Do This in Remembrance of Me

The drink offering was a companion offering to the Grain (and Burnt) offering. This was as if they were offering a meal to God. In a meal, the drink, the beverage that is served with the meal, is intended to aid in consumption and digestion. We drink while we eat to "grease the gears" so to speak, but it's the food that we're interested in because it's the food that gives us the most sustenance, the most nutrients.

Jesus talks about these offerings with his disciples in the upper room. He likens his body to the bread, or grain offering, and his blood to a drink offering. Now this is odd, considering that we think of His blood as the central piece of the Christian story, and He compares it to an adjunct offering.

What does this mean? Could it be that the Blood he shed isn't what he wants us to focus on? It's His body that he compares to the grain offering. What if that's what he wants us to see? What if it's not about the blood, not about the salvation (though our salvation is vital to what he calls us to do), but the breaking of his body that is the point?

What if the Blood of our Salvation is just meant to "grease the gears"? But grease the gears to do what? What does Jesus say in the upper room that night? He tells his disciples that the bread represents his body, broken for them, and the wine represents His blood, poured out for them (grain offering and its drink offering), and then he gives a command. "Do this in remembrance of me." What are we to do? He just dipped some bread into some wine... is that what he means? Perhaps... That's what he just did, but what was he just talking about? He was talking about pouring himself out, breaking himself open for others.

Jesus was notorious for talking about several things at once, surface level things and their deeper hidden-meaning kind of counterparts. Is there anything in this story that should make us think this moment in the upper room is any different? What is it that Jesus is saying? Of course, he's telling us to observe the ceremony that they shared in the upper room, but there's so much more just underneath the surface. As he's talking about breaking himself open and pouring himself out, he tells us to "Do this in remembrance of me". He's telling us that we are to be the bread and the wine, that we are the Eucharist. We are to be the grain offering and drink offering for others. We are to be Jesus to those around us.

To take a page from Rob Bell, "Over and over God speaks of the widow, the orphan, and the refugee. This is how you remember God: you bless those who need it the most in the same way that God blessed you when you needed it most."

Just like God came alongside you when you were at your worst and lifted you up, so to you are to come alongside others when they are at their worst. When you see others at the point of desperation and without hope, you are to go to them and stand beside them, letting them know that they are not alone, that they are loved, just like God came to you when you were in that exact same place.

We don't remember God with a piece of bread and a sip of wine. We remember God with our entire lives.