THE MEMORIAL OF THE LORD'S DEATH.
1.—THE LORD'S SUPPER.
There are three things, which characterize it as such, i.e., from the individual point of view:—
1—Salvation, i.e., the assurance of salvation in every believer, who partakes of it. This assurance of being saved is, of course, an individual or personal matter. At the “Lord's table” as such, we are partakers not merely as saved ones, but as members of the one body. Therefore we find those words referring to the death and redemption work of our Savior: “This is my body” “This is the cup of the new testament in my blood” &c., in the eleventh chapter in connection with the Lord's supper; whereas the words “body and blood of Christ” in chap. 10. do not so much emphasize redemption, but rather the ecclesiastical result of it, i.e., the communion of the body of Christ, as the glorified head of His body, and the communion of the blood of Christ, as having been redeemed by the same blood, and been baptized into one and the same body, by the Holy Spirit, of which the Lord's table is the expression (John 11:5252And not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad. (John 11:52) and 1 Cor. 12:1313For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:13)).
What further in an especial way characterizes the Lord's supper, is
2.—The remembrance of Him and of His love unto death.
If I love a person, the remembrance of him or her will not be a mere duty, but a necessity, a constant need for the heart. How much more would this be the case, if that person had not only risked, but given his life for me! How often would we remember such a friend? Once a year, say on the anniversary of his death? That would be a poor answer indeed to his love unto death.
Take the case of a decisive battle being fought between two hostile armies. During the battle the commander of the victorious army perceives that his sons, having approached the enemy too closely, are in danger of being surrounded and killed. The peril of his sons makes him for the moment forget everything else. He hastens to their rescue and succeeds in delivering them from the hands of the enemy, but he himself is wounded to death. The battle is won, and the commander of the victorious army is carried into his tent. His mourning sons, thus saved at the expense of their father's life, stand around the deathbed of the conqueror, their grief being rendered more poignant still by their reflection upon their foolhardiness having caused the death of their father. Would that father, think ye, have need to say, “My sons, remember me when I am gone?” Why, they would feel brokenhearted at such a request.
Suppose, further, the sons had, after the death of their father, had his likeness taken, with the death-wound in his breast, would they shut up that likeness in a closet, and take it out, on the anniversary of the father's death, to look at it and remember him? No, they would give to his likeness the best and most prominent place in the family room, daily to feast their eyes on the dear features of him, who was, under God's grace, not only the author but the savior of their lives.
Christian reader! When our Lord and Savior said in that night, “This do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me,” what did He mean by saying “as oft as ye drink it?” Once every year, or every six or three months, or once a month on the “Ordinance Sunday?” I leave it to your own hearts to interpret the meaning of those words, “as oft.” Those first Christians at Jerusalem did not appear to think that, by a frequent celebration, the memorial could lose anything of its solemn character and become something common, like an every-day duty, as is often asserted. Does the remembrance of a beloved friend, to whose self-sacrifice you owe everything, degenerate into something trivial, by your remembering him every day? I should think true love would hourly remember him. Certainly, for a loving heart it requires no effort to do so. Language of that sort savors of the same Laodicean lukewarmness, as the assertion not infrequently heard, that the “leaving the first love” is but a kind of natural law and therefore, so to speak, a “matter of course,” which cannot be helped!
Is this the way our hearts understand and interpret that loving injunction of our Savior, “This do ye, as often as ye drink it, in remembrance of me?” Was this the interpretation, which He expected from His disciples, when leaving it to their and our hearts, to give the right meaning to those words? Is this the answer of our hearts to His loving word in that cold dark night, “With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer?” Shame upon such unworthy replies of Laodicean hearts! Our proper response should be, “Lord, with desire we desire to do this in remembrance of Thee, Whose love was strong as death, love which all the waters of death could not quench, nor the fiery billows that rolled over Thy head consume.”
At this memorial of His death the Lord expects from us the spiritual freewill offerings of our hearts and lips. What is not done spontaneously and heartily is not worth much even for the world. Of what value can it possibly be to Him Who searches the hearts and reins and says, “Give me thy heart, my son"?
From Pentecost and after the believers celebrated the memorial of the Lord's death on the first day the week, that is, on the resurrection day, as being the fittest time for rendering unto God and to His Son their freewill offerings of praise, adoration and thanksgiving, whilst remembering at the same time the suffering love of the Savior, “Who loveth us and washed us from our sins in His own blood and made us a kingdom and priests, to His God and Father. To him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”
Those believers did not prefer on the resurrection morning of their Lord—to listen to some stirring or splendid sermon of a talented minister, instead of in subduedness of heart and mind, whilst musing upon the cross, feeding upon the roast lamb, worshipping God in spirit and in truth at the memorial-table of His love. They gave to Him the first place in their hearts on the first day of a new week, and afterward honored also His servants for their work's, that is for God's, sake.
I need scarcely say that this remembrance of the Lord is personal, although the public expression of it is rendered in the name of the whole assembly by those whom the Spirit of God may choose to be organs of the united grateful remembrance of the assembly in adoration and thanksgiving. From this point of view, I consider the remembrance of the Lord and of His sufferings and work of redemption as forming an integral part of the Lord's supper as such, His words, “This do ye in remembrance of Me,” having been spoken at the institution of the Lord's supper.