Remember Me

This morning, as we continue looking at some of the events in the final week of Jesus’ life, we come to his final meal. It was during that meal that Jesus instituted what we call “The Lord’s Supper.” While Matthew, Mark, and Luke tell us about Jesus giving the disciples the bread and cup, John omits it. We still have four records of it though, because Paul wrote about it in one of his letters to the Corinthians. The stories are found in Matthew 26, Mark 14, Luke 22, and 1 Corinthians 11.

There are two items that are similar in all four accounts – the bread and the cup – but there are also two items that are not. So, that’s how I’ll outline the message this morning.

Turn with me to Luke 22. Luke starts just before the meal begins. Two of the disciples had been sent ahead to prepare everything. Now, it is time to eat.

14 When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. 15 And he said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. 16 For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God.” (Luke 22:14-20)

First, there is desire.

We need to remember that what has become known as the Lord’s Supper was a part the larger Passover Meal which is celebrated in the spring each year. We’ve reduced it to tiny piece of bread and a sip of juice, but it was originally part of a complete meal. Though the early church took the Lord’s Supper every week, it was still part of a larger meal. Paul referred to that meal when he addressed the Lord’s Supper in 1 Corinthians 11.

The Passover meal commemorates the angel of death passing over the homes of the Israelites who had placed the blood of a lamb on their door posts while slaying the first-born males in every Egyptian household. Egypt became a symbol for sin and so the exodus from Egypt was a picture of God’s deliverance from sin.

Each year Jewish families still gather to celebrate the Passover meal. It is more than just getting together to eat like we do at Thanksgiving, there is a ceremony with specific readings from the Old Testament and readings that help keep the meaning and purpose alive.

Meals were important in that culture and they were important to Jesus. He invited himself over to eat with Zacchaeus. After his resurrection he ate with disciples on several occasions. Jesus didn’t ask us to start a holiday or erect a monument, he asked that we eat a meal.

Traditionally, the meal is eaten with your family. Jesus chose to eat it with his disciples. Luke tells us that Jesus eagerly desired to eat the meal with them. There are the men who had believed his message of the kingdom. They were the ones who had followed him, believing he was truly the Messiah. They were the ones who had left everything in order to follow him. These are the ones with whom he desired to share his final meal.

A church member told his preacher about a tragic event that took in his family when he was growing up. He said:

When I was a boy, my younger brother was fatally injured in a tragic accident. A dirt road ran alongside our farm, and only on rare occasions would there be a car on it. But one day as my brother was crossing it on his bike, a car came roaring over the hill and he was run over and killed. Later, when my dad picked up the mangled, twisted bike, I heard him sob out loud for the first time in my life! He carried it to the barn and placed it in a spot we seldom used. Father’s terrible sorrow eased with the passing of time, but for many years whenever he saw that bike, tears began streaming down his face. Since then, I have often prayed, “Lord, keep the memory of your death that fresh in me! Every time I partake of your memorial supper, let my heart be stirred. Never let the communion service become a mere formality, but always a tender and touching experience to me.”

Do we desire this meal? Is it as important to us as it was to Jesus? There’s not much here, a tiny piece of bread and a sip of juice, but it is rich in its significance.

Now turn to 1 Corinthians 11. Paul wasn’t there in the upper room when this took place. However, after his conversion, Paul met with the risen Lord. It is believed it was then that he learned of what happened at Jesus final Passover meal. We first have the desire to eat.

Second, there is the bread.

23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24 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.” (1 Corinthians 11:23-24)

Jesus said that the bread represented his body. To link the bread to his body was to understand himself to be the Passover lamb. Paul made that link as well earlier in this letter to the Corinthians when he wrote:

Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed for us. (1 Corinthians 5:7, NLT)

Sometimes people will mistakenly say that the bread represents the broken body of Jesus, but that’s not what we’re told. We’re told that Jesus broke the bread but his body was not broken. Actually, the Old Testament prophecies said that his body would not be broken. On the day Jesus was crucified, the Jewish leaders asked Pilate that the bodies of Jesus and the two thieves be brought down before the Sabbath began. As a result, the guards were ordered to break their legs so that their death would come sooner. But, when they came to Jesus, they were amazed to find that he was already dead so they didn’t break his legs, thus fulfilling those Old Testament prophecies.

In John 15 we find Jesus talking to the disciples following that last supper. Jesus said:

There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. (John 15:13)

That’s what Jesus was doing on the cross. Jesus was laying down his life for us. Isaiah wrote:

3 He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. 4 Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. 5 But 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 53:3-5)

Jesus bore our sins on his body. He was beaten, crucified and died for us. When John the Baptist saw Jesus, walking towards him to be baptized, John called out:

Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! (John 1:29b)

Jesus was the Passover lamb that was sacrificed for us. There’s the desire and there’s the bread.

Third, there’s the cup.

25 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.” (1 Corinthians 11:23-26)

It’s interesting that all of the writers refer to the “cup” and not what is in it. Jesus took the cup and said, “This cup.” In the Old Testament, a cup often represented God’s wrath. For example:

In the hand of the Lord is a cup full of foaming wine mixed with spices; he pours it out, and all the wicked of the earth drink it down to its very dregs. (Psalm 75:8)

James and John asked Jesus if they could sit on his right and left side in his kingdom. In other words, they wanted the seats of importance and power. Jesus responded by referring to a cup.

38 “You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said. “Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?” 39 “We can,” they answered. Jesus said to them, “You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with.”(Mark 10:38-39)

By the use of the word cup instead of the drink inside the cup, Jesus is referencing the wrath of God that he was about to endure for us.

The Passover meal actually includes four cups, each with specific meanings, to be drunk at specific times during the meal. The last two came after the meal and were separated by the reading of some Psalms.

The third of the four cups, is the Cup of Redemption. It takes its meaning from Exodus 6 where God said:

Therefore, say to the Israelites: “I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment.” (Exodus 6:6)

God redeemed the Jewish people for himself from the Egyptians even as we are redeemed through Jesus. His blood was shed on the cross as a payment for our sins. His arms outstretched on a tree. He gave himself up for us to pay the price that was ours to pay. The one who knew no sin became sin for us and he paid our debt. He took the curse of sin on himself in our place. As Paul explained:

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.” (Galatians 3:13)

The fourth of the four cups, is the Cup of Hillel which means praise or acceptance. Again, from Exodus 6 God says:

I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. (Exodus 6:7)

As the bread represents his body, the cup represents his blood which Jesus said begins a new covenant. Through the prophecy of Jeremiah, God promised a new covenant, a covenant that would replace the covenant he had made with the Israelites at Mount Sinai. Just as that covenant was ratified with the blood of a sacrificed animal, this new covenant is ratified with the shedding of Jesus blood. While the old covenant was based on what you did, your ability to keep God’s commands, the new one is based on what Jesus did for you, he died in your place. The old covenant was based on law the new one on based on grace.

Not only did Jesus’ blood begin this new covenant, it was also the payment for our sin. Matthew wrote:

27 Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. 28 This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” (Matthew 26:26-28)

Again, and again God tells us in his word that we have forgiveness because of blood. The author of Hebrews reminds us of that when he wrote:

. . . without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. (Hebrews 9:22b)

And Peter wrote:

18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. (1 Peter 1:18-19)

Our sins are forgiven because of the shed blood of Jesus.

So, there’s the desire, the bread, and the cup.

Fourth, there is the proclamation.

26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. (1 Corinthians 11:26)

Paul says that when we take the bread and the cup that we are letting the world know of our faith in Jesus’ death for our sins and our anticipation of his return. As Jesus said before giving the disciples the fourth and final cup:

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. (Matthew 26:29)

Jesus was anticipating that kingdom and so should we.

You may have heard about the preacher who asked some of his members, “If you knew this was the last day of your life, because Jesus was returning tomorrow, what would you do differently?” One man said, “I would spend all of my money as fast as I could, because I knew I couldn’t take it with me.” Another man said, “I would tell everyone I knew that Jesus was coming, so that some might believe in him.” A third guy said, “I would go move in with my mother-in-law.” The rest of the group looked at him strangely, until he explained, “Living with her would make it the longest day of my life!”

When was the last time you thought about Jesus returning? It’s been so long since he left, it’s easy to assume he won’t be returning anytime soon. That’s certainly been the case for the early believers. They thought that Jesus would return any day and lived like it. But it’s been two thousand years and Jesus hasn’t come. When will Jesus return? We don’t know. When the disciples asked Jesus about it, he told them that even he didn’t know, that only the Father knows.

What we know is that his return is closer now than it has ever been. Jesus encouraged his followers to look at the signs of the times. When we look at the condition of the world, we have to think that it can’t be much longer. But whether it is today, tomorrow, next week, or next year, we know that Jesus is coming. And so, we proclaim our faith in Jesus until he returns.

For Jews, the Passover cups encourage them to look toward to the Messiah’s coming. For centuries the Passover feast had looked forward to the Lord’s coming and – though they didn’t know it – to his death. Now, in the shadow of the cross, we gather about the Lord’s table and look forward to his coming again.

For Christians, communion actually has a three-fold aspect:

It is a reminder of what Jesus did in the past

It is a symbol of our present relationship with him, and

It is a promise of what he will do in the future as we wait for the day when we will eat it with the Lord in the kingdom.

Melvin Newland tells the story of Dr. John Duncan who was the Professor of Hebrew at Edinburgh University for many years. He was affectionately called "Rabbi Duncan" by his students. Duncan tells of a communion service in Highland Kirk, Scotland, that he attended. As he was preparing to partake, he began to confess his sins silently to God. He writes that as he confessed them, he realized how many and how awful they were. So, he decided that he would not partake of the emblems that day because he felt so unworthy.

But as the plate of bread was passed down the row where he was seated, he noticed that the young girl next to him was weeping almost uncontrollably. As the plate of bread came to her, she held it in her hands for a moment, quietly sobbing, and then passed it on to him without partaking of it. Professor Duncan held it in his hand and looked at the weeping girl. Then he leaned over and handed the bread back to her and whispered these words in her ear, “Take it, lassie,” he said, “it’s for sinners. It’s for us.”

The truth is we have all sinned, we have all fallen short of the glory of God, and we all need his forgiveness. We don’t take communion because we’ve earned but because we never can.

In Mel Gibson’s movie, “The Passion of Christ” there is an obscure detail in the crucifixion scene that usually goes unnoticed, but actually says so much. When Jesus is being placed on the cross, the camera comes close to watch as a large spike is positioned in the middle of Jesus’ hand. Then, a mallet comes into focus, and a rugged hand swings it to drive the spike. Those are all things you expect to see. But there is something you don’t see. You never see the face of the one who drives that nail. You never get a glimpse into the eyes, or heart of the one who pounds away until the spike has passed through Jesus’ flesh and sinks into the wood of the cross. The person who played that role in the movie was the director himself, Mel Gibson. But why did he never show the face of the one who was nailing Jesus to the cross? Why did he never identify the one who was putting the Son of God to death? He didn’t show us that face because that face was his. And it is ours. We are the ones who put Jesus to death. It wasn’t just the Romans, or the Jews. It was our sins that nailed Jesus to the cross.

When Jesus asked us to remember him, he didn’t say, “Teach this.” He didn’t say, “Think about it.” Nor did he say, “Try to fit this in to your busy schedule.” Jesus said, “Do this. Eat this bread and drink from this cup.” When we do this, when we eat this bread, we remember that Jesus suffered and died for us. When we drink the cup, we remember his blood that was shed for us. When we partake of the Lord’s Supper, we recognize our sinfulness, we remember what Jesus did for us on the cross, and we proclaim our faith in him who gave himself for us.