1 Corinthians 11:23-26
For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread: And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.  After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.  For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come.

Why is it so important to remember such a thing?  Why do we celebrate a death, as it were?  Because Jesus did it for us.  This is the whole source of our life, the reason for our faith.  We remember Him offering Himself willingly.  We remember that blood was shed.  We remember that sin has a price and that our debt was paid out of love by the very Son of God.  We remember a dark day when the nails were hammered in, when the crowds stood mocking, when the sky was dark and the Father turned away and poured out His wrath.  We remember a life was given.

And now we are free and forgiven.  We are saved.  We are uncondemned.  We are justified.  And we have to remember why and who made it possible.  So it is an opportunity to celebrate Christ and to rejoice in Him.  It is a continual depiction of His broken body and spilled blood.  And partaking as we do in the Lord’s Supper helps us remember it better through taking that action, participating in a memorial, actively focusing our minds on what it all means.

And may that remembrance pull our hearts back into a right relationship if we have gone astray.  It can be a time to renew our commitment to our Lord, to forsake the sin that holds us in bondage and experience again the fresh realization of all that Jesus accomplished for our sakes on the cross.  It’s an opportunity to remind ourselves of the love Jesus has for us.  And may it inspire us to do better, to keep serving, to remember that it is all worth it.

Jesus asks us to remember Him.  Sometimes in the midst of life, it is easy to lose our focus.  At times our minds can be filled with so many concerns or obligations or a number of other things.  So it’s good to have this set time to meditate on Christ and what He did for us.  It’s good to have a reminder that He came once to die for us, but He is also coming again for us.  It may seem strange to remember His death in a kind of graphic way, but it is also a sweet reminder of the love that was poured out and the hope that we have in Jesus.