And He took bread, 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 (emphasis mine)
It’s Wednesday morning, so I am sitting at my parents’ dining room table eating freshly made apple cake—salt free, of course. It’s what I do almost every Wednesday morning, and I love it. We catch up on the news, and my father and I swap stories about having to maintain low-sodium diets. It’s rainy, so we don’t take our usual walk. Instead, we sit on the couch, my 64-year-old self in the middle between my Mum and my Dad, and we look through my baby book together. We laugh at the funny things I said as a toddler, and they reminisce as they look back to the time when they were new parents and just learning how to care for a child of their own.
My mother apologizes for serving apple cake again, the most common snack served on Wednesdays. She comments on my busy schedule and gently scolds me for coming when I have so much work to do. I look at their dear faces, and my eyes smart with easily-formed tears. Do they not realize how much I love coming? That the rhythm of tea and apple cake and conversation at their table moors me in some way to who I was as well as who I am becoming? These are sacred moments. These are captured memories that with every passing Wednesday grow deeper and more secure in my mind, tucked away for the time when all I’ll have is the memory of these Wednesdays. Visiting with them heals and refreshes and replenishes my soul. I am loved. I belong. I am grateful. Every Wednesday, I am grateful.
On the way home, I ponder the value of repetition and remembering. I’m driving the back roads, of course, because who wants a highway when you can drive through countryside in Maine and New Hampshire? Easter is coming, so I think of Jesus at the Last Supper, looking at His motley crew of disciples as they lean back on elbows at that table. How many meals has He eaten with this disparate group of men who left everything behind to follow Him? It’s His very last meal with them before His death and the resurrection that will change everything.
Jesus wants them to remember. He wants to give them a picture that will stay with them … for decades … and will then be passed on to others after them. He takes the bread and breaks it in front of them and departs from the regular Passover pattern of words. He looks at those dear faces, and He says, “This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of Me.” He lifts the wine and talks of His blood shed for them, and the color looks heavy in the cup with the significance of what He is saying, even though they do not yet fully understand. He wants them to remember the significance of the cross for all the years ahead of them. And so He breaks the bread and pours the wine.
After the horror of the crucifixion, the agony of the sealed tomb, the astonishment at His reappearance, and the sadness at His ascension into Heaven … they do remember. They break that bread and think again about how God in flesh allowed His creatures to break His body and pierce His veins and arteries again and again and again that awful day, so that His blood was poured out, the price paid for our disobedience once and for all. In full. Finished.
It’s important to remember. It’s essential for those of us who choose to follow Jesus, and who are chosen to follow Him, to break bread and drink the cup and never forget the tremendous life sacrifice made on our behalf. The repetition makes the remembering grow deeper and more secure in our minds, tucked away for those hard days when we forget whose we are. It heals, refreshes, and replenishes our souls as we once again are broken into awe and amazement with the weight of what He did because of our own many sins and follies. We are forgiven. We belong. We are loved. We are grateful.
Meeting together with other believers is important in every season. But at Easter, especially, it matters that we are all together as family, reviewing the family album, sharing the familiar bread and cup, remembering and repeating together. May God be pleased this Easter season as we, His church, gather in worship, repentance, and gratitude. It’s good to remember.
Lord Jesus, thank You for Your sacrifice for us. Thank You for gifting us with a visible and concrete way to remember what You did because You loved us. Help us to be a grateful people as we gather together in our various churches this Easter. In Your Name we pray, Amen.
You are loved,
Sharon
Sweet Selah Ministries
Vision
To inspire a movement away from the belief that “busy is better”
and toward the truth of God’s Word that stillness and knowing
Him matter most—and will be reflected in more effective work and service
Mission
To offer biblical resources and retreats that help women pause (Selah)
and love God more deeply as they know Him more intimately (Sweet)
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