Recently my eleven month old granddaughter was visiting. She was looking for something to play with and Nana decided to take her upstairs and look for some toys. They came back down the stairs with a basket full of toys and my granddaughter was now wearing a cape with little bats on it that had once been a part of a Halloween costume that had belonged to my son when he was quite young. When she placed my granddaughter down in front of me there was a brief moment that my son was again standing before me as a young child. Memories and the strong emotions that they trigger are something that we are all familiar with. It may be a smell that reminds us of family at holidays. The picture that is still on your refrigerator after all these years and you’re still not sure what it was. I personally cannot sing the song “Oh Why Not Tonight” without thinking of a brush arbor meeting that I attended as a child with my Grandmother. God quite often had his children do things to help them remember how he had been with them in their journeys. The Passover feast is the most easily recognizable of these remembrances. It was to bring to their remembrance how God had brought them out of Egypt with a mighty hand. And the LORD spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the first month of the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt, saying, Let the children of Israel also keep the passover at his appointed season. In the fourteenth day of this month, at even, ye shall keep it in his appointed season: according to all the rites of it, and according to all the ceremonies thereof, shall ye keep it (Numbers 9:1-3). After the children of Israel had crossed over the river Jordan into the promised land they were told to set up a memorial made from stones taken from the midst of the river. That this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean ye by these stones? Then ye shall answer them, That the waters of Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD; when it passed over Jordan, the waters of Jordan were cut off: and these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel for ever (Joshua 4:6-7). There was a time where Israel had repented and returned to God and pleaded for God’s help against the Philistines in battle. With the help of God they were victorious and a memorial was erected. Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it Ebenezer, saying, Hitherto hath the LORD helped us (1Samuel 7:12). We too as children of God, living under a new and better covenant, also have a memorial that has been established for us. The circumstances behind the establishment of this memorial is recorded for us in Mark 14, Luke 22, and 1Cor. 11. The Lord and the apostles were meeting to observe the Passover when Christ instituted this new memorial. 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 (1Cor. 11:23-26). We know that this remembrance was continued, as commanded, by those of the first century church. And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight (Acts 20:7). To many in the religious world today this has become a ritual and not a memorial. It has lost its meaning to many and has been ignored and forgotten by others. As the children of Israel were delivered out of Egyptian bondage by a mighty hand you and I have also been delivered out of bondage, the bondage of sin and death, Rom. 8:2. Let us through the Lord’s Supper commemorate his death until he comes. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him (Rom. 5:8-9).
