In Remembrance of Me

1 Corinthians 11:23-25
For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

Twice Christ mentions the phrase, "in remembrance of me" in this passage. We are to eat the bread in remembrance of Jesus and drink the wine in remembrance of Jesus. In our culture, the phrase "in remembrance" is used in conjunction with memorials for loved ones who have passed away. People have gravestones of their loved ones engraved with the epitaph that begins, "In Remembrance of". Sometimes the phrase is used in obituaries. Typically, these gravestones and obituaries convey very little about the deceased. A gravestone may have the epitaph "a loving wife" or "a faithful husband." An obituary in the newspaper would have the bare facts of a person's life: their surviving relatives, their hobbies or charities, and their vocational accomplishments. The phrase is a way to honor the dead by stating that the deceased is still loved and remembered by the living. In a way it focuses just as much on the living as the deceased.

However, in 1st Corinthians, the Greek word translated "remembrance" does not mean "in memory of" but rather, as my Greek dictionary defines it, "an affectionate calling the Person Himself to mind." My linguistic key puts it another way, "The word indicates to call back again into memory a vivid experience." I was trying to think of an example of this and it came to me that a funeral service we had at Grace in North Liberty several years ago for Darryl Lindley exemplified this idea.

Darryl was one of our Church's most cherished members. He was a big Cub fan and wore a Cub t-shirt and a Cub baseball hat to almost every church service. He loved to talk baseball to anyone who would listen. When Darryl passed away, the funeral service celebrated Darryl's life through stories told by family, friends, and pastors. People laughed and cried. We remembered together his love of fishing and baseball. We recalled his hospitality. People told stories about what a great butcher he was. His family quoted Darrylisms: he had an unique proverb for different situations. We recalled how much Darryl loved Jesus. In other words, we remembered the person himself and not just a slogan or epitaph. We celebrated Darryl's life through remembrance.

When Christ tells us to remember him through celebrating communion, he seems to be emphasizing his death. We are to remember that just as he broke the bread, his body was broken in suffering for us. We are to remember the cup of wine he passed around to the disciples represented the blood of the New Covenant. As it says the Gospel According to Matthew, his blood was poured out for the forgiveness of our sins. In 1 Corinthians 11:26, it reads "For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes." Through this remembering we proclaim how Christ's death and resurrection redeemed us to be a people unto God. Through the proclaiming we help each other to remember how much Jesus loved us and he is with us still. We proclaim the gospel not only to ourselves, but to the world around. This remembrance is not a memorial service for a dead person, but a celebration and proclamation of a living God who loved us and gave himself for us that we might dine with Him at the Lord's Table forever.