Do You Have a Moment You Never Want to Forget

For you it might be a special day with a grandparent who has now passed, a Christmas where the whole family was together, your wedding day, the birth of a child, a first dance, or the last words from a friend. We cling to these memories. We tell these stories often to keep them fresh on our minds. We take down the photo albums, scroll through our phones, or open files in the cloud to relive these memories. I come from a family of storytellers with a rich history. We’ve known about “our people” since before the time they settled in Lexington, Luray, Michie, and Sevierville. Any time we are together we tell the stories of our family. One of my favorite things is cracking open old photo albums and watching my grandmother introduce my kids to all of their relatives that they’ll never meet but whose lives have influenced theirs more than they’ll ever know.
 
Today marks a day I never want to forget. A day that friends gathered together to share a festival meal that was rich with historical importance.  A day where they celebrated the most important story of deliverance the world had ever known. It was at this meal, in this time of remembrance, that Jesus chose to introduce a new deliverance that would go on to be remembered for every generation that followed. We remember this meal every week and in our remembrance it’s as if we are looking back through those old photo albums at relatives long since gone, relatives that we will never know but who changed us forever. But what was this meal like for the ones who were actually there? How did Jesus look at each of them as he washed their feet? Did he bless them? Did any of them have any idea what was about to happen?
These are not the questions we typically ask. We have the advantage of knowing how the story ends and being thousands of years on the other side of the Easter story. We also have the disadvantage of not experiencing the emotional connection of living that moment. The Lord’s Supper can feel like a story told by a relative that seems like ancient history. My hope is that we will allow ourselves to be caught up in the “great cloud of witnesses” that have gone before us. When we take communion, we will find ourselves at the table not only with Jesus and his disciples but with our family, church members, friends, mentors who have gone on before us. I pray that the Lord gives you that vision as you read the text of the Lord’s last meal with his closest friends.
 
Devotional Reading:
Mark 14:12-28
John 13-17

- Andy Frizzell