"Do this in remembrance of me."
I wondered why Jesus would say that. It sounds so solemn, so sad, as if it's easy for us to forget the central figure of history who up and died on a cross. But then it occurred to me - he wouldn't have asked us to remember if he figured it'd be easy; it's not a "just making sure" sort of comment. So why did he think that we (or the disciples, at the time) were going to forget what he did?
I think the answer lies in something I seem to write about more often than not: memory. I don't have a very good one; actually, I have the memory of a fish (as I've written on numerous occasions, forgetting each time that I wrote about it before). If I'm doing something, and something else happens, I completely forget about the first thing. It's a real problem.
It also means I go on long tangents.
So I started to wonder, did Jesus tell us to make sure to remember him because he was thinking we'd be busy doing soemthing else? If so, what was that other thing to be?
Maybe the answer is the great commission. He said "go and make disciples of all nations". You know it, we've all read it about a bajillion times. But maybe that's just it - we need to remember to take the time and remember because the rest of our life is to be full of loving our neighbors and of making disciples - of others, and of ourselves. If we spend a lot of time making disciples, we might forget to simply stop and remember Jesus' sacrifice.
But I suppose we should ask ourselves: has our remembering taken the front seat? Has the modern-day church spent too much time reminiscing and not enough time serving and making disciples?
Discuss.
I think the answer lies in something I seem to write about more often than not: memory. I don't have a very good one; actually, I have the memory of a fish (as I've written on numerous occasions, forgetting each time that I wrote about it before). If I'm doing something, and something else happens, I completely forget about the first thing. It's a real problem.
It also means I go on long tangents.
So I started to wonder, did Jesus tell us to make sure to remember him because he was thinking we'd be busy doing soemthing else? If so, what was that other thing to be?
Maybe the answer is the great commission. He said "go and make disciples of all nations". You know it, we've all read it about a bajillion times. But maybe that's just it - we need to remember to take the time and remember because the rest of our life is to be full of loving our neighbors and of making disciples - of others, and of ourselves. If we spend a lot of time making disciples, we might forget to simply stop and remember Jesus' sacrifice.
But I suppose we should ask ourselves: has our remembering taken the front seat? Has the modern-day church spent too much time reminiscing and not enough time serving and making disciples?
Discuss.
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