Deuteronomy 16 gives instructions for the Israelites to celebrate the Passover meal each year. The purpose of this unique and special meal is made explicit: "that all the days of your life you may remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt." (Deuteronomy 16:3) We wonder how they could ever forget the day they were set free from their brutal captors, from the despair of total slavery? But human beings are fickle creatures, and God knows our inclination to forget the things that are most important as we go about the routines of living. So God instituted the Passover meal.
On the night he was betrayed and arrested, Jesus celebrated the Passover with his disciples, but he changed a few things. He redefined the Passover around himself: "This is my body...this is my blood." We were slaves to sin, but Jesus' death freed us from that bondage. And whenever we eat the bread and drink the cup we are to "remember the day when we came out."
Do you remember the day when you realized how God through Christ freed you? I know some people struggle to think of a particular day or definitive moment when they put their trust in Jesus. It may have happened slowly over time, until one day you realized that you were following Jesus because you wanted to, not because it was the tradition of your parents or family. Instead of a light switch flipping on, it felt like more of a dimmer switch progressively lighting the room. Even if you can't identify one "day" to remember, it's important to know that you are, in fact, following Jesus because you know what it means to be enslaved to sin...you know there is an "Egypt" and you are glad, by Jesus' undeserved saving actions on your behalf, to be given freedom.
I suspect that the second generation of Israelites following the commands of Deuteronomy 16 may have felt the same way. How can we remember the day we left Egypt? We weren't even born when it happened! But at the Passover, they did remember. They remembered by hearing the true story of what God had done for their people (and was still doing for them!), and how this was also their personal story. They felt the pain and suffering of slavery through the lives of others, and they realized how blessed they were to be free.
Remembering forces us to think, "Is this my story, or just someone else's story?" If you believe it's your story, the remembering begins to build and grow a profound gratefulness for what God has done...the momentum of love in your life: "We love because He first loved us." (1 John 4:19) If you don't believe it's YOUR story, if you think you are free from the "Egypt" of sin because of your own strength or power, or maybe because there really isn't an Egypt at all, then taking communion (the re-defined Passover) won't have much of an impact on you, no matter how often you take it.
Let's celebrate God's love and grace "that all the days of your life you may remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt." (Deuteronomy 16:3)
