Luke 22:14–44

Family Bible Study
University Relations, Samford University; Southwestern Seminary graduate

You Need to Remember
Luke 22:14–44
After serving the congregation for almost two years, the young pastor remarked to his wife, “I don’t know if these people come to church because they love God or because they believe it is the socially acceptable thing to do.” In this pastor’s observation, he hit on a crucial question for churchgoers. Do people attend church out of habit, or does the  routine serve a meaningful purpose in their lives?

Apply this question to the church’s observance of the Lord’s Supper. When we participate in this meal, is it simply a ritual of the church, or does something happen at the Lord’s table that changes a person’s life? Jesus asked that the disciples receive the bread and the drink, “in remembrance of Me.” Whatever power the Lord’s Supper has in our lives, it seems to be connected with what we remember of Jesus and how we remember it.

The answer to what we remember of Jesus can be found in His response to the disciples’ dispute over who was the greatest among them. How tragic, shortsighted and self-centered the disciples were as Jesus faced His supreme test of faith and character. Whether to divert their anxiety from all that was happening at the moment or to contend one last time for positions of honor with Jesus, the disciples argued once again over who was the greatest among their group. On the numerous prior occasions the disciples had debated this issue, Jesus had consistently confronted their quarreling with an instruction about the Kingdom way to greatness through service.

Going beyond anything He had said prior, Jesus acknowledged that each of the disciples, except Judas Iscariot, would rule with Him in His Kingdom. There would be thrones upon which they would sit and judge the tribes of Israel. But they would be afforded these places of honor only after a lifetime of service given to God’s Kingdom. What we are to remember of Jesus at the Lord’s Supper is how the Lord’s service to the world culminated in His sacrificial death on the cross. Jesus had told the disciples on a previous occasion, “The Son of Man did not come into the world to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Matt. 20:28).

In order for contemporary Christians to receive what is needed when they partake of the Lord’s Supper, we need to remember what led Jesus to the cross. Jesus’ love for people in their real needs, even when that love brought Him into conflict with the ruling authorities, is what led Him to the cross. When one serves with this kind of clear conviction and commitment, a cross of some kind is usually in that person’s future. When we “do this in remembrance of Me,” what we are to remember is the service He gave to all and to let that memory motivate us to move beyond partisan disputes to Kingdom service to human need.

The way we are to remember Jesus as we receive the Lord’s Supper can be found in the response Jesus made to Peter after he denied Jesus three times. Rather than “shoot to kill the wounded” as some Christians may do, Jesus engineered a conversation with Peter in which the disciple confronted his moral and spiritual failure, but in a way that restored the future apostle to the community of faith (John 21:15–17). This spiritual practice is echoed in Paul’s writings to the Galatian Christians when he instructed them to restore a brother or sister who is caught in a trespass but to do so in a spirit of gentleness: looking to themselves, lest they too be tempted (Gal. 6:1).

When at the Lord’s Supper “we do this in remembrance of Me,” we are to be moved to stand faithfully for God’s will and way of life. When a fellow believer stumbles and falls into sin, we are to bring him into the community of faith the same way Jesus brought Peter back. By consistently and continuously relating to one another this way, a community of grace will emerge. Let it never be forgotten that this type of love and grace brings absolute forgiveness to people’s lives and places absolute demand on the restored one’s life to live in a new way, a new walk with Christ.

We are to put our memory of Jesus’ death into deeds of love and grace, even and especially to brothers and sisters who have failed morally or spiritually in their walk with the Lord.