Memorial of the Death of Jesus
Once each year in thousands of locations worldwide, we commemorate the death of Jesus. We do so
because he commanded his followers Keep doing this in remembrance of me. (Luke 2219) The next observance will be on Tuesday, March 26, 2013. We invite you to join us for this special occasion. This meeting, like all our meetings, is open to the public. Seats are free and no collections are ever taken.
because he commanded his followers Keep doing this in remembrance of me. (Luke 2219) The next observance will be on Tuesday, March 26, 2013. We invite you to join us for this special occasion. This meeting, like all our meetings, is open to the public. Seats are free and no collections are ever taken.
What Does the Bible Really Teach?
APPENDIX
The Lord’s Evening Meal—An Observance That Honors God
CHRISTIANS are commanded to observe the Memorial of Christ’s death. This observance is also called “the Lord’s evening meal.” (1 Corinthians 11:20) What is so significant about it? When and how should it be observed?
Jesus Christ instituted this observance on the night of the Jewish Passover in 33 C.E. The Passover was a celebration held just once a year, on the 14th day of the Jewish month Nisan. To calculate that date, the Jews evidently waited for the spring equinox. This is the day when there are approximately 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness. The first observable new moon nearest to the spring equinox marked the beginning of Nisan. Passover came 14 days later, after sunset.
Jesus celebrated the Passover with his apostles, dismissed Judas Iscariot, and then instituted the Lord’s Evening Meal. This meal replaced the Jewish Passover and therefore should be observed only once a year.
The Gospel of Matthew reports: “Jesus took a loaf and, after saying a blessing, he broke it and, giving it to the disciples, he said: ‘Take, eat. This means my body.’ Also, he took a cup and, having given thanks, he gave it to them, saying: ‘Drink out of it, all of you; for this means my “blood of the covenant,” which is to be poured out in behalf of many for forgiveness of sins.’”—Matthew 26:26-28.
Some believe that Jesus turned the bread into his literal flesh and the wine into his blood. However, Jesus’ fleshly body was still intact when he offered this bread. Were Jesus’ apostles really eating his literal flesh and drinking his blood? No, for that would have been cannibalism and a violation of God’s law. (Genesis 9:3, 4; Leviticus 17:10) According to Luke 22:20, Jesus said: “This cup means the new covenant by virtue of my blood, which is to be poured out in your behalf.” Did that cup literally become “the new covenant”? That would be impossible, since a covenant is an agreement, not a tangible object.
Hence, both the bread and the wine are only symbols. The bread symbolizes Christ’s perfect body. Jesus used a loaf of bread left over from the Passover meal. The loaf was made without any leaven, or yeast. (Exodus 12:8) The Bible uses leaven as a symbol of sin or corruption. The bread therefore represents the perfect body that Jesus sacrificed. It was free of sin.—Matthew 16:11, 12; 1 Corinthians 5:6, 7; 1 Peter 2:22; 1 John 2:1, 2.
The red wine represents Jesus’ blood. That blood makes valid the new covenant. Jesus said that his blood was poured out “for forgiveness of sins.” Humans can thus become clean in God’s eyes and can enter into the new covenant with Jehovah. (Hebrews 9:14; 10:16, 17) This covenant, or contract, makes it possible for 144,000 faithful Christians to go to heaven. There they will serve as kings and priests for the blessing of all mankind.—Genesis 22:18; Jeremiah 31:31-33; 1 Peter 2:9; Revelation 5:9, 10; 14:1-3.
Who should partake of these Memorial emblems? Logically, only those in the new covenant—that is, those who have the hope of going to heaven—should partake of the bread and the wine. God’s holy spirit convinces such ones that they have been selected to be heavenly kings. (Romans 8:16) They are also in the Kingdom covenant with Jesus.—Luke 22:29.
What about those who have the hope of living forever in Paradise on earth? They obey Jesus’ command and attend the Lord’s Evening Meal, but they come as respectful observers, not partakers. Once a year after sundown on Nisan 14, Jehovah’s Witnesses observe the Lord’s Evening Meal. Although only a few thousand worldwide profess to have the heavenly hope, this observance is precious to all Christians. It is an occasion when all can reflect upon the superlative love of Jehovah God and Jesus Christ.—John 3:16.
*** Bible Citations ***
(1 Corinthians 11:20) Therefore, when YOU come together to one place, it is not possible to eat the Lord’s evening meal.
(Matthew 26:26-28) As they continued eating, Jesus took a loaf and, after saying a blessing, he broke it and, giving it to the disciples, he said: “TAKE, eat. This means my body.” 27 Also, he took a cup and, having given thanks, he gave it to them, saying: “Drink out of it, all of YOU; 28 for this means my ‘blood of the covenant,’ which is to be poured out in behalf of many for forgiveness of sins.
(Genesis 9:3) Every moving animal that is alive may serve as food for YOU. As in the case of green vegetation, I do give it all to YOU.
(Leviticus 17:10) “‘As for any man of the house of Israel or some alien resident who is residing as an alien in YOUR midst who eats any sort of blood, I shall certainly set my face against the soul that is eating the blood, and I shall indeed cut him off from among his people.
(Luke 22:20) Also, the cup in the same way after they had the evening meal, he saying: “This cup means the new covenant by virtue of my blood, which is to be poured out in YOUR behalf.
(Exodus 12:8) “‘And they must eat the flesh on this night. They should eat it roasted with fire and with unfermented cakes along with bitter greens.
(Matthew 16:11-12) How is it YOU do not discern that I did not talk to YOU about loaves? But watch out for the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” 12 Then they grasped that he said to watch out, not for the leaven of the loaves, but for the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
(1 Corinthians 5:6-7) YOUR [cause for] boasting is not fine. Do YOU not know that a little leaven ferments the whole lump? 7 Clear away the old leaven, that YOU may be a new lump, according as YOU are free from ferment. For, indeed, Christ our passover has been sacrificed.
(1 Peter 2:22) He committed no sin, nor was deception found in his mouth.
(1 John 2:1-2) My little children, I am writing YOU these things that YOU may not commit a sin. And yet, if anyone does commit a sin, we have a helper with the Father, Jesus Christ, a righteous one. 2 And he is a propitiatory sacrifice for our sins, yet not for ours only but also for the whole world’s.
(Hebrews 9:14) how much more will the blood of the Christ, who through an everlasting spirit offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse our consciences from dead works that we may render sacred service to [the] living God?
(Hebrews 10:16-17) “‘This is the covenant that I shall covenant toward them after those days,’ says Jehovah. ‘I will put my laws in their hearts, and in their minds I shall write them,’” 17 [it says afterwards:] “And I shall by no means call their sins and their lawless deeds to mind anymore.”
(Genesis 22:18) And by means of your seed all nations of the earth will certainly bless themselves due to the fact that you have listened to my voice.’”
(Jeremiah 31:31-33) “Look! There are days coming,” is the utterance of Jehovah, “and I will conclude with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah a new covenant; 32 not one like the covenant that I concluded with their forefathers in the day of my taking hold of their hand to bring them forth out of the land of Egypt, ‘which covenant of mine they themselves broke, although I myself had husbandly ownership of them,’ is the utterance of Jehovah.” 33 “For this is the covenant that I shall conclude with the house of Israel after those days,” is the utterance of Jehovah. “I will put my law within them, and in their heart I shall write it. And I will become their God, and they themselves will become my people.”
(1 Peter 2:9) But YOU are “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for special possession, that YOU should declare abroad the excellencies” of the one that called YOU out of darkness into his wonderful light.
(Revelation 5:9-10) And they sing a new song, saying: “You are worthy to take the scroll and open its seals, because you were slaughtered and with your blood you bought persons for God out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, 10 and you made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God, and they are to rule as kings over the earth.”
(Revelation 14:1-3) And I saw, and, look! the Lamb standing upon the Mount Zion, and with him a hundred and forty-four thousand having his name and the name of his Father written on their foreheads. 2 And I heard a sound out of heaven as the sound of many waters and as the sound of loud thunder; and the sound that I heard was as of singers who accompany themselves on the harp playing on their harps. 3 And they are singing as if a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders; and no one was able to master that song but the hundred and forty-four thousand, who have been bought from the earth.
(Romans 8:16) The spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are God’s children.(Luke 22:29) and I make a covenant with YOU, just as my Father has made a covenant with me, for a kingdom,(John 3:16) “For God loved the world so much that he gave his only-begotten Son, in order that everyone exercising faith in him might not be destroyed but have everlasting life.
