The beauty (and unintended pain) of the Lord's Supper

A fantastic statement from Luther, not on the efficacy of the Lord's Supper, though it is that, but on the beauty of the Lord's Supper to be held between communicants, neighbors, in order to build each other up and help in every need. This is why Witness, Mercy, and Life Together matters. All the time. This is why theology matters. This is why the eighth commandment matters. This is why communion matters. All the time. And this is why we often fail. All the time. We sin. But God is good and forgives all our sin. All the time.

"There behold how unbelievably great a thing it is regarding that sacrament when one uses it in the right way, that a man must therein be delivered from death when he correctly perceives it for the great thing that it is.  Reason cannot conceive of it.  Is it not great that the high majesty steps forth for me and gives Himself to me for mine own, thereupon that all saints step forth for me and stand, take upon themselves what is mine and have concern for me, serve and help me?  Thus God places us in the fellowship of Christ and all His chosen; there we have a great consolation where we forsake ourselves.  If I am a sinner, thus Christ stands there and says, "The sinner is mine whom I grab hold of with My holy fingers.  Who will grumble about that?"  Thus my sin falls away and I partake of His righteousness.  Thus we Christians also do with each other, take upon ourselves that of another, so that one person bears the sin and failings of another and serves the other with his piety.  This we don't understand, and if we likewise often hear and understand it, we don't believe it.  And so we retreat ever more and experience no fruit or improvement."

~Martin Luther, "A Sermon on the Lord's Supper," Maundy Thursday, 1523