Do This in Remembrance of Me

One of the things that Christians are charged to remember is the last meal that Christ had with His disciples:

1 Corinthians 11:23-26: For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the [same] night in which he was betrayed took bread: And when he had given thanks, he brake [it], and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.  After the same manner also [he took] the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink [it], in remembrance of me.  For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come.

Jesus wanted His followers to remember something important– for it would be a while before His return.  Grasp the impact of this moment, and of this statement– do this in remembrance of me, for you’re showing the Lord’s death until He returns.

It was the feast of Passover, and the cup and the bread were not something altogether new at the feast– multiple things were done with unleavened bread, and there were multiple cups of wine that were drunk.

But Jesus stopped to introduce something new.  Something that foreshadowed what was coming and would serve as a reminder thousands of years into the future.

From then on, every time they partook of the cup and the bread they were not remembering the Passover, but that the Passover lamb came and died for their sin.  And not just that He died, but that He rose again!

It matters not how frequently or infrequently we have the Lord’s Table, but what is important is what it means and that we remember.  That’s why there’s a period of self-examination before it.  We are to get right with a holy God.  We are to remember the price paid for sin, to see sin as God sees it, and to get it right.