Do This In Remembrance of Me
A Devotional:
In Luke 22 Jesus sits with His disciples and says: “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before My suffering. For I tell you that I will not eat it again until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” After taking the cup, He gave thanks and said, “Take this and divide it among yourselves. For I tell you that I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until the kingdom of God comes.” And He took the 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.”
There are three aspects we'll talk about. First, Jesus was eating the Passover as a memorial to all that the Father had done when He led the children of Israel by the hand out of the land of Egypt. At the time of the first Passover God spoke through Moses saying: This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast. Exodus 12:14
Instructions, Lev. 23
Passover before Jericho, Josh. 5
Second, Jesus teaches about the Kingdom of God throughout His entire ministry and is now relating eating the Passover meal again with us in the Kingdom of God. The prophet Isaiah wrote about a feast that would be had with the Savior when the Kingdom comes: On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined. And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever;
and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces,and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken. It will be said on that day,
“Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the LORD; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.” Isaiah 25:6-9
Wedding supper of the Lamb, Rev. 19:9
Parable of Wedding Feast, Matt. 22
Third, Jesus breaks the bread and says this is My body that is given- His sinless, unleavened body. He instructs His disciples to partake in this meal as a remembrance of Him, but a remembrance of what, exactly? Of the words He spoke, of the Kingdom He preached, and of the promise He made to rise from the dead. Jesus is exhorting them, and us, to remember what His sacrifice is leading to- His resurrection. But not only that, He is inviting them, and us, to participate in being a part of His body, to learn what He taught and share it with the world- His instruction is to remember to make disciples and preach the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. This is the concept we see the New Testament writers repeatedly describing as being the church. The writer of Hebrews says: Exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. Hebrews 3:13-14
Resurrection Passover, Isaiah 26:19-21
Jesus Returns, 1 Thess. 4:17
What's our original confidence? Salvation. We are given a portion in this life of renewal, of putting off dead works and learning to walk worthy to the calling by the help of the Holy Spirit. But the fulfillment will be that final Passover- the moment Jesus returns and raises us to incorruptible eternal bodies as 1 Corinthians 15 describes. Those in Christ will be delivered from all death, sorrow, and sickness as Isaiah 25 explained. Unlike the Exodus out of Egypt, this deliverance will be final…there will be no more sin. Let's look at one last passage from Ezekiel: They shall not defile themselves anymore with their idols and their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions. But I will save them from all the backslidings in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God. “My servant David shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd. They shall walk in my rules and be careful to obey my statutes.” Ezekiel 37:23-24
The Passover that Jesus ate is much more than an old testament ritual from Exodus. The Passover and seven days of Unleavened Bread that follows is a memorial of God's mighty hand in the past, a remembrance of what Jesus taught and did for us during His time on earth, and a reminder of what is still to come! Participating in God's feast days is participating in this hopeful expectation: We ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we are saved. Romans 8:23
Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. 1 Corinthians 5:7-8
Continue studying the festivals of Passover and Unleavened Bread here!