October 1, 2025: Meaning of Altar

In the English village of Longbridge Deverill, in the County of Wiltshire, stands St. Peter and St. Paul Church. The stone church building, built in 1130, was consecrated by Saint Thomas à Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury.  The stone altar slab bears the 5 consecration crosses, which he himself made. But for two centuries, the stone went missing. For in 1662, the church’s vicar, Rev. William Perry, hid the slab as Cromwell’s soldiers were marching on the village. The Puritans were breaking up the stone altars and replacing them with wooden tables.  Not until 1858 would the slab altar consecrated by Becket be discovered underneath the churchyard path; it is once again in its rightful place.

Altars are found in Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Lutheran, and Anglican churches. Among the Reformed, Baptist, and Anabaptist traditions, a Lord’s table is found instead. The difference is not of construction material but rather the difference in the understanding of the very nature of the Eucharist. Anglicans believe that “the bread which we break is a partaking of the body of Christ, and likewise the cup of blessing is a partaking of the blood of Christ.” (Article XXVIII). When Jesus says, “This is my body…this is my blood”, He means just what He said.

In Judaism, the altar in the courtyard of Solomon’s temple was the focal point of Jewish worship. Here were held the sacrifices of the great feasts and the daily sacrifices. Those sacrifices were brought by the people to God. He consumed the sacrifice. Such sacrifices last occurred in 70 A.D. because the sanctioned place for those sacrifices, the Temple, was destroyed. The Christian altar is actually a reversal of Jewish worship. We have nothing to bring but ourselves. It is Jesus who provides the sacrifice: His Body and Blood. We are partakers of His Body and Blood in the Eucharist.

The Eucharist is our participation in the Incarnation.  Jesus came in flesh and blood as fully a man, though always God. His sacrifice was not a mere symbol but His true suffering and death. By entering into His creation, He was able to destroy sin and Satan’s power. And in His resurrection is the promise of our resurrection. When we eat this bread and drink this cup, we partake in the body and blood of our Lord as a means of His grace.

“For Christ did not enter a holy place made by hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; nor was it that He would offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Holy Place year by year with blood that is not his own. Otherwise, He would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now once at the consummation of the ages He has been revealed to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.” (Hebrews 9:24–26, NASB 2020)