For two people in my life, both of whom have passed on from here, I keep a token remembrance. A small screwdriver that once belonged to my father now dangles from my keyring wherever I go. It is tempered steel, much like my childhood image of my dad. It is useful to me as it was to him, and it often brings him to mind. On our bedroom wall hangs a watercolor painting that my mother began but never finished. Its feminine flair captures her elegance, and its simplicity displays her quiet confidence and subtle taste. It reflects her as much as any self-portrait could, or so it seems to me.
Of all the reminders Jesus could have left behind, vast or simple, He specifically chose these: a loaf of bread and a cup of wine. In what would be His “last supper” here on Earth, Jesus gave bread to His disciples, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”1 He then offered them wine, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”2 So what might a morsel of bread and a sip of wine — this body and blood — speak to us as we partake of them together as the people of Christ?
God engages us at great length. He made us in His image, then came to us in ours. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . All things were made through him . . . And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”3
God acts with great purpose. “When the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children.”4
God loves us at great cost. “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”5
God lives in us forever. “If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God.”6
God purifies us completely. In Levitucus God declared, “The life of a creature is in the blood . . . it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.”7 Not just any blood, but only that of the Creator — “the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.”8
Yes, Lord. Thank You for the bread and the wine, Your body and blood. We remember; we believe; we partake. For in Christ we live, and in Him we pray. Amen.
1 Luke 22:19 ESV (emphasis added)
2 1 Corinthians 11:25 ESV (emphasis added)
3 John 1:1-3, 14 ESV
4 Galatians 4:4-5 NLT
5 1 John 4:10 NIV
6 1 John 4:15
7 Leviticus 17:11 NIV
8 1 John 1:7 NIV
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Paul Nordman—Author 