THIS DO IN REMEMBRANCE OF ME
We do a disservice to the Lord's Table if we focus solely on our Lord's death, burial & resurrection. That sounds almost heretical, I know. That is the climax of our remembering, to be sure, but we must begin at the point of awe in the emblems. We are told to eat his body and to drink his blood. (I Cor. 11:24-25; John 6:53-58) This command led to charges of cannibalism leveled at the early church, charges that the Roman Catholic Church justifies to this day. This command, so misunderstood by the natural man, contains the mystery & miracle which is the only hope of mankind.
The mystery & miracle of which I am speaking, is that we are talking about God's body & blood. Apart from Divine revelation & creation, that is the oxymoron of oxymorons. God cannot have a body, & yet He does have one in Jesus Christ. God cannot be born, & yet He was in that stable so long ago. God cannot dwell in temples made with hands, yet He condescended to physically purge the defiled temple in Jerusalem. God cannot die, & yet He did so long ago on that awful tree on Calvary. And here is the wonderful shift in our story—Man cannot arise from the dead, and yet Jesus rose from the dead on the third day. Death is fatal to man, but not to Jesus. He is the firstborn among many brethren for whom death is no longer the final chapter. Man can't go to heaven, the place of perfect spirits, and yet Jesus ascended into heaven, to sit at the right hand of the Father, ever living in intercession for us. (Heb. 12:22-24)
This is what it means to remember Him, to remember that the Sovereign of the universe, the creator of all things, wedded Himself inseparably in His Son to a new creation, the God/man, that He might redeem His beloved man-creature from death & sin, & that all who are found in Him by faith (Phil. 3:9-11) might attain to the eternal resurrection from the dead and dwell forever in His glory. When we partake of this bread & this cup, we are proclaiming the redemptive work of this Marvelous God/Man until He comes again. By drinking this cup and eating this bread, we are testifying that he partook of our flesh and blood so that we might be inseparably united to Him in His glorified body, that body which can no more spill the blood of our mortality. He is the Victor, the dragon slayer, the head crusher, the grave robber, the firstborn from the dead, the One to whom we owe our praise forever and forever, Amen!!
We do a disservice to the Lord's Table if we focus solely on our Lord's death, burial & resurrection. That sounds almost heretical, I know. That is the climax of our remembering, to be sure, but we must begin at the point of awe in the emblems. We are told to eat his body and to drink his blood. (I Cor. 11:24-25; John 6:53-58) This command led to charges of cannibalism leveled at the early church, charges that the Roman Catholic Church justifies to this day. This command, so misunderstood by the natural man, contains the mystery & miracle which is the only hope of mankind.
The mystery & miracle of which I am speaking, is that we are talking about God's body & blood. Apart from Divine revelation & creation, that is the oxymoron of oxymorons. God cannot have a body, & yet He does have one in Jesus Christ. God cannot be born, & yet He was in that stable so long ago. God cannot dwell in temples made with hands, yet He condescended to physically purge the defiled temple in Jerusalem. God cannot die, & yet He did so long ago on that awful tree on Calvary. And here is the wonderful shift in our story—Man cannot arise from the dead, and yet Jesus rose from the dead on the third day. Death is fatal to man, but not to Jesus. He is the firstborn among many brethren for whom death is no longer the final chapter. Man can't go to heaven, the place of perfect spirits, and yet Jesus ascended into heaven, to sit at the right hand of the Father, ever living in intercession for us. (Heb. 12:22-24)
This is what it means to remember Him, to remember that the Sovereign of the universe, the creator of all things, wedded Himself inseparably in His Son to a new creation, the God/man, that He might redeem His beloved man-creature from death & sin, & that all who are found in Him by faith (Phil. 3:9-11) might attain to the eternal resurrection from the dead and dwell forever in His glory. When we partake of this bread & this cup, we are proclaiming the redemptive work of this Marvelous God/Man until He comes again. By drinking this cup and eating this bread, we are testifying that he partook of our flesh and blood so that we might be inseparably united to Him in His glorified body, that body which can no more spill the blood of our mortality. He is the Victor, the dragon slayer, the head crusher, the grave robber, the firstborn from the dead, the One to whom we owe our praise forever and forever, Amen!!
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