“This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood.”
Luke 22:19b, 20
Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.
Matthew 25:39b
When we take communion we do it as an act of obedience; but of course there is a deeper meaning than eating bread and drinking wine. At an observable level this is the body and the blood of Christ that we partake in. But perhaps we sometimes miss that Jesus is giving his body, his blood, his life for his brothers, for his church, for each of us. And further he is saying not just that we need to take communion in remembrance of him but we need to give our body, our blood, our life in remembrance of him.
A life poured out.
When we go through life looking for victory and prosperity we may miss seeing Jesus because we haven’t paid attention to Him when we walked by Him. We didn’t give the beggar on the street money to buy something to eat because they might spend it on drugs, but we didn’t take time to buy them a burger either. And besides they were dirty, probably on drugs, or crazy, or crazy and on drugs. But if we’d taken the time to bring the least of these into a restaurant, or spent time with them not expecting to get anything in return we could have had communion with Jesus. We could have remembered Jesus by emulating His life.
A life poured out.
2 Samuel 23:8-17 tells to story of the three mighty men who risk their lives to bring David water, but instead of drinking it himself he pours the water out for the Lord. “Far be it from me, O Lord, that I should do this. Shall I drink the blood of the men who went at the risk of their lives?” (v. 17). David poured out their lives. We want our lives to have an impact and we try to bless others through acts of service hoping to impact their lives. We may spend hours of our precious time, perhaps counseling a drug addict, or trying to save a marriage, only to see our efforts wasted and the life we are trying to save thrown away. And all our efforts and tears amount to nothing. And we see ours too is
A life poured out.
A new mother picks up and suckles her child. The child is a day old and the date of her death is already known. She has a congenital heart defect and will live for only three weeks. A friend of the family comes to visit and picks her up gently giving her whatever love he has, adding a little bit to the small amount of love she’ll receive on this earth. Years later when the man’s grandson is born with a congenital defect the man picks up that baby to give him what may be the only love he will receive on this earth remembering the dying baby girl; and hers was
A life poured out.
After a day at school, the children come home. We give them their snack and a hug and a kiss, sending them out to play. Dinner and a little later bedtime. These children are our legacy. We expect some of our training, our values to continue on in their lives as they grow up. And we expect some of that legacy to be passed on to their children. “Our family believes in this.” But when our children go astray, and instead of experiencing joy in their lives we spend deary evenings, and late and early nights in prayer, tears and agony concerned about their lives and eventually we may realize that our efforts are futile. Though we’ve tried our best there is no longer any way we can influence them. We pray for a miracle but we know in our hearts that ours is
A life poured out.
Now from the sixth hour darkness fell upon all the land until the ninth hour. About the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
Matthew 17:45, 46
A life poured out.
A divine expression of ‘a life poured out’. Keep speaking, Tim, the words of your life continue to reach across the breach to those searching thru their loss. He is real. He is alive.
We understand more of God’s purposes of Jennifer’s love – a life poured out. Thank you, Tim. Soldier on.
Jim
A beautiful expression of pouring out – by someone who has learned what it means to do so.
Karyn