| The Christian Life | March 1941 |
In Remembrance of Christ
“And He took bread and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is My body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of Me. Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in My blood which was shed for you.”—Luke 22:19,20
THE DATE this year for the Memorial Supper is Thursday evening, April the 10th. Saturday, April the 12th, is the 15th day of Nisan; Friday, therefore, would be the 14th day, and according to Jewish reckoning, this day would begin at sundown the night before; thus bringing the Memorial date on Thursday evening. This date, then, will be the proper one on which to memorialize the death of Jesus, our Redeemer, because it is the proper anniversary of the day on which He was condemned to death and crucified more than nineteen centuries ago.
The Memorial Supper celebrated each year by consecrated Christians throughout the earth, is associated in thought with the typical Passover of Israel; although it is not a continuation of that Passover. Neither is it the antitype of the Passover. Jesus, in His sacrifice, fulfilled the type of the Passover, and our Memorial celebration now is in commemoration of the sacrifice of the anti-typical Passover Lamb. The Apostle says, “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us: therefore let keep the feast.”—I Cor. 5:7,8
The original Passover, celebrated by the Jews on the night before their deliverance from Egypt, was closely associated with that deliverance. So we find that the sacrifice of Jesus, the antitypical Passover Lamb, makes possible the deliverance of all mankind from the thralldom of sin and death. In the original Passover celebration, it was the firstborn of Israel who were in special danger of death. Their safety depended upon the protection of the blood of the Passover lamb. Being thus protected from death, and later delivered, they became, representatively in the Levitical tribe, the servants of the whole house of Israel.
In the antitype, we find that there is also a class who are in special danger of death, and who come under the protection of the blood of the antitypical Passover Lamb. The Apostle Paul refers, to this class as the “church of the first-born, which are written in heaven.” (Heb. 12:23) These, like the firstborn of Israel, are protected by the blood, and later delivered into the glorious liberty of the sons of God, and together with Jesus, the antitypical Moses, become the servants of the people. They will live and reign with Christ. Through the administration of the divine Kingdom, all the families of the earth are finally to be delivered from sin and death, restored to the original perfection and life that was forfeited through the sin of our first parents.
The condition upon which the firstborn class of this age may thus be permitted to live and reign with Christ, and share with Him in the work of delivering mankind in the next age, is that they suffer and die with Him. Jesus, as the antitypical Lamb, was led to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers was dumb, so He opened not His mouth. Likewise, the church are said to be “killed all the day long, and accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”—Isa. 53:7; Rom. 8:36
WHAT WE KEEP IN REMEMBRANCE
From the foregoing brief summary of the thoughts associated with the Memorial Supper, we can see that first and foremost in our minds and hearts on this occasion should be the fact of God’s great love, as it was demonstrated in the gift of His beloved Son, His Lamb, whose shed blood effects reconciliation for both the church and the world. Our appreciation of God’s love should, indeed, be increased as we reflect upon what great cost was involved in the sending of His beloved Son to die on behalf of all mankind.
Our appreciation of Jesus should also be increased. While the Heavenly Father in His love sent His beloved Son, it is also true that the Son Himself gladly acquiesced in this divine arrangement. The sentiments of His heart always were, “I delight to do Thy will, O My God; Thy law is within My heart.” (Psa. 40:7,8; Heb. 10:5-7) Our thankfulness for this divine gift will be in proportion as we comprehend the fullness of all that is implied in such a wonderful provision for suffering and dying: humanity. We are aided in our comprehension of it by reflecting upon the deliverance that was effected through the sacrifice of the typical Passover lamb. Thus it is that while the Memorial Supper is not a continuation of the Passover, it does help us in our understanding and appreciation of the antitype to have our thoughts dwell somewhat upon the type.
To realize fully what the death of Jesus means should make us very humble. It should impress upon our minds the fact of our imperfect, undone condition. It should help us to realize that we have nothing of our own of which we can boast, or with which we can commend ourselves to the Lord, and expect His favor. It should help us to understand more fully the vital significance of those well-known lines, “On Christ the solid Rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.”
To be reminded thus of our own imperfections and the necessity of coming under the covering of the blood, should, in turn, make us very sympathetic toward others, especially toward our brethren. It should remind us of the folly of criticizing others because of their weaknesses, when, in fact, we are afflicted by similar and possibly even greater imperfections than those whom we may be prone to judge and condemn.
When the first Memorial Supper was instituted by the Master Himself, there was one present, Judas, who had it in his heart to betray the Lord. It is appropriate, therefore, that in the Memorial Supper of 1941, each one of the consecrated should examine carefully his own heart, to make sure that he is not, by judging and condemning, betraying one of the Lord’s brethren.
In the typical Passover, the Israelites were commanded to have their houses free of all leaven. As we memorialize the death of the anti-typical Passover Lamb, it is important that we have our hearts cleansed from the leaven of sin. May we indeed be thus cleansed and have our hearts filled with love and sympathy toward all, and be ready to lay down our lives for the brethren.
A TRUE EXPRESSION OF LOVE
In the thirteenth chapter of 1st Corinthians, the Apostle Paul enumerates a number of characteristics of love, among which is his statement that “Love … seeketh not her own.” We see this particular characteristic of the Master’s love on display at the time He instituted the original Memorial. It was the love that does not seek its own, that impelled Jesus to make the supreme sacrifice on behalf of the church and the world. It was this love that enabled Him to address the betrayer, Judas, as friend. Jesus had done no wrong for which He should suffer. He was always right, always just, always in harmony with His Father’s will; yet He willingly surrendered to His accusers, and permitted Himself, not only to be betrayed, but also to be crucified. Here was an outstanding example of how divine, love seeketh not its own.
It is fitting, we believe, as we memorialize the death of our Redeemer, and seek to understand better the motive which prompted this supreme sacrifice, that we examine our own heart, for the purpose of making sure that it is filled with true love that seeketh not its own. Such an examination is made possible by noting our attitude toward those whom we feel have misjudged and misused us. Do we have the spirit of retaliation? Do we desire to pay back in kind? Do we feel that in justice the wrongs of others must necessarily be exposed and punished? Or, on the other hand, is the love that fills our heart so wholly like that of the Master’s love that we are willing to forego the demands of justice, and by seeking not our own, but sacrificing it, to lay down our lives in the interests of all, even our enemies?
The motivating power of sin is selfishness, hence, as we endeavor to cleanse our hearts from the leaven of sin in order that we may partake of the Memorial Supper acceptably, it is well that we take note of the extent to which our thoughts and words and deeds are prompted by self-interest, rather than by the desire to know and do the Father’s will. Self-interest may manifest itself along any one or another line. It might be a desire for comfort, pleasure, health, wealth, having our own way, ambition, etc. To have all of these elements of selfishness cleansed from our hearts will mean that the will of God is reigning supreme in our affections. There is no better time to rededicate ourselves to the doing of God’s will than when we memorialize the death of Jesus, our Redeemer. In thus doing, it should be in full consciousness of the fact that in carrying out this will we too, like Jesus, will be led in the way of suffering and death.
THE BREAD AND THE CUP
Jesus and His disciples were gathered in the Upper Room to eat the Passover Supper. Apparently it was at the close of this Supper that the Master took some of the unleavened bread, and some of the fruit of the vine that remained, and instituted the Memorial Supper. He took the bread and after the blessing, brake it, giving it to His disciples, and saying, “Take, eat: this is My body, … broken for you.” (I Cor. 11:24) Manifestly the Master meant that this bread represented His body, and that, in partaking of it, the disciples were, in symbol, saying that they gladly appropriated to themselves the life that was made possible through the sacrifice of Jesus’ humanity.
In the sixth chapter of John, verse 54, Jesus says, “Whoso eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, hath eternal life.” In the following verse He adds, “For My flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is drink indeed.” Continuing the same line of thought, He adds, in the 56th verse, “He that eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, dwelleth in Me, and I in him.” The disciples found it very difficult to comprehend the significance of these words. They said among themselves, “This is an hard saying; who can hear it?”—John 6:60
When Jesus noted the difficulties the disciples experienced, He offered a word of explanation. This is found in verse 63, where He says, “It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” This was Jesus’ way of explaining that He did not mean the disciples were to eat His literal flesh and drink His literal blood, for this would not profit them. His explanation indicates that the only way in which His followers can eat His flesh and drink His blood is by obedience to His words. Obedience to the words of Jesus means the recognition of our own imperfections and the necessity of His redemptive work on our behalf. Furthermore, this obedience implies also a full consecration to do His will. Full obedience to the Master’s words means that we will accept His invitation to deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow Him.
Only through this full obedience can any one hope to derive the life-giving blessings that have been purchased through His redemptive work. In this age, obedience to the Master’s words as a means by which we appropriate to ourselves His broken body and shed blood, means that we, like Him, will be willing to lay down our lives. This is the condition upon which anyone can now receive life. This is made plain by the Master when He said that, “Whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for My sake shall find it.”—Matt. 16:24,25
This is the Master’s own way of expressing the thought later explained by the Apostle Paul when he says that we have the privilege of being baptized into Jesus’ death—“planted together in the likeness of His death.” Being planted together in the likeness of His death, we have the hope of being in the likeness of His resurrection. We die with Him in order that we may live with Him. We suffer with Him in order that we may reign with Him.
Thus seen it is clear that when we partake of the Memorial emblems of unleavened bread and fruit of the vine, it symbolizes not only that we are accepting God’s gift on our behalf, but also that we recognize the only way of accepting this gift at the present time is by taking up our cross and following the Master into death. It means, in other words, that we become broken with Him, and that our life is poured out with His.
It is doubtless this which the Apostle Paul had in mind when he said, “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion [Greek, partnership] of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion [Greek, partnership] of the body of Christ?” (I Cor. 10:16,17) Yes, beloved, we not only partake of the bread and of the fruit of the vine, as representing the benefits we receive from Christ, but in the symbol also is brought home to us the fact that we share with Him in His death and in His sufferings, inspired by the hope of sharing with Him in His life and in His Kingdom reign.
THE BLOOD OF THE NEW COVENANT
As we have already noted, on the morning following the death of the typical Passover lamb in Egypt, all Israel was delivered. This represents the deliverance of all mankind from sin and death, following the passing over of the church of the firstborn during the night of this Gospel age. It is important, therefore, that in memorializing the death of Jesus, we keep in mind that the salvation and exaltation of the church is not the completion of the divine plan. We should remember that both the death of Jesus and of the church, who die with Him, is leading up to the deliverance of all mankind during the Kingdom period. It is the Apostle Paul who says, “The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now, for the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.”—Rom. 8:18-22
When instituting the Memorial Supper, Jesus reminded His disciples of the provision that was being made, not only for them, but also for the world. He said of the cup, “This is My blood of the new testament.” This, no doubt, is a reference to the promise of the New Covenant that was later to be made with natural Israel, and by means of which the whole world is yet to become reconciled to God.—Jer. 31:31-34; Acts 15:14-17
It is appropriate that Jesus should refer to His blood as the blood of the New Covenant. The church is promised that if she suffers with Christ, she shall reign with Him. However, there is nothing in the thought of a Kingdom reign which suggests the necessity of a sacrifice to effect reconciliation. There is this thought, however, in connection with the making of a covenant. The fact that a covenant, or the making of a covenant, is necessary, implies that those with whom it is made are alienated from God—are not at-one with Him. The whole world is alienated from God because of sin. The only means by which the penalty for sin could be set aside is through the redemptive work of Christ. His blood, therefore, guarantees the making of this New Covenant with Israel that as a result of it, all humanity may be recovered and blessed.
Thus Jesus’ blood is seen to be not only the source of life for the church—that which makes possible her acceptable sacrifice, her death with Him—but it is also the blood which makes possible the blessings of everlasting life which will later be offered to the world of mankind in general.
Blessed will we be if, when we partake of the Memorial Supper in 1941, we have in mind these unselfish viewpoints. First of all, it is a reminder of the gift of God’s love on behalf of the church and of the world. Then it represents the privilege we have of unselfishly sharing in the sacrificial ministry of the Christ. And finally, we should keep in mind that through the sacrifice of Jesus and the church the blessings of restitution will finally be administered to a dying world. In brief, we memorialize this threefold manifestation of the great principle of divine love. Love that God Himself demonstrated; love which Jesus further exemplified, and love which should be filling our hearts. This love will finally manifest itself in the blessing of all the families of the earth.
All those who recognize their need of the redemptive work of Christ, and have made a full consecration of themselves to do the Father’s will, are privileged to partake of the Memorial Supper. These, indeed, should partake, and thus be reminded of their vows of consecration, and being reminded thereof, resolve afresh to be faithful “even unto death.”