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“Do this in remembrance of me.” Jesus introduced Communion to His disciples with these words (Luke 22:19). It really is an important statement. It tells us that Jesus knew His followers would be prone to forget Him. Life constantly pulls us to think about other things, but Jesus established a ritual to call us back to what really matters. Every time we take Communion, we are given a fresh reminder of our Savior and what He did to set us free.
Jesus’ words also tell us that He is worth remembering. I’m sure that sounds obvious, but how often do you find yourself thinking about Jesus—His life, His death, or His resurrection? No matter where we find ourselves in life, it’s always important for us to remember Jesus. There is no activity, career, or stage of life in which remembering Jesus is not essential.
Unfortunately, we often forget what we’re supposed to remember. I’m not suggesting that you’ll wake up one day and realize that you’ve forgotten the content of the gospel. The truth is much subtler and more dangerous than that. I’m suggesting that you could very easily get so caught up in your career, so enamored with the American Dream, so focused on church activities, so distracted by the busyness of life that one day you stop to think about your life and realize that you haven’t been following Jesus. This type of forgetfulness is much more common and much more powerful. It’s possible to talk a lot about Jesus while at the same time excluding Him from nearly every aspect of your life. Because Jesus established Communion as a means of remembering Him, it provides us with a perfect opportunity to pause and examine our lives.
Though Paul had certainly taught the Corinthian church the importance of Communion, he had to confront them because they were following the ritual of Communion but missing the point. Read 1 Corinthians 11:27–29. As you read, notice who Paul was confronting and what they were doing wrong.