IN REMEMBRANCE OF HIM
When the Lord was about to leave His disciples and return to the Father, He gave them a way to remember Him. “And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me. Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you” (Luke 22:19-20). To remember the Lord, as we do from week to week at His table, is not a ritual, but a partaking of Him. The proper remembrance of Him is not to recall what He is and what He has done, but rather to take Him in. The Lord’s table is a testimony of our daily living. We come together on the first day of the week to break bread and thus declare to the universe that we live by eating and drinking Christ.
Day by day we eat the heavenly food, the fatted calf, Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God. It was He who said, “He who eats Me shall also live because of Me” (John 6:57). We live by what we eat, and eventually we become what we eat.
How regrettable it is that in Christianity the meaning of the Lord’s table has been lost. It is referred to as the Holy Communion, and there is no understanding of the meaning of the bread and the cup. The table signifies that the worship of God is by eating and drinking Him, not by bowing before Him. When we eat and drink Him, He will have the worship.
GOD’S PROVISION
God’s economy is that His people should be an eating people. This was first symbolized by the tree of life, set in the garden for man to partake of. When man disobeyed and fell under Satan’s tyranny, God stepped in to redeem him by providing the Passover for him to eat of and thus be strengthened to make his exodus from Satan’s domain. In the good land God’s people labored to bring forth the rich produce, one tenth of which they reserved, along with the top portion, to eat before the Lord in their feasts. They were thus kept in oneness and sustained to build the temple for the expression of God’s authority.
In the Gospels eating again plays a prominent role. There is a fatted calf for the returning prodigal. There is a feast spread for God’s chosen people, who reject it and thus open the door for the Gentiles to partake of it. By these parables and also in His explicit word (John 6:35, 48-58), the Lord presented Himself as the true food given for the life of the world. This eating of Him is the true worship, symbolized by the remembrance of Him at His table.
I hope we are all persuaded that God’s primary concern for us is that we enjoy His Son as our food. This is the message of the Gospels.
(Life Messages, Vol. 1 (#1-41), Chapter 29, by Witness Lee)
