Remember Me

"And He took bread, and gave thanks, and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, 'This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of me.' Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you'" (Luke 22:19-20 NKJV). In the book The Power of the Blood Covenant, Malcolm Smith asks the question: How do we remember something that happened before we were born? He then explains that this remembering is not about bringing The past to mind. He defines remembering as "an active participation in the historical reality of the past by reenacting it, and in so doing realizing the powers released in that past in such a way as to shape the present moment." Smith goes on to say, "This definition of 'remember' means that at the celebration of the holy meal we do not look back to the cross and empty tomb. In this remembrance His finished work is brought forward into the present moment, even as He in His glory is uniquely here, present with us in the rite. We receive in the present moment all the effects of the covenant; in this now moment we rejoice in our redemption achieved, that the burden of sin and guilt has been sent away from us, and we are now declared righteous in Christ. We glory in our deliverance from the domain of darkness and in the eternal life that we partake of. All the terms, promises, and blessings of the covenant are here now in this present moment and released to us by the Spirit in the meal of remembering." Smith says, "...the Holy Spirit will achieve the 'remembering'; we set the table with bread and wine, but it is He who brings the past into our now time and brings about our being immediately present to the Lord Jesus, the guarantor of the new covenant." "It should also be noted that the subject of our remembering is not only His sufferings and death. He said "...in remembrance of Me"--the oceans of glory wrapped up in "Me" from the Incarnation to His exaltation to the right hand of the Father, which of course includes His sufferings and death but from the perspective of the glory that followed. Smith continues, "I believe that Luke deliberately recorded two meals, the one in the Upper Room the night of His sufferings and death that Matthew and Mark and Luke record, and then the Emmaus meal that is unique to Luke's gospel." "In both cases, Jesus took, gave thanks or blessed, broke, and gave the bread to them. The night of the institution of the meal was overshadowed by the enormous cost of ratifying the new covenant: sufferings, bloodshed, and death. The meal in Emmaus was the celebration of the triumphant Jesus, who had achieved the covenant; He was made known to them in the breaking of bread, and the disciples were filled with unspeakable joy and burning hearts." In other words, when we take the bread and cup, we join Jesus in celebrating in the present all of the wonderful gifts that were given to us because of what He did in the past.