What comes to mind with the word
Boston?
Before the horrific event that occurred two months ago, a person may well have associated that city’s name with the Tea Party or the marathon or even the music group popular in the 70s and 80s.
That was until April 15, 2013! Ever since then what people will associate with the city of Boston has drastically changed. That was the date those bombs exploded near the finish line of the Boston marathon, killing a few and seriously injuring many others.
What comes to mind with the word
sacrifice?
The divinely inspired author of the epistle to the Hebrews tells us what the answer would have been among the Jews in the centuries before Christ. In their sacrifices there was a constant reminder of sins (10:3). Year in and year out—even day after day—countless animal sacrifices on the altar at the
Temple in Jerusalem screamed out, “Sin! Sin! Sin!” The Biblical books of Moses (Genesis to Deuteronomy—ed.) are a testimony to this. On page after page God explains to the people
what He required as sin offerings for a wide variety of sinful circumstances.
That association between sacrifice and sin continued because, as the writer to the Hebrews says, “It is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins” (10:4).
Regardless of what sacrifice was made, sin remained! God’s holy law with its demands is God’s reminder of our sin and the wages it deserves—death!
But now consider what a blessing it is that God has given us another, a much better, association to make with the word sacrifice! “Christ came as High Priest…Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption” (Hebrews 9:11-12).
Jesus Himself came as the “propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world” (1 John 2:2). The word propitiation means “atoning sacrifice.” Jesus offered Himself unto God as the once-and-for-all satisfactory sacrifice, thus paying the price demanded to atone for sin.
And because He offered His body and blood on Calvary’s cross, we have a new association to make with the word sacrifice: “Take eat…take drink…this bread is My body… this cup is My blood… do this in remembrance
of Me.”
Whenever we partake of the Lord’s Supper, we do so remembering Him.
We remember that in, with, and under the bread and wine we are receiving that very body and blood which Jesus sacrificed on the cross for our sins.
We remember how “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son…” (John 3:16).
We remember the price Jesus paid. “…By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us” (1 John 3:16).
We remember Him!
Yes, those multitudes of Old Testament sacrifices produced the remembrance of sin. Now, the celebration of the Lord’s Supper produces the remembrance of Him—the One who atoned for all
our sin!
Thy holy body into death was given,
Life to win for us in heaven.
No greater love than this to Thee could bind us;
May this feast thereof remind us!
O Lord, have mercy!
(TLH #313:2)