“Remember Jesus Christ” wrote Paul to Timothy (2 Timothy 2.8). The place we supremely remember Jesus is at the Lord’s Table. According to the words of institution Jesus at the Last Supper broke bread and said “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me” (1 Corinthians 11.24). Later he took the cup of blessing and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this in remembrance of me” (1 Corinthians 11.24). Although in 2 Timothy – as in the other Pastoral Letters – there is no specific reference to the Lord’s Supper, nonetheless Paul’s charge to “remember Jesus” inevitably reminds of Jesus’ command to remember him. Celebrating the Lord’s Supper is not an optional extra. It is at the very heart of Christian worship. It was central in the worshipping life of the churches in Corinth (1 Corinthians 11.23-34) and Troas (Acts 20.7). It was presumably central to the worship of the church in Ephesus. It should also be central in our worship today.
In Anglican churches the Sunday morning service is ‘eucharistic’. However, in many British Baptist and other independent churches, the celebration of the Lord’s Supper tends to be celebrated just once a month. Indeed, in some North American churches the Lord’s Supper can be a quarterly or event just an annual ‘event’ on Maundy Thursday. I cannot believe that Jesus asked his disciples to remember him just now and again. John Calvin regarded infrequent communion as “an invention of the devil”. The French Reformed scholar, J.J. von Allmen was of the opinion that “the absence of the Eucharist shows contempt for grace”. The Lord’s Supper may not be right for a civic service or for a ‘seeker’ service, but otherwise it should surely be part of regular Sunday worship.
The Lord’s Supper is a meal in memory of Jesus. However, it is far more than a mere memorial meal. For when we remember Jesus’ broken body and his outpoured life, we do not just recall that he died for us – rather we experience afresh his death for us. The past becomes present. Here there is a parallel with the way in which Jews celebrate the Passover as memorial meal (Exodus 12.14). “Each Jewish father (including those who lived generations and centuries after Moses) was to explain to his son that he celebrated the Passover Seder in the way he did ‘because of what the Lord did for me when I came forth out of Egypt’” (me.Pesahim 10.5). Similarly, as we Christians remember the death of Jesus, the past becomes present and we encounter Jesus. As we gather around his Table we become conscious of his presence with us. To quote Ralph Martin, a distinguished Baptist New Testament scholar of a former generation: “’In remembrance of Jesus’ is no bare historical reflection upon the Cross, but a recalling of the crucified and living Christ in such a way that He is present in all the fulness and reality of his saving power”. Or in the worlds of an old communion hymn by Horatius Bonar:
Here O my Lord, I see you face to face;
Here faith can touch and handle things unseen;
Here I will grasp with firmer hand your grace,
And all my helplessness upon you lean.
However, Paul did not simply say “Remember Jesus Christ”, but “Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead” (2 Timothy 2.8). At this point the underlying Greek past tense is significant. Paul did not use a simple past tense (the Greek ‘aorist’) which refers to a one-off action in the past, but rather a past tense (the Greek ‘perfect’) which indicates a past event which relates to the present. Let me give an example of the difference between the two tenses. If I said, “I married Caroline” and used the simple past tense, it could mean that I had married Caroline, but it would not indicate that I was still married to her; she could be dead, or we could have divorced one another. But if I used the ‘perfect’ tense, it would mean that I had married Caroline and remain married to her. If Paul had used the simple blast tense, he would be saying ‘Remember Jesus, who God raised from the dead on the third day” – full stop. However, Paul used the ‘perfect’ tense which indicates a past event which spills over into the present . In other words, Paul was saying to Timothy, ‘Remember Jesus, whom God raised on the third day and who remains forever risen and is present in his resurrection power. Remember Jesus, Timothy, remember that he is with us now”.
What a difference remembering Jesus can make. All the more reason, therefore, to ensure that Sunday by Sunday, we do remember Jesus.