Remember

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

REMEMBER

Luke 22:14-23

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."  17 After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, "Take this and divide it among you. 18 For I tell you I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes."19 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."  20 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. 21 But the hand of him who is going to betray me is with mine on the table. 22 The Son of Man will go as it has been decreed, but woe to that man who betrays him."  23 They began to question among themselves which of them it might be who would do this.

NIV

There are several truths held for us within this narrative and of course, this contains the words of Jesus which we take as one of the ordinances of the Church, holy communion. However, It is interesting that Jesus eagerly desired to eat this Passover with them before he was to suffer. This was the last time he would eat Passover with them while he was still in human form. The kingdom of God is eternal and although he would suffer for us, taking our sins, being the Lamb of God, he also knew he would rise again, and go back to the right hand of the Father, and be God for all eternity. Yet, this was a time with his disciples that was meaningful to Jesus. This demonstrates how personal Jesus was with them, and that is the same kind of intimate love and caring Jesus has for us. Sometimes, it seems to us that we just go through the ritual of communion without understanding the closeness we are with Jesus when we share, the cup and eat of the bread. However, whenever we do share the cup and break the bread together, we are to do this in remembrance of Him, who, and what Jesus did for us. He wanted his disciples to continue celebrating Passover until the kingdom of God and everything associated with it came to completion. This means that once we experience the resurrection and all of us believers are in the kingdom of God in the new city of Jerusalem, we will all gather around reclining at the table and celebrate Passover, or communion with Jesus. We will all drink from the fruit of the vine with Jesus, as we will be one with Jesus, there will be no breaking of bread. However, until that day, we are to continue to share the cup and break the break in full remembrance of Jesus. How can we make a ritual of this? How can we determine how many times and what exact dates we are to remember Jesus with communion? Although no matter how we determine how often we share in communion it is always some kind of pattern. Perhaps it does not have to be a pattern, yet Passover was once a year. Certainly, we want to have our communions more often than once a year. This makes us wonder if every time we sit to eat, drink from the fruit of the vine, and have a slice of bread with our meal, we should remember Jesus. Maybe this communion thing at church is just some religious act we perform, thinking we are doing what Jesus meant, but in reality, just being religious, yet it does allow us as a church to remember Jesus together and that is a good thing. However, let us always remember.