All people have memorials by which they remember important
people, events, and places.
All people have memorials by which they remember important
people, events, and places.
Families remember birthdays, wedding anniversaries, graduations, etc. These memorials have importance to the family and maybe close friends, but usually not to others.
Nations have buildings and statues to remember important men of history such as presidents and even sports heroes. And we set aside certain days as holidays such as Independence Day and Memorial Day.
These memorials have importance to the nation but not to people outside the nation. (I heard of a person who was visiting England on July 4 and could not understand why they were not celebrating Independence Day!) And these memorials tend to come and go with time. We memorialize things today that were not memorialized in the past.
Old Testament people sometimes memorialized events by setting up a pile of rocks, but God especially had days to remind people of His blessings to them:
Passover was important because it memorialized Israel's freedom from Egyptian bondage.
The Sabbath was important because it memorialized creation and freedom from Egypt.
These memorials were more important than family memorials, but even so they were memorials only to the nation of Israel. And today God has removed them so that we do not remember the Passover or the Sabbath as such (Colossians 2:15,16,17).
The memorial God has given us is the Lord's Supper.
1 Corinthians 11:23-25 - In the Lord's Supper we remember Jesus' body and blood. We look backward to the death of Jesus. How important is this to you?
Jesus' death and resurrection are truly the focal point of history. If the event makes the memorial important, then there is no more important memorial than the Lord's Supper.
Ephesians 1:7 - In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. The reason we remember Jesus' death is that He gave His life as the sacrifice for our sins.
1 Peter 2:24 - He bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we might live for righteousness; by His stripes we were healed.
Acts 4:12 - Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
John 14:6 - I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
To remember Jesus' death is to remember that Jesus is the Savior and there is no other way to salvation. This memorial has major importance to people of every nation and every age. Salvation and a truly useful life cannot be found through Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Humanism, or evolution. Without Jesus' sacrifice, none of us could be saved.
How much do you and I appreciate the death of Jesus? Our appreciation is reflected in our attitude toward the Lord's Supper. How diligent are we in remembering Jesus' death each first day of the week and truly showing our appreciation in this memorial that Jesus himself authorized?
(c) Copyright David E. Pratte, 2018; gospelway.com
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Scripture quotations are generally from the New King James Version (NKJV), copyright 1982, 1988 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. used by permission. All rights reserved.