Remembering Jesus in Hard Times
The Pause Before the Go: Finding the Presence and Faithfulness of God in Hard Times
Lesson 9: Remembering Jesus in Hard Times
The Lord Jesus, on the night He was betrayed, took bread and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said: “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after supper He took the cup, saying: “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes. 1 Corinthians 11:23b-26.
I entered the care facility at sunset with my hands full of silver-plated Communion dishes and my Bible under my arm. It had been a long day. I was tired. I had been making the rounds all that afternoon taking the Lord’s Supper to different shut-ins and members of our church when I had reached this, my final stop. There was only one “member” here but I still brought more than enough elements so that anyone who wanted to participate could do so. I was greeted in the lobby by four unknown ladies in wheelchairs and an overpowering smell of bleach and disinfectant. The ladies were suffering from dementia but that did not stop one of them with an excited and contagious smile from pointing a boney finger at the silver cross on the Communion dish. “Is that, is that com…” her words trailed off unable to place an identity on the items but as I found out no less able to recognize their intent. She continued to point at the cross as she looked me in the eyes and slowly said: “is that the stuff to help us remember Jesus?”
I was amazed and humbled by the profoundness of her statement and moved near to tears as I replied: “Yes it is. Would you like to remember Jesus with us?” We all congregated as a little group in room #57; an old worn out chest-of-drawers as our Communion table and wheelchairs as our pews. We remembered Jesus together, His broken body, His poured out blood, and His resurrection- for us! We prayed, laughed, talked, and sang. We encouraged each other about the difference Jesus makes in our identity and daily lives as Christians especially in the hard lonely places… We remembered THE Jesus who IS greater than our failures, our circumstances, our fragmented memories, forgotten legacies, and memorable regrets. We remembered Jesus, the “Suffering Son of Man”, and the “Glorious Son of God”.
We remembered Jesus, who in unfathomable love, compassion, mercy and grace remembered and continues to remember us! Remembering Jesus invites us back into relationship with God and reminds us of our “re-creation” as His people- as family.
Remembering Jesus sustains, challenges and re-establishes our purpose and meaning as we gaze and reflect upon God’s glory and persevere by the remembrance of His sacrifice as the “Great Lamb of God- The Lamb who was Slain”. Remembering Jesus shows us the way of “servanthood” how the common transfigures to the holy. Remembering Jesus reminds us we are not crude vulgar instruments but dynamic intricacies; masterpieces of God’s will unshallowed and deepened by His grace. In remembering Jesus we find dignity and joy as we go about putting Him first in our lives by proclaiming His goodness in word and deed regardless of our circumstances or our physical and mental abilities.
It has been my privilege as a minister to work with many godly senior adults who by reliance on God’s grace through faith have “remembered Jesus”. I see by their faith that it is not just something that they believe in their heads but a matter of substance lived out through their hearts, minds, soul and strength and the way they love their neighbor as themselves. Their hope in Jesus’ promises is shown by their living for Him today… Their trust in Him is a clearly marked “crossroads;” the meeting place of their faith and obedience. Yet, many of them, many of us are now approaching a season in life where more is lost than given. It is our blessing and calling in life as “maturing believers” to remind each other that even if we forget Jesus, even if all memory is gone by disease or trauma, or we are overwhelmed to despair by the gravity of our circumstances- HE HAS NOT FORGOTTEN US!
My prayer for all of us this “Memorial Day” Weekend as we remember those we have lost, those who are fallen, and the heavy sacrifice of American families who paid for our freedom, and the preservation of our Country with their own blood, and the blood of their loved ones is that we will remember them best by honoring our freedoms and one another above ourselves. My prayer is that we will encourage one another everyday to remember Jesus whose body and blood paid not only for our freedom, but is a very ransom for our souls, a gracious and costly gift that secures for us an eternal future and hope- a home and life with Him and one another.
On Memorial Day we gather around gravesides to grieve our losses and honor their memory, AND this Memorial Day more than others as we face a new War and the 91,000 losses we have suffered from a merciless indiscriminate enemy that we cannot even see but has reshaped our current lives (at least for now). BUT as we grieve we can remember and encourage each other with scripture, with the Gospel, with the fact that the Ultimate One of our fallen is fallen no longer! And one day neither will we be fallen because His grave is empty and He is alive- as our Risen Savior and LORD. As Believers that is why we remember and memorialize Christ’s death around a table of living fellowship instead of in the fallen’s Gardens of Stone. Let us encourage one another to remember Jesus, and as we do so, may we ALWAYS remember that HE REMEMBERS US and is true to His promises and His loving plans and intentions for our future. May that bring us hope, bring us comfort, and enable us with Holy Spirit resolve and resiliency to face today, and trust Him with our tomorrows. My prayer for you this Memorial Day is that you would remember Jesus because He has and is remembering you! He gave His life and died on a cruel cross that you might have the forgiveness of sins and spend eternity with Him. Will you put your trust in Him first today? Will you remember Jesus? May God richly bless us and comfort us as we remember Him and our loved ones today. Know that I love y’all and am praying for all of you, we will be together again soon! I can’t wait! My email address is dray@wyliebaptist.org; feel free to reach out if you want to talk, pray, laugh, cry, cringe at bad jokes or all of the above! All the best! Love in Christ, Darrin.