LS-32-A Memento

A Memento And He took bread, and when He had given thanks, He brake it, and gave to them saying, This is My body which is given for you; this do in remembrance of Me.--Luke 22:19. A momento--that is what the Supper is, for it serves as a reminder, and is a memorial of something we want to remember. I have seen the suggestion that the word in this text, translated "remembrance" really means a memorial before God, and carries with it the thought that the Supper is intended, not so much as a reminder to His disciples of the death of Christ, but to remind God of that central fact in the history of our world. If that were so, every observance of the Supper would be, on our part, a presentation before God, of the merits of Christ’s sacrifice, Every time we came to the Supper we would be saying in effect that the ground of our approach to God is the death of Christ, and we plead His mercy and favour, not on any right of our own, but for the sake of Christ our Saviour.

There may be truth in that thought, but I doubt if it was what Christ had in mind. This is the only direction He gave to His disciples concerning the Supper, and it seems to have been intended primarily for them, that they might not forget Him. It is a very simple requirement, and it was very human-this request that they might meet to remember Him. Using materials that were on the table for the passover feast, He lifts the bread, and then the cup. "I don’t want you to forget Me," He says. "When you take bread and break it and eat it thus, think of Me. When you drink the cup, remember that My life was poured out for you." Of course they never would forget. Dr. Marcus Dods beautifully said, "As the friend who is setting out an a long absence or is passing forever from the earth puts into our hands his portrait or something he has used or worn or prized, and is pleased to think we shall treasure it for his sake, so did Christ on the eve of His death secure this one thing, that His disciples should have a memento by which to remember Him. And as the dying gift of a friend becomes sacred to us even as his own person, and we cannot bear to see it handed about and remarked upon by those who have not the same loving reverence as ourselves; and m when we gaze at his portrait and recall the many happy times we have spent together, and the bright and inspiring words which fell from his lips, or wind up the watch he wound for so many years, or handle the pencil-ease worn smooth by his fingers, so does this sacrament seem sacred to us as Christ’s own person, and by it, grateful memories of all He was and did throng into the mind."