Remember
Introduction
Last week we studied some of the terms describing the Lord’s Supper and the attitudes we should have while partaking of it (LINK). We also looked at a word picture describing what happens during communion. It is as if we were at a train station and the past comes rushing in on one track, the future comes in on another track, and at the table together we acknowledge both in the present.
Through the rest of our course we will look at some key words that relate to the Lord’s Supper. In this lesson we will focus on the word REMEMBER. Jesus used this word in the designation of the bread and fruit of the vine as special elements. Remember is a significant term for us to consider.
1. REMEMBER - a connection with the Hebrew Bible.
The meal is a central motif in the Bible, particularly in connection with God’s salvation. (Smith)
Garden. The Biblical story begins with food: The first human parents were invited to eat; and it was in their eating that they chose to disobey.
Passover. Hays: “According to Exodus 12:14, Passover is to be ‘a day of remembrance for you,’ a day in which Israel recalls God’s deliverance of his people from bondage. In the same way the Lord’s Supper is to be an occasion for the people of God to remember God’s action of deliverance through jesus’ death.”
Manna. In the provision of the manna - bread from heaven - a reminder that God would provide for the children of Israel. Immediately prior to the coming of Jesus, the teachers of Israel spoke of the Messiah, who would bring down a new manna. Then Jesus came and, as we read in John 6, spoke of himself as this bread from heaven.
Sacrifice. In describing the sacrificial system, the book of Leviticus makes regular references to the act of eating in connection with the sacrifices. The peace offering was presented to God but consumed by the worshiper. A peace offering could be given as an act of thanksgiving, a renewal of the covenant, or a celebration of God’s goodness and care - all themes that can be connected with the Lord’s supper.
Wisdom. Proverbs issues a call to wisdom in terms of eating of bread and drinking of wine (9:5).
Messianic Banquet. Isaiah calls all who have no money to come, buy and eat. (Isaiah 55:1-3) “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare. Give ear and come to me; listen, that you may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David.”
Covenant. Jeremiah 31:31-34 “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”
The future of Israel is to be one of plenty and that this plenty will be experienced in festive eating and drinking, a future that comes to those who listen to God and who enter the kingdom.
2. REMEMBER - A connection with the ministry of Jesus.
The last Supper was only one of the many meals Jesus ate. “Jesus ate with his followers, with his friends, and with outcasts. It was so much a part of his ministry and life that one almost gets the sense that when he wasn’t preaching and teaching he was eating. In so doing, he was identifying with the ancient Jewish practice of meal fellowship.” (Smith)
Compassion. His meals were acts of compassion. He saw and met hungry people, and he fed them. Some have noted the links between the Eucharist and the feeding of large crowds where there was a blessing/thanksgiving, breaking, distribution - things we see in the last supper.
Mercy. These meals were also acts of acceptance, forgiveness and mercy. Jesus intentionally ate with those on the margins: outcasts, tax collectors, and those like Zacchaeus and Mary Magdalene, whom others rejected and despised. He welcomed them at a meal.
Disciples. Jesus ate with his disciples. The Last Supper was one of many meals Jesus had with them. They felt the weight of the occasion as he told them that this would be his last meal, for the time being, until he would drink with them from the cup in the coming of the kingdom (MT 26:29; Mark 14:25; Luke 22:16,18).
Resurrection. Jesus continued to eat with his disciples following the resurrection. He kept meeting them at mealtimes! (Luke 24:28-35; Luke 24:36-43; John 21:1-14) Peter testified to Cornelius that Jesus ate and drank with them after he rose from the dead.
He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen—by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. - Acts 10:41
Teaching. Jesus not only ate but incorporated meals into his stories. The parable of the lost son ends with a grand celebration at a meal. A messianic meal will be the central event of the coming kingdom (MT 8:11; Luke 13:29).
Faith. After the ascension, the early church embraced the words of Revelation 3:20 that if they invited him into their presence and company, he would come in and would eat with them. This was an act of faith and anticipation as they looked forward to the day when Jesus would be tangibly and physically present to the community of faith.
Smith: “It is amazing that our salvation is symbolized in an act of eating and drinking. In the event of a meal, we together look back to the failure of our human parents, and we look forward to an eating and drinking that will be part of the kingdom that is yet to come.”
3. REMEMBER - as Paul taught the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 11:23-26)
For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me. For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” - 1 Corinthians 11:23-26
Hays: “Even though there were no written Gospels in Paul’s time, the telling of the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection stood at the center of Christian proclamation from the beginning. Paul is not giving the Corinthians new information here; rather, he is recalling to mind the story that he told them about the foundational redemptive event, a story that they themselves repeat - or should repeat - every time they gather at table.”
We remember to realize again what Jesus has done and suffered for us. Barclay: “It is easy to lose the cutting-edge of emotion and realization. it is easy to forget that Jesus Christ suffered and died for us, and even when we remember it is easy to remain unmmoved.” In remembering intentionally our hearts are “rekindled and reborn”.
Harold Fey suggested some of the things we remember about Jesus and his suffering:
Remember me as a man like you with a body which can suffer, grow weary, die.
Remember me as a Jew, of the seed of David, who has in many an encounter broken with the leaders of his people and started a new community which has taken up the mission Israel has abandoned.
Remember me as the cornerstone which God is laying in the new temple of which you yourselves are the living stones.
Remember that I am shedding my blood … laying down my life … a testament of love, a pledge of loyalty, a covenant of constancy forever.
Remember that I am the heaven-sent Messiah.
We remember to receive the benefits of Jesus Christ. Barclay tells of a Scottish scholar and preacher who noticed a woman hesitating to take the cup, he said gently: ‘Take it, woman. It was meant for sinners. It was meant for you.” We are remembering something done for us that we may appropriate it once again.
Cody Ilardo: “What a glorious truth that our sins are forgotten by the All-Knowing One. Sins are removed from His people as far as the East is from the West. God is the only one who knows everything, and through the grace of repentance and forgiveness, even He will forget our blood-paid sins.”
Fey: He is the vine and we are the branches. Our lives are inextricably united. The community of the fruitful, the living organism through which the life of heaven flowed to mankind.”
We remember not just someone who died, but who was buried and rose again.
Barclay: “We are remembering someone who is gloriously alive.”
In the memorial meal, the crucified and risen Christ himself is present.
In our remembering, the crucified and risen Christ is in our midst. He is host at this meal. He is present, and by his Spirit he enables us to live in the grace of God.
We declare the gospel through the act of eating and drinking.
We remember that He is coming again. We do remember his presence, but also “the meal acknowledges the absence of the Lord and mingles memory and hope, recalling his death and awaiting his coming again.” (Hays)
We remember and renew our dedication. Barclay: “No experience such as we have described can end in anything other than a renewed pledge to the one whom we have encountered or experienced.”
Conclusion
Smith: “Our lives are inundated with details, problems, challenges, temptations, and distractions. And when all is well, we are easily distracted by our comfort and ease! When we are bored, we are easily overcome by our own boredom. And so we must eat and drink. We must act out our remembrance, and we need to do it often in the company of the people of God. … As regular, routine action, along with the proclamation of the Word, this holy meal gives clarity, meaning, and purpose to our lives.”
Cody Ilardo: “Remember Christ walking up to Mt. Calvary, carrying His cross. Remember His bare feet, carrying Him to His crucifixion, and treading all our iniquities underfoot. And prepare to see him resurrected in three days, as He casts His grave clothes behind Him, and your sins far, far into the depths of the sea.”
Resources
Barclay, William. The Lord’s Supper. Westminster John Knox Press, 2001.
Fey, Harold E. The Lord’s Supper: Seven Meanings. Harper, 1965.
Ferguson, Everett. The Church of Christ: A Biblical Ecclesiology for Today. Eerdmans, 1996.
Hays, Richard B. Interpretation Commentary for Teaching and Preaching: First Corinthians. John Knox, 1997.
Hicks, John Mark. Come to the Table: Revisioning the Lord’s Supper. Leafwood, 2002.
Ilardo, Cody. Remember the Forgetting.
Smith, Gordon T. A Holy Meal: The Lord’s Supper in the Life of the Church. Baker, 2005.
Sullivan, Joshua. Questions on the Lord’s Supper. Self Published, 2022.
Wilson, Ralph F. Lord’s Supper Disciple’s Guide. JesusWalk Publications, 2011.
Wright, N. T. The Meal Jesus Gave Us (revised ed.) Westminster John Knox Press, 2015.
There was a guy, Mr L, on the “Alzheimer’s Wing” where my Dad stayed his last few years. He was a very nice man, an Italian Catholic who would sometimes go through the motions of bussing a table, when nothing was there. He liked to visit but a conversation with Mr L was like trying to work a jigsaw puzzle without the picture on the box and half the pieces missing. Not to pick on Mr L because of course my Dad was the same way. So one day I was “visiting” with Dad and became aware of Mr. L moving in a peculiar fashion near where we were seated. He seemed to be using the blocks of flooring tile to pace out some pattern that only made sense to him. After a little while, he got closer us and I could see his lips moving. It was when I saw him mouth the words “...blessed art Thou among women...” that I finally understood that he was praying the rosary and the floor tiles were somehow taking the place of his beads (those having been taken away for safety reasons some time back). See, his memory was gone, but those prayers were in him and Would come out! That’s something worth remembering.