February 5

People tend to forget, even significant events and promises. Legions have been those through the centuries who pledged to change their lives or dedicate their lives to the Lord if He would only get them out of the mess they were in at the moment. While some remembered and kept their promises, the vast majority soon forgot their pledge, even after God kept His end of the bargain. The visit of God’s death angel to Egypt, the miraculous sparing of Israel’s firstborn, and the freeing of the Israelites from Egypt were all major events. Only by remembering how God had saved the Israelites in this way, would God’s people feel confident in God’s protections and provisions in the future. God established the Passover celebration as a feast to remember how He had liberated Israel from it’s captivity. Each year when the Israelites observed the Pass-over by carefully following the instructions God had given them, they were keeping alive that part of their history. And whenever the Hebrew children asked their parents what the meaning of the Passover was, the parents would explain how God’s Death Angel had passed over the houses of the Israelites where the blood of the Passover Lamb appeared on the doorposts (Exodus 12:12-16; 24-30). This feast would be a visible reminder that God had brought His people out of Egypt with great power (Exodus 13:9,14,16).
With the death of Jesus Christ, his burial and resurrection, God made it possible for people from every land and every time in history to be forgiven and liberated from their slavery to sin. So, that we would not forget the blessings of our redemption, Jesus established the Lord’s Supper. His instructions were that we observe this memorial feast symbolizing the sacrifice of his body (bread) and his blood (fruit of the vine), whenever we gather in his name (I Corinthians 11:23-25). It was no coincidence or accident that Jesus established this observance on the night of the Passover meal (Luke 22:13-30). Even as the Passover symbolized God’s deliverance of Israel from their bondage in Egypt, so the Lord’s Supper symbolizes God’s deliverance of believers in Christ from their bondage to sin. Interestingly enough, those with children have often had the same questions posed before them that the Hebrew children asked of their parents. “Why do we do this?” The Lord’s Supper is not only a reminder to all who are redeemed of God’s wonderful grace, but also an opportunity to tell the story to their children and an unbe-lieving world about the love and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ (I Cor.11:26).