In Remembrance
For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
1 Corinthians 11:23-26
During the Last Supper, Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper or Holy Communion, instructing His disciples to consume His body in the form of bread and drink His blood in the form of wine, each “in remembrance of me” (1 Corinthians 11:24-25). When we share the sacrament of Holy Communion, we renew our acknowledgement of Christ Jesus with new awe and reverence, and reconsider all that He is and we seek to cleanse our souls of unrighteousness so that we might gain more of His holy presence within us. Through Holy Communion, with awe, reverence and thanksgiving, we commune with Christ Jesus through the Holy Spirit, and as we each commune with the same Christ through the same Spirit, we commune with one another.
When you remember Jesus, what comes to mind? Who is Jesus to you? And we really need to pause here because Jesus is God. He is the Creator of the universe. He is the One who spoke the heavens and earth and all matter that exists into existence. He is the author of life who breathes the breath of life into each of us and He is the eternal, perfect, holy One who surrendered His heavenly glory for a time to come to earth to live and die and be resurrected, all so that we might live. He is the author of life who breathes the breath of life, and He is the one through whom we gain spiritual life, whole life, fulfilling life, eternal life, the kingdom of God. Please pause for a moment and allow the awesome magnitude of all that sink in.
God of the heavens came to earth, died and rose again, for you and me, for our atonement, and He died, not for some hypothetical sin, but He died a real death for real sin. He died for my sin and yours, not some abstract, hypothetical notion of sin, but real sin in real life. And when we gather to share Holy Communion, we refresh our intimate communion with Christ Jesus.
This is awesome, but have you ever stopped to consider the implications of being in communion with Christ Jesus and having the holy Creator of the universe dwelling within you? What does it mean to be united with Christ? Union with Christ changes who we are. We cannot be united with Christ and avoid transformation. Scripture discusses this holy transformation as new life, life in abundance, eternal life, the kingdom of God, and other terms. It also discusses the transformation in terms of suddenly becoming children of God, saying, “But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12-13).
When Scripture discusses a child in relation to his or her father, it is an effort to quickly capture the essence of the child and describe the child’s character and core being. So when Jesus discusses children of this age (see Luke 16:8), He refers to people who do not exhibit God’s character, but when He discusses children of light, children of resurrection and children of God, He describes people who are born again of God and whose father is God (see Luke 16:8 and 20:36). They have been transformed into people possessing God’s character.
Through Christ Jesus, God’s essence dwells within you, me, us, transforming us to holiness, and when we take Holy Communion, we do so in remembrance of Him. We have full acknowledgment and appreciation and awe and reverence of who He is, of His mighty acts, of His holiness and power, and full thanksgiving of His holy dwelling within us, and our only possible response is to cry out to Him in praise and worship, because not only are we in His presence, we are also His home on earth.
When we join one another receiving Holy Communion, we pray that God might make us one with Christ Jesus and one with each other and one in ministry to the world. Jesus tells us to abide in Him and to allow Him to abide in us so that we might bear fruit, so our ability to effectively serve out in the world is connected with and dependent on His abiding in us and our abiding in Him, and because the same Christ Jesus dwells in each of us, we are joined as one with our brothers and sisters in Christ. God’s holy word says,
For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body – Jews or Greeks, slaves or free – and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. 1 Corinthians 12:12-13
We are one with Christ Jesus, in Him and through Him, we are joined as one together with brothers and sisters in Christ around the world. With this in mind, God’s holy word says,
If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,
who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
as something to be exploited,
but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death—
even death on a cross.
Therefore God also highly exalted him
and gave him the name
that is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Philippians 2:1-11
God’s holy word urges us to “Let the same mind be in [us] that was in Christ Jesus….” Through Christ Jesus, with the indwelling Holy Spirit and through God’s holy, merciful grace, may it be so. Amen.