nadveren, er den heller ikke relevant for læren om nadveren.
Med andre ord kunne min replik til artiklen i al korthed have lydt: Ja, og hvad så?
Men det underliggende problem for Martin W. Hansen og andre evangelikale er den påstand, at lutheranere gør nådemidlerne til gerninger, hvormed vi fortjener frelsen. Det er ikke sandt. Hvad der derimod er sandt, er at evangelikale gør troen til en gerning, hvormed de tror at kunne hente syndernes forladelse ned fra himlen i stedet for at søge den i de midler, hvori Gud uddeler syndsforladelsens gav (se mere her).
Du kan se en engelsk oversættelse af Konkordieformlens behandling af nadverspørgsmålet her. Jeg har citeret de relevante punkter nedenfor:
61] There is, therefore, a two-fold eating of the flesh of Christ, one spiritual, of which Christ treats especially John 6:54, which occurs in no other way than with the Spirit and faith, in the preaching and meditation of the Gospel, as well as in the Lord’s Supper, and by itself is useful and salutary, and necessary at all times for salvation to all Christians; without which spiritual participation also the sacramental or oral eating in the Supper is not only not salutary, but even injurious and damning [a cause of condemnation].
62] But this spiritual eating is nothing else than faith, namely, to hear God’s Word (wherein Christ, true God and man, is presented to us, together with all benefits which He has purchased for us by His flesh given into death for us, and by His blood shed for us, namely, God’s grace, the forgiveness of sins, righteousness, and eternal life), to receive it with faith and appropriate it to ourselves, and in all troubles and temptations firmly to rely, with sure confidence and trust, and to abide in the consolation that we have a gracious God, and eternal salvation on account of the Lord Jesus Christ. [He who hears these things related from the Word of God, and in faith receives and applies; them to himself, and relies entirely upon this consolation (that we have God reconciled and life eternal on account of the Mediator, Jesus Christ),-he, I say, who with true confidence rests in the Word of the Gospel in all troubles and temptations, spiritually eats the body of Christ and drinks His blood.]
63] The other eating of the body of Christ is oral or sacramental, when the true, essential body and blood of Christ are also orally received and partaken of in the Holy Supper, by all who eat and drink the consecrated bread and wine in the Supper-by the believing as a certain pledge and assurance that their sins are surely forgiven them, and Christ dwells and is efficacious in them, but by the unbelieving for their judgment and condemnation, 64] as the words of the institution by Christ expressly declare, when at the table and during the Supper He offers His disciples natural bread and natural wine, which He calls His true body and true blood, at the same time saying: Eat and drink. For in view of the circumstances this command evidently cannot be understood otherwise than of oral eating and drinking, however, not in a gross, carnal, Capernaitic, but in a supernatural, incomprehensible way; 65] to which afterwards the other command adds still another and spiritual eating, when the Lord Christ says further: This do in remembrance of Me, where He requires faith [which is the spiritual partaking of Christ’s body).