“Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord” (1 Cor. 11:27).
At least one translation reads “guilty of profaning [enoxos] the body and blood of the Lord.” This is an interesting take on the term enoxos, a word whose base meaning is “guilty.” But there’s defensible reasons for it. In the Old Testament profanation occurs against the holiness of God, with the term “profane” occurring more than thirty times. A prime example is in the case of Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu who offer “profane” fire to God and pay with their lives (Leviticus 10:1-7). At their death God reminds Aaron “by those who come near Me I must be regarded as holy; And before all the people I must be glorified.”
God gives more than mere symbols of His love. He gives us Himself. Holy objects exist all over the Old Testament; hence the reason some scholars call the OT sacramental. It is in the sense we find objects made holy by the Word of God (i.e., the Tent of Meeting, sacrifices, the Ark of the Covenant, priestly garments, the Temple, et al.). Yet the term “sacrament” in the Lutheran Confessions gets a specific definition to mean an element attached to God’s Word with the explicit promise of sins forgiven (Holy Baptism and the Lord’s Supper). The Lord’s Supper is certainly holy, for God Himself comes to us in bread and wine we confess to be His Body and Blood for the forgiveness of sins.
Back to the term enoxos. Two usages of this term stand out. One, in Leviticus 20, a place where severe sins warrant the death penalty, the phrase “his blood is upon him” falls under the Greek term enoxos. In the NT the one who blasphemes the Holy Spirit is “guilty [enoxos] of an eternal sin” (Mark 3:29). Paul’s use of the term falls in line with the Lord’s Supper being something holy. It’s the Holy God Himself coming into the mouths of people who receive it regardless of faith. That is to say, at the Altar one receives what God says. Our faith doesn’t create something holy. That’s God’s work and domain, and it’s necessary we approach His holiness in the manner He prescribes on His terms, not ours.
Leviticus 15:31 reads “thus you shall separate the children of Israel from their uncleanness, lest they die in their uncleanness when they defile My tabernacle that is among them.” Seeing the Lord’s Supper in light of the OT and believing Jesus’ words “this is My Body…this is My blood” makes closed communion a logical, even preferred practice to safeguard people from unworthily encountering God and thus profaning something holy. The OT priest and NT pastor have something in common, then, which is the task of caring for people by protecting them from doing anything to their spiritual detriment.
The Church’s desire is for sinners having Christ and receive Christ in faith, the faith following repentance for sins He has washed by His blood to make us His holy people destined for that Resurrection of the body and life in heaven before the Bread of Life Himself: Jesus.
-By Rev. Ryan J. Ogrodowicz, “You Have a Place at Grace,” 2/23/25
Rev. Ryan J. Ogrodowicz
Grace Lutheran Church - Brenham, Texas
The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod
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