Remembrance: I Do Not Think It Means What You Think It Means
Text: 1 Corinthians 11:23-26
In the name of Jesus. Amen.
There is much confusion about Communion these days in the church. When you ask the average churchgoer about Communion, they will agree that it is important. But when asked ‘why’ it is important, well… we will find many different opinions, showing a substantial amount of confusion.
Perhaps the most significant
amount of confusion about Communion comes over the words,
“Do
this in remembrance of me.”
Permit me an opportunity to
explain.
When Jesus was with His
disciples before His crucifixion, He broke bread and gave it to the disciples
saying,
“This is my body, which
is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
Now, many Christians have
understood this last portion to mean that when we gather together for Communion
that we do so to remember Jesus, the best that we can. That is to say, according
to these individuals, Communion is a time where we come together to remember
Jesus and His sacrifice. And by
remembering Jesus, our memories are what keep Jesus alive in our minds.
And so, this kind of emphasis leads
us to see Communion as a kind of memorial day where we never forget the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus in our
minds and thoughts. Communion becomes a
day to commemorate Jesus in our minds with a meal.
Now, what I have just
described is how many well-intentioned Christians understand Communion. They
see Communion as something only to remind us of Christ and his death. But dear
friends, if Communion is only a remembrance that is intended to remind us of
the Gospel, so that the Gospel can stir our hearts, then Communion becomes an ambiguous
mental activity. Indeed, if Communion is
some memorial activity where we try and remember the good ol’ days of Jesus, are
we not conducting Communion Services to make sure that Jesus doesn’t slip
through our minds? And if Communion is
only about you and me recalling Jesus in our minds, then isn’t Communion just
another ritualistic ordinance that we have to do to keep Christianity front and
center in our minds.
Dear friends, the problem with
all of this arises with how we understand the word ‘remembrance.’ You see, when
we hear the word ‘remembrance,’ we hear it as a verb, as something that we must
do in our minds – to recall or remember someone or something. And so according
to this way of thinking, Communion becomes about you making sure that you are
remembering Jesus and then thinking about Jesus-memories correctly, as you eat
and drink bread and wine. As the
theologians would say, this makes Communion function underneath the banner of
Law rather than Gospel. It puts the
pressure on you and how well you are remembering Jesus.
Dear friends, you might be
surprised to learn that when Jesus says, “do
this in remembrance of me,” that the word ‘remembrance’ really has little
to do with only recalling the events of the past in our minds. The word ‘remembrance’ is far more than a mere
mental recollection of the events of the past.
You see, when Jesus uses the word ‘remembrance,’ He is using it as a
noun. Simply stated, according to Jesus
and the Jewish way of thinking ‘remembrance’ means to participate in 'a thing' in
the present time according to certain events of the past.
If you are confused a bit, let
me explain with an example.
To understand Jesus’ use of
the word ‘remembrance,’ think of a wedding anniversary – say a 20th
Anniversary. Now, imagine a wife
spending her entire anniversary day thinking about the details and facts of her
wedding – the temperature outside, the colors of the tuxedos, and the kind of
food served at the reception. If this is
all that the wife did for her 20th Anniversary, it would be fairly
lame. It would be sad. In fact, we would
even begin to wonder, is the groom even alive?
Is the wife widowed?”
You see, recalling the historical
facts and details of a wedding is not doing a 20th Anniversary right! Instead, to make the anniversary profound and
right, the wife needs more than merely remembering the details and facts. She can remember the past but also needs to participate
in the wedding anniversary in the present. In other words, the wife needs to
accept the flowers that the husband buys her.
She needs to be taken out to dinner. She needs her husband to whisper
words of love into her ear, so that she hears his commitment, love, and
dedication to her. To do the 20th Anniversary right, the wife not
only can recall the past but needs to be swept up in her husband’s present
love, pursuit, and commitment.[1]
And so, just as Baptism and
Absolution are things that come to you, Communion is something that comes to you
in the way of gift as well. Communion is
not Law, but Gospel. Communion is not
primarily you remembering – a mental exercise towards God. But Communion is one of the ways that the
Lord comes to you with forgiveness, life, and salvation.
Baptized Saints, Jesus came to
humanity in that manger. Jesus will come
again. In the meantime, He comes to you
in the Word and Sacraments. He places
His name upon you in Baptism. He pours
forgiveness into your ears in the Absolution.
And He lays His body and blood upon your tongue to strengthen and
sustain you in this remembrance of Communion.
Our Lord comes. He comes for you. God be praised.
In the name of Jesus:
Amen.
[1]
Illustration taken from: Dustin Crowe, “What Does It Mean to Remember Jesus in
the Lord’s Supper?” TGC, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/what-does-it-mean-to-remember-jesus-in-the-lords-supper/
(accessed December 19, 2019).
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