Yesterday was Memorial Day. We set it aside as an opportunity to reflect on the lives given in service to the United States. I hope everyone’s holiday was enjoyable. We set aside a Memorial Day every year, and every year we are asked to pause and remember those who gave their lives for a cause they believed to be worth dying for. There’s valor in that; just the very idea of being willing to die for a cause is remarkable. Lots of people are willing to join a cause. Many are willing to suffer for a cause. A few are prepared to face the possibility of dying for a cause. Rarely, however, will you find people willing to sign up for a cause that will guarantee their death. Those we honor on Memorial Day died. They were prepared to die, but all of them hoped to live. Still, just being prepared is worth remembering once a year (twice if you include Veteran’s Day).
If all that sounds foreign to you, then you’re probably not an American, and that’s okay. Your country may have its own Memorial Day-like celebration, some other day on the calendar, where you will honor the soldiers of your land who fought, hoping to live, but being prepared to die for their country.
But what about the person who willingly signs up for a task, knowing death will follow?
A fireman might rush into a burning building, but he hopes to rush out of it, too. A soldier might scale a hill with bullets flying, but he’s hoping to go home when the fighting is done. My point is not to belittle the bravery of those who are brave, but to point out how much more remarkable it is that Jesus went into the proverbial burning building knowing He would die. Jesus climbed His hill, knowing it would be the last thing He did.
You might be tempted to say: “But Jesus knew He would rise from the dead!” That’s true, but so what? You try going through the agony of the cross. I guarantee you, Jesus wasn’t thinking: “This is fine; I’m going to rise again, anyway.” It’s hard to think about Sunday when you’re being whipped, beaten, pierced, and stabbed on Friday.
The Lord’s death is unlike any other. While you can probably find someone out there willing to die for a loved one, and while you might, maybe, if you look hard enough, find someone willing to volunteer to die for a total stranger, you will not find a person willing to march willingly to a torturous death on behalf of an ENEMY. That’s what the love of Jesus compelled Him to do. His death was not just one in a million. His death was “one and only” (Romans 5:7-8). The world had never seen anything like it before. And yet, Jesus tells us to love our enemies as much as He loved us (Luke 6:35, John 13:34).
Annually, we memorialize those who died in the heat of battle, fighting for their country.
Weekly, we memorialize the one who gave His life for us all, willingly dying for the world.
False teachers and misled people will try to argue we don’t need to take the Lord’s Supper every week. The Bible says Christians are to take the communion feast when we come together on the Lord’s Day (1 Corinthians 11), and since we come together every Lord’s Day (1 Corinthians 16), we memorialize the Master every Lord’s Day. Every Sunday we have the opportunity, not only to reflect on the sacrificed body and blood of Jesus, but to “commune” with Jesus Himself, who spiritually eats the meal with us, as citizens of the Kingdom (Matthew 26:29).
If all of that sounds foreign to you, then you’re probably spending your Lord’s Day worshiping at a place that doesn’t do Bible Things in Bible Ways.
And that’s not okay.
~Matthew