Bible Briefs

J O H N   W.   M O O R E THIS DO IN REMEMBRANCE OF ME Nestled between the buildings of the Dripping Springs High School rests a garden area adorned with various trees and shrubs. Many of those trees have an important significance attached to them. They were planted as memorials to remind students and staff of a number of young people whose lives ended prematurely. In other parts of our county, memorials abound. There are numerous monuments and placards at cemeteries, lodges, government buildings, and schools. Many of the deceased have been memorialized because their life was sacrificed for others. We treasure these memorials because it honors the ones we love and reminds us of the sacrifice made for our freedom. In similar fashion, the Old Testament reveals a memorial kept by the Jews. After ten tormenting plagues, the Pharaoh of Egypt finally relented to the demands for freedom. That tenth and final plague came in the form of the Angel of Death, but the lives of the children of Israel, who sprinkled the blood of a lamb above their doorpost and ate the prescribed ceremonial meal, were spared. Death had passed over their house, and their deliverance soon followed. To commemorate this significant event, the Passover celebration was instituted. The sacred meal of unleavened bread, roasted lamb, juice from the vine and bitter herbs served to remind them of their bitter hardship in Egypt and their subsequent redemption by the blood of the sacrificed lamb (Exodus 12 and Duet. 16). It became a very special memorial meal. In many ways, the Passover meal of the Jews prefigured the Christian’s memorial meal for the crucified Christ. Like most memorials that remind us of the death and blessings of life, so the Lord’s Supper reminds us of the death and blessings that come from the blood and body of Jesus. We participate in this meal for the purpose of remembering the life of Jesus (Luke 22:19). We partake of the emblems of his body and blood to proclaim to ourselves and to others the death of Jesus on our behalf (1 Cor. 11:26). This memorial meal serves to remind us of that Jesus was sacrificed for us. It helps us to grow closer to God and to one another (1 Cor. 10:16). In the busy, pagan filled world of the early church, it was a weekly reminder of the value of the atoning sacrifice of Jesus (Acts 20:7). What about you? Are you regularly breaking bread with the disciples (Acts 2:42)? Come worship with us each week as we remember the sacrifice of Jesus in a heart-piercing, fellowship meal. It is a very special memorial meal which reminds us of Jesus, and binds us together.