Today is Maundy Thursday, the day on which many Christians remember the evening when Jesus had a meal with His disciples before going to Gethsemane to pray. He was then arrested and taken to His trial. He earnestly desired to share that Passover meal with them, Luke 22:15, and we can understand why. It was such a significant time of year for the Jews, as it was when they remembered the deliverance of their forefathers from slavery in Egypt.
The Israelites were freed as God ‘passed over’ their homes, when he saw the blood of the lamb, on which they were feasting, daubed on the doorposts of their dwellings. The sons of the Israelites were spared because of that blood, the Egyptian eldest sons, in homes without that blood on the doorpost, were not. So Pharaoh finally released the Israelites from their slavery.
Such symbolism! and it was here, at this meal, that Jesus chose to ‘tell’ His followers what He was about to do. He was going to become the Lamb of God who would ‘take away the sin of the world’, John 1:29. He was going to pay the price and release those who would trust in His blood, in His death and resurrection, from their slavery to sin and the consequences of sin.
At the meal, as we know, He took the bread and when He had given thanks He broke it saying ‘This is my body which is given for you, do this in remembrance of Me.’ Then he took the cup of wine and said ‘this cup is the New Covenant in My blood which is poured out for you.’ Luke 22:19,20
Christians have been taking and sharing bread and wine now for over two thousand years. Different church groups have different names for this occasion in their church life:- The Mass, the Eucharist, Breaking of Bread, Holy Communion, the Lords supper, the Lords table, and all of these names capture some element of what the Lord was saying by what He did at that meal that night. Above all else, as we take the bread and wine, in whatever form we choose, ‘we remember’, just as Jesus asked us to.
Luke specifically records Jesus saying ‘do this in remembrance of Me’, and it sounds like the early church took note and did just that. It is again Luke who tells us that the new church ‘devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and prayer’, Acts 2:42. I’ve no doubt the apostles shared the other things that Jesus said and did that night, recorded in John 13-17, but it is interesting that Jesus also gave them something specific to do in order to ‘remember Him’ and what He did for them on the cross.
People can remember Jesus for being a great healer and a great teacher, but Jesus was giving us something to bring us back, on a regular basis, to the heart of His mission here on earth, and that was to go to the cross and die for our sins, to allow His body to be broken and His blood poured out for us.
Just as the Passover meal helped the Israelites to remember what God did for them that night in Egypt, so Jesus gave us a practical, as well as spiritual way, of remembering His amazing sacrifice on the cross for each one of us. Let us thank Him today that He understands us, that He knows that we need constant reminders of the price He paid for our salvation and let us thank Him for such love, and such kindness in giving us something so accessible and simple to keep before us the memory of what He has done for us.
