The Messenger
Our Weekly Bulletin
Our Weekly Bulletin
This coming Monday is Memorial Day. To many it is just the kick-off of summer vacation. Very few today really observe it for what it was intended. Visits to Veteran’s memorials have been replaced with cookouts, and various other summer activities. When I was growing up, I always looked forward to the Memorial Day weekend because that meant our family would get together with my aunts and uncles and all the cousins. At some point even a trip to visit and decorate the graves of beloved family members to remember and cherish what they once meant to us. Those memories can be a very powerful thing that can often create many emotions for us. Every tombstone in the cemetery is a memorial to a life that was meaningful to someone, to a friend, to a family, or to our nation. We cherish these memorials, and we expect people to respect them and act appropriately regarding them. God had always made memorials to be an integral part of the life of the people of Israel. The Passover served as a memorial to the power of God in bringing the children of Israel out of Egypt. The stones on the Ephod of Aaron were memorial stones. The names of the sons of Israel were placed in the “breastpiece of judgment” over the heart of Aaron as he would enter the holy place for a memorial before the Lord (Exod. 28:29). Even the shoulder pieces of the ephod were engraved with the names of the sons of Israel as memorial stones (Exod. 39:6-7).
Memorial stones were set up as they crossed the Jordan into the Promised Land so that future generations would remember the journey from Egypt. Memorials were a part of their lives, and problems that arose were due in part to their forgetting what they were meant to represent. Memorials were not just something to think about but were often accompanied with actions. The same is true today in our relations with God. The Lord’s Supper is that memorial. “Do this in remembrance of Me,” Jesus said. By taking the Lord’s Supper, we recall His death, burial, and resurrection. It is a physical reminder that is meant to make us think even deeper about the sacrifice of our Savior. The action of eating unleavened bread and drinking fruit of the vine is commemorating that sacrifice. I’m thankful we have been given this memorial and that God wants us to observe this memorial every Sunday. The disciples would never forget the day they saw Jesus alive again after they saw Him die on the cross. They would commemorate these events through their teaching, and every week through the memorial of the Lord’s Supper that Jesus himself set up. That memorial was and is to be cherished, protected, and remembered until the Lord Himself returns. May we remember our Lord Jesus Christ for His loving sacrifice and resurrection. God Bless -Todd
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