LS-14-Remembrance

Remembrance In remembrance of Me.--1 Corinthians 11:24-25. The men to whom He spoke these words would remember Him in ways we never can. They walked and talked with Him; they loved and worshipped Him in the days of His flesh. They saw Him taken, and by wicked hands crucified and slain. "Remembrance oft may start a tear," and we may be sure it did for them, as they recalled His tender solicitude for them, and the harsh termination of their happy association during His ministry. But if we may not experience the emotions that were theirs In this way, we can at least remember Him in the way He indicated. The words He utters seem chosen with care to express the fact that it is His death He wishes His disciples to remember. He took bread, and broke it, and said, Take eat, this is My body, which is given for you; this do in remembrance of Me. Then the cup: This cup is the new, testament in My blood; this do, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of Me. The double act, with the repeated "In remembrance," indicate how He wished to centre their thoughts on the f act of His death, for He was giving Himself f or the life of the world. But not death alone. We remember not a dead Christ, but "Christ Jesus that died, yea rather, that was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us." The disciples would never have kept festival over the Master’s death if it had not been followed by the triumph of the resurrection. When the Master said, Do this in remembrance, He did not mean that they should do it because they remembered, but as a means of remembrance--so that they would not forget. Human as they were, they were liable to forget, and that would be their loss as well as His, nay, theirs more than His. They felt that He was their strong tower and defence in those days when He companied with them before the cross. They were to realise after He was gone that in His eternal life He was their life and joy. There was gladness in remembrance, then, when the emblems that spoke of death told also of His victory over the grave, and of His spiritual presence with His people. No doubt our Divine Lord was human enough to yearn to be remembered by those who loved Him. But it was not alone for His own sake, we may be sure. It is more important that we do this in remembrance for our own sakes. This feast becomes a means of grace to us. When we forget, we become indifferent. When we remember our hearts are stimulated anew by the power of Him who once died, but now lives and reigns for us.