Reading Scripture with the Lens of the Eucharist

“Then he returned to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. . . Jesus said to him, ‘You may go; your son will live.’”

— John 4:46,50 —

While some believe that you derive doctrine from the Bible by reading it, making observations, interpreting those observations, and then formulating doctrine, this approach is wrong. It is actually the other way around; doctrine informs your interpretation. This is why when someone reads about the Baptism of Jesus and observes the presence of the Holy Spirit, The Father, and the Son and interprets this triple representation of God as the heresy of “modalism” or “partialism,” all the theological nerds sound the alarm and decry the person a heretic.

From the very conception of the Church, one of the first controversies is over the appropriate rite that Gentiles must undergo to participate in the Passover Meal (i.e., the Eucharist). Jesus is the Passover Lamb, and so the Passover Meal in the New Covenant is presumed to follow the law laid out in the inspired word of God as given to Moses:

The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “These are the regulations for the Passover meal: “No foreigner may eat it. Any slave you have bought may eat it after you have circumcised him, but a temporary resident or a hired worker may not eat it. . . A foreigner residing among you who wants to celebrate the Lord’s Passover must have all the males in his household circumcised; then he may take part like one born in the land. No uncircumcised male may eat it. The same law applies both to the native-born and to the foreigner residing among you.”

Ex. 12: 43-45, 48-49 (emphasis added)

At the “Council of Jerusalem”, the apostles declare their interpretation of this passage, which explicitly applies to Gentiles/foreigners. They declare that the passage no longer applies to Gentiles the way it did before Christ. The apostles state that God has already approved of the Gentiles because they have received the Holy Spirit.

Now, suppose you’re a sola Scriptura person living back in 33 A.D. There is no New Testament yet. You have just heard about the latest revival happening with some Jewish fisherman named Peter. You check it out. You like his preaching, you think he’s pretty solid. But you’ve been a practicing Jew your whole life. Your parents have taught you the Torah. You know all the history of your people and how seriously God took circumcision. Now, some guy named Peter gets up and says,

“God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted [the Gentiles] by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. He did not discriminate between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith.”

Acts 15:8

How likely are you going to submit to this “new teaching”? How can you say that he’s not contradicting a command? It’s because an event took place, mainly the Holy Spirit descending on both Jews and Gentiles, and this informs the Church’s interpretation of those passages. The same spirit that does not discriminate between Jew and Greek is the same Spirit that is guiding the Church in her formulation of doctrine and her interpretation of scripture.

The Eucharistic Lens

The Catechism of the Catholic Church describes the Eucharist, the body and blood of Jesus veiled under the elements of bread and wine, like this:

In brief, the Eucharist is the sum and summary of our faith: “Our way of thinking is attuend to the Eucharist, and the Eucharist in turn confirms our way of thinking.”

CCC, 1327.

When we look at scripture through the lens of the Eucharist, we read the scripture with the same doctrinal lens as the earliest Christians. If we want to have an “objective” interpretation of scripture, we must interpret scripture in light of the doctrines that have been given to us by the Church and the Tradition passed down from the first Christians.

When we consider our passage today, we realize that we are back in Cana. This is the place where Jesus did his first miracle, changing the “substance” of water to the “substance” of wine, the best wine. This is a clear foreshadowing of the Eucharist, and we will see John foreshadow this more as we go through his Gospel.

John is very interested in the miracles of “change”, “multiplication”, “faith”, and “healing”, all of which are aspects of the Eucharist. The Eucharist provides us with the proper lens through which to read and understand John’s Gospel. To demonstrate this, we will start with the miracle of healing the centurion’s son and then return to the miracle of water turning into wine.

The first clue that there is a connection between the healing of the centurion’s son and the water turning into wine is John’s explicit reference to the miracle at the wedding. The centurion has a shaky faith. Jesus’ first response to him is, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe” (Jn. 4:48). The man proceeds to beg Jesus for healing, and Jesus complies with the centurion’s request, and the text says, “The man believed what Jesus said” (Jn. 4:50). The man returns home and discovered that his son has been healed (Jn. 4:53).

Throughout John’s Gospel, beginning with the Miracle at the Wedding at Cana, we see a recurring theme of faith being the requirement for “true satisfaction”. We see this at the wedding at Cana, with the woman at the well, and concluding with the healing of the centurion’s son. In all three events, the faith of the individuals involved is greatly increased. This is what happens when we receive the Eucharist. The experience is reciprocal. In approaching Christ in the sacrament with faith, upon receiving the sacrament of the Christian faith, our personal faith is increased. This is satisfactory to the soul, which is implied in John’s descriptions of these signs.

At the wedding, water is transformed into wine, and it’s a wine that is extremely satisfying. This is Christ’s first miracle, and it foreshadows Christ’s final miracle before his passion, the institution of the Eucharist. At the Last Supper, Jesus says the bread and wine are his body and blood. At the first miracle, we have water and wine. At the Last Supper, we have the change of wine into blood. At the cross, Christ’s side is pierced, and water and blood flow. The disciples, like the centurion and like you and me, must receive Jesus in faith. This is the food that truly satisfies and ultimately leads to the obedience of faith.

The dialogue with the woman at the well prefigures the water that would flow from his side and also prefigures the rite of Baptism that will replace the Mosiac requirement for circumcision (Ex. 12:43-49). The centurion’s faith reveals that faith is the necessary element for obedience, and ultimately, his belief leads to submission to Christ.

Without the doctrine of the Eucharist, these stories become merely symbols that prefigure other symbols, which prefigure concepts, which ultimately make Christianity more about an intellectual assent rather than participation in the divine. In reality, the Logos became flesh so that we could become part of him. As one priest said tonight at our Parish Mission, “When we consume normal food, it becomes part of us. When we receive the Eucharist, we become part of Christ.” This is eternal life, but this meal can only be received, not by works, but by faith. It is the free gift from God.

— DR