REMEMBER

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and gave it to His disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is My body.”

Then He took a cup, and when He had given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.”

When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

Matthew 26:26-30

While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and gave it to His disciples, saying, “Take it; this is My body.”

Then He took a cup, and when He had given thanks, He gave it to them, and they all drank from it.

“This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many,” He said to them. “Truly I tell you, I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”

When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

Mark 14:22-26

After taking the cup, He gave thanks and said, “Take this and divide it among you. For I tell you I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”

And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”

In the same way, after the supper He took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is poured out for you.

Luke 22:19-22a

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

It was the last Passover meal Jesus would share with His disciples and as we have seen over the past few devotions, it was unlike any other Passover before.

First, there was the matter of trying to find a place to observe the special celebration which commemorated the Israelite’s deliverance from the clutches of Egypt, a deliverance which set God’s people on the path to the land He desired for them to have.

The disciples weren’t sure where they should go to prepare the meal and so they went to Jesus, because, well, He was always the go-to person for the disciples.

And why not?

Jesus had shown there was really nothing outside of His wisdom or power. And so of course Jesus had some special spiritual connection with the owner of a home which just so happened to have a vacant upper room. He sent the disciples in the direction of the home and just to make sure they didn’t miss their destination, He mysteriously set up a man carrying a jar of water who would show them the way.

It was all so supernatural but it reminds us to remember this about Jesus. He made the seemingly impossible possible and did so routinely. It was true more than 2,000 years ago in New Testament times and it’s still true today.

So the stage was set for the meal itself and as Jesus reclines at the table with the Twelve, He drops a real shocker on them by sharing that He would be betrayed by one of them and then identifies His betrayer as Judas Iscariot.

Through this revealing, we’re reminded to remember that Jesus can see deep within the hearts of people, drilling down into the deepest depths of their thoughts and feelings. Nothing is hidden from His sight and again, this has remained true since He began His ministry at the age of 30.

As we turn to today’s scriptures, we find Jesus asking His disciples to yet remember more about Him, although His words probably didn’t make sense until the following day’s events had concluded when Jesus would die hanging from a cross on Calvary’s hill.

For as they dined, Jesus gave important symbolic meaning to the bread and the wine, symbolic meaning that has helped Christ followers through the ages to remember what Jesus endured to bring salvation to all those who would place their belief and trust in Him for salvation.

First, we find Jesus taking the bread, giving thanks, and then breaking it and sharing it with His disciples, saying:

“This is My body given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”

And so the disciples took and ate the bread as their Master had commanded but I’m not sure they truly understood the “body given for you” part of Jesus’ statement. For although Jesus had told them several times that He would be killed, I don’t think they really believed it. In less than 24 hours time, they would watch Jesus be brutalized before being crucified, and I’m sure remember how Jesus told them His body was given for them.

Today, as churches observe the sacrament of communion, Christians still hear these words of Jesus and receive the same call to remember as they take and eat the same bread, bread representing how broken Jesus became when He paid the penalty for sin that we deserved. Truly as the prophet Isaiah reminds us:

“Surely He took up our pain and bore our suffering…He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on Him, and by His wounds we are healed.” Isaiah 53:4a, 5

Remember.

And then Jesus lifted up the cup filled with wine and, like the bread, gave it new meaning.

“Drink from it, all of you. This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”

Here we find Jesus giving His disciples (and all of us), three important things to remember as we take the cup and drink of it during Passover or communion.

First, we are to remember that with Jesus, God made a new covenant with His people. Salvation was now not just the domain of the Jews but all people of the world. Everyone had the opportunity to become a child of God and co-heirs with Christ Jesus to the kingdom of heaven. All they had to do is accept Jesus as Savior.

The second point of remembrance is that Jesus’ blood was poured out for all people who fell within the auspice of the new covenant and as we know, that included all people period.

Blood and atonement were seemingly always bound together in biblical times and much of this was because of the law which then led to the customary religious actions people would take to reconcile their sins with God. Consider this from the Old Testament book of Leviticus, one of the books of the Pentateuch or books of the law:

For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life. Leviticus 17:11

Animal sacrifices were made with the blood poured out on the altar to gain forgiveness and pardon for sins committed. And in regard to the Passover observance, it was the blood of the slain lamb painted on the doorposts of the Israelite homes that saved them from the angel of death sent by God to destroy the firstborn in Egypt.

Blood poured out from a slaughtered lamb saved the Israelites from death in Egypt.

Jesus’ blood poured out in Good Friday, at His beating and scourging, and then at the cross, washed away the sins of all mankind with a flood of atonement.

And that leads to the third point Jesus wants us to remember about His blood that was poured out as freely as the wine poured out from the cup onto the lips of His disciples at His final Passover meal:

Jesus poured out His blood to bring forgiveness of sins.

As the old hymn proclaims:

What can wash away my sin?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

What can make me whole again?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Oh precious is the flow

That makes me white as snow

No other fount I know

Nothing but the blood of Jesus

We sing these words and what do they lead us to do?

Remember.

Remember how the blood of Jesus washed our sin-stained selves white as snow, and brought us into a place of reconciliation with the God we were once opposed to because of our transgressions. Indeed through the blood of Jesus, blood He poured out for us, we are justified when we believe in Him as our Savior. In other words, Christians are made “just-as-if-they-had-never-sinned”. This is the essence of justification and the good news it brings to believers.

As we see at the end of Matthew and Mark’s gospels, Jesus and His disciples concluded their final meal together singing a hymn before leaving the upper room and going to the Mount of Olives, a trip that would bring them to Gethsemane, the site of Judas’ betrayal. Things were about to go bad for Jesus in a hurry but as we journey with Him to the cross, let us remember why He went through what He did and give thanks that He spared us from going through it ourselves.

For if we do, we’ll never forget the steep price paid to purchase our pardon and we’ll always be driven to a place of thanksgiving and praise for all that Jesus did for us, all He continues to do for us, and what He’ll do for us forevermore as we one day will dwell eternally with Him and the Father who sent Him to save is.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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