Maundy Thursday (Holy Thursday)Hebrews 9:11-22; Matthew 26:17-30
Remembering is important, especially when it comes to remembering things of significance. Forgetting where you’ve left your keys can be a nuisance, but forgetting your wedding anniversary is far worse. But remembering something important isn’t enough; we must also act on remembering the event in order to demonstrate its importance. It’s unlikely that a wife who is upset with her husband for forgetting their wedding anniversary would be any happier about it if he explained that he did remember it but didn’t act on his recollection. Remembering something that is important and significant always goes beyond simply thinking about it. This is true of earthly things; it is also true of spiritual matters.
The Lord knows His people’s tendency to forget important spiritual truths, so He establishes ways for us to actively remember what He has done to delivery us from slavery and death. For the people of the Old Covenant, Passover observances were the means of remembering. On the anniversary of their deliverance from Egypt, the people were to remember precisely how and what the Lord told them to remember. Through the rites and rituals of the Passover observances prescribed by God, they actively remembered their deliverance in a way that connected them to the very things that they were remembering. More than simply recalling their history, they were participating in the mighty acts of God through which He had liberated them.
It’s no coincidence that Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper in the context of the Passover. Not only were the rites and rituals of Passover meant to remind God’s people of what He had done in the past, they were also meant to point people to His ultimate act of deliverance. The Lord’s Supper, like the Passover, is a remembrance, a participation, and an anticipation. This feast was given for us to remember what Jesus has done to liberate us from the slavery of sin and death. More than recalling our history, the remembrance to which Jesus calls us brings us into an active participation in His death. Through this participation we receive the benefits of His victory on the Cross. The past, present, and future join together when we gather in remembrance of Jesus’ sacrificial death to eat His body and drink His blood as a foretaste of the everlasting feast of those who are and will be gathered around His throne. With angels, archangels, and the whole company of heaven, by Jesus’ gracious invitation, we take our place at His table not simply to recall what He has done for us, but to participate, to receive, and to actively remember.
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