For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be answerable for the body and blood of the Lord. Examine yourselves, and only then eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For all who eat and drink without discerning the body, eat and drink judgment against themselves. (1 Corinthians 11:23-29, NRSV)
Do this in remembrance of me is the phrase we usually hear when we read this. Yet today I read the passage and I heard, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”
Every time we take communion, we are proclaiming the death of Christ on the cursed tree! Every time we partake of bread and wine and think about our Lord we are placing Him back on the cross.
Wow! I want to stop right now! I never wanted Jesus to go to the cross for me in the first place. I am grateful. But I do not want to send Him back again and again.
But here is the kicker…
Without the cross there is no resurrection!
Without the death there is no life!
He had to die so that we all might live! You see you also died to self. in your baptism you died to the old Adam and were raised in the new life of Christ and if there is no cross, there is no new life. So do this in remembrance of what I gave for you. Remember how much I love you!
aSacredRebel 