#1 Remember Me: Jesus, the I AM
Jesus said, "Remember me." Not "Remember what I have said or done."
How often to observe communion has been debated, sometimes fervently. Is having it at every service, each week, or monthly too frequent? Do those who serve the Eucharist quarterly have the right balance between ritual and remembering?
Jesus gave us no schedule, but transformed the annual Passover feast into an undefined “whenever.” Paul followed suit, instructing disciples, “as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes” (1 Corinthians 11:26, emphasis mine.)
We are left to keep the communion service meaningful and to guard it from rote.
What is paramount is its purpose. Jesus said, "Do this in remembrance of Me." (Luke 22:19)
How do we go about remembering Jesus? What memories of Jesus will we bring to the Lord’s table the next time?
These are questions this article considers.
Reposted from the IM Writers Forum
Scripture reading: Luke 22:14-20.
The hour has come that Jesus has had His heart set on.
"With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you." Jesus and the disciples have kept other Passovers together, but this one is different. Jesus says, "I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. We have remembered how God delivered us from slavery in Egypt, but now I say, when you eat, do this in remembrance of Me."
Remember me.
This seems like an unnecessary command. Look around the table. There are Peter, James, and John—the inner circle. There are the other apostles. All of them had been with Jesus day in and day out for three years.
To them, Jesus says, "Remember me."
I can hear Peter's response. "Remember you? How could we ever forget?"
"Lord, I remember when we had no food and you blessed a few loaves and fish and we fed 5,000. And that same night you sent us to the other side of the lake and a storm came up. You walked out to us on the water, and I walked with you.
"There was Jairus' daughter and Lazarus, whom you raised from the dead.
"Remember you? Lord, I could never forget you."
I can hear Jesus sigh. "Ah, Peter. You say, 'I will never deny you!' and yet you will deny me three times before this night is over.
"You say, 'I will never forget you!' But occasions to forget will come; therefore, I say, 'Remember me' and I give you this Passover bread and wine as a reminder."
When Jesus says, "Remember me," He shows how well He knows us. We forget. He says to us what His Father told Israel through Moses.
"Take heed to yourself, and diligently keep yourself, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life." (Deuteronomy 4:9).
Israel had seen and heard amazing signs and wonders. The Ten Plagues in Egypt. The wailing of Egyptian families while the Death Angel passed over their own children. They walked through the Red Sea. They drank water from a rock and ate manna from heaven.
How could they forget? But they did. In Psalm 106 we read,
"Our fathers in Egypt did not understand Your wonders; they did not remember the multitude of Your mercies, but rebelled by the sea. They soon forgot His works; they did not wait for His counsel. They forgot God their Savior, Who had done great things in Egypt"
(Psalm 106:7, 13, 21).
So, when Jesus says, "Remember me," it is because He knows us. We are prone to forget and need to be reminded. The disciples picked up on this in their writings.
Peter said, "I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things, though you know and are established in the present truth" (2 Peter 1:12).
Paul repeated the idea often. "Remind them," he wrote to his young pastors. "I remind you," he said. "Remember that Jesus Christ ... was raised from the dead."
Jude had intended to write about our "common salvation" but delivered a reminder instead. "Remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ."
Jesus knows us. We need reminders.
But there is another reason He says on this night, "Remember me." He has not needed to say it before, while He was with them. But the time has come that the disciples will be without Him. The next day the Shepherd will be struck, and the sheep scattered. In just over a month, He will return to the Father.
We have a saying, "Out of sight, out of mind."
If the disciples don't remember Him when He is gone, who will? How will the world ever know God had kept His promise, and Jesus had come?
God had promised the coming of the Messiah for centuries. Many are still waiting, but the disciples knew Jesus was the Son whom God sent because He loved the world and wanted none to perish.
Jesus came, and His own rejected Him. If the world did not believe when He was here, how would they ever believe when He was gone? As Jesus asked on His way to the cross, "If they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?" (Luke 23:31).
Would they even know He had been here?
This question bothers all of us. What difference does my life make? Who will know—who will care?—that I spent a few years on this earth? We want to be remembered, so we make our gravestones with our names and dates and maybe a statement that summarizes our life. We strive to leave a legacy—anything that says, "I was here. I matter."
I don't think Jesus had these concerns about Himself. He had them for us. He would return to Heaven, where He continues to minister in the power of an endless life. But what becomes of us if we forget Him?
Israel "soon forgot" and became like the people around them.
Psalm 10 shows when God is out of our thoughts, we become arrogant and abusive.
If God is not in your memory, He will not be in your life. You cannot remember someone you don't know.
The hymn writer Frances Havergal made this observation, "We cannot remember what we do not know. We must know the Lord Jesus Christ before we can truly remember Him at His table."
Jesus did not say, "Remember what I told you." This is the work of the Holy Spirit who will "bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you" (John 14:26).
And He didn't say, "Remember the works I did among you." The disciples certainly remembered—we have many of them recorded in the Bible—but He said, "he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father" (John 14:12).
His words and works are vital, but these are not what Jesus said we are to bring to the communion table.
"Remember me."
Remember the One who said, I AM.
I AM the bread of life. When you hungered and thirsted for righteousness, I AM the one who fed you.
I AM the light of the world. When all was dark and you could not see your way, I was the light to your path and the lamp to your feet.
I AM the door. When you were far from God and couldn't find the entrance to His kingdom, I came to you and called, "Strive to enter through the narrow gate. I am the door of the sheep."
I AM the good shepherd. Remember the times you strayed and were lost? I left the ones who were safe, searched until I found you, and gathered you to myself.
I AM the resurrection and the life. I know the days when you said, like Job, "I wish I hadn't been born! The life I have is no life at all. I am empty.” Those days are past. Because I live, you shall live also."
I AM the true vine. For a long time you lived on your own, and I allowed it, to show you that without me, you can do nothing. But I have grafted you into myself and filled you with strength and hope that in Me, you can do all things. Remember me, and so abide in me.
I AM the way, the truth, and the life. These three are the sum of all that I AM.
I am the way out of your despair into the joy of my Father's house.
Learn from me the truth about yourself, and my Father.
My Father said, "I have set before you life and death ... therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live." He was speaking of me. I AM the life set before you.
God said to Moses, I AM.
Jesus says to us, I AM.
"Remember me."
When we know Jesus, we remember Him. And remembering Him, we come to the cross and love Him, because by this we know He first loved us and gave Himself for us.
The world out there will know we remember Jesus when we "have love for one another." The world will know Jesus was here—not because of a headstone in a cemetery or even because of amazing signs and wonders—but when they see us loving one another, as Jesus loved us. When they see us forgiving one another, as Jesus forgave us.
We will bring Jesus to their mind when He is in ours.
But when we gather, we are those who know Him, the One who is, and was, and is to come. We know the Messiah has come. He is alive at the Father's right hand in heaven. Not only that, He lives within our hearts.
We remember Him because we know Him. Do you know Jesus? Then you have memories. At the next communion service, let the Lord probe, “Who AM I to you?”
Your answer will help you do what Jesus said. “Remember me.”