John Calvin Commentary Matthew 26:27

"And he took a cup, and gave thanks, and gave to them, saying, Drink ye all of it;" — Matthew 26:27 (ASV)

Drink you all of it. As it was Christ's design to keep our faith entirely fixed on Himself, so that we might not seek anything apart from Him, He employed two symbols to show that our life is enclosed in Him. This body needs to be nourished and supported by food and drink. Christ, in order to show that He alone is able to fulfill perfectly all that is necessary for salvation, says that He takes the place of food and drink. By this, He gives an astonishing display of His condescension, in thus lowering Himself to the feeble capacity of our flesh for the purpose of invigorating our faith.

All the more detestable, then, is the insolence and sacrilege of the Pope, who has not hesitated to break apart this sacred tie. We learn that the Son of God employed two symbols together to testify to the fullness of life which He bestows on His followers. What right did a mortal man have to separate those things which God had joined together?

Indeed, it appears that the express reason why our Lord commanded all to drink of the cup was to prevent this sacrilege from entering the Church. As to the bread, we read that He simply said, Take, eat. Why does He expressly command them all to drink, and why does Mark explicitly say that they all drank of it, if it were not to guard believers against this wicked novelty? And yet this severe prohibition has not deterred the Pope from venturing to change and violate a law established by the Lord, for he has withheld all the people from using the cup.

To prove that his rage has reason on its side, he alleges that one of the kinds is sufficient, because the flesh includes the blood by concomitancy.¹⁹⁶ On the same pretext, they would be at liberty to set aside the whole of the sacrament, because Christ might equally well make us partakers of Himself without any external aid. But these childish quibbles yield no support to their impiety. For nothing can be more absurd than that believers should, of their own accord, relinquish the aids which the Lord has given, or allow themselves to be deprived of them. Therefore, nothing can be more intolerable than this wicked mangling of the mystery.

¹⁹⁶ “Per concomitaniam, comme disent ses supposts; c’est à dire, pource que l’un ne peut estre sans l’autre;” — “;” — “By concomitancy, as its partisans talk; that is, because the one cannot exist without the other.” as its partisans talk; that is, because the one cannot exist without the other.”