Journey to the Open Tomb: In Remembrance of Me

On the night that Jesus was betrayed, He took bread and broke it and said, “This is my body that is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

Luke records that Jesus had great desire to observe this Passover meal with His disciples. It would be His last meal with them and only Jesus knew that. The hour had come. It was the pivot point in history. Looking to the past, the focus was on the Exodus and the night of blood on the doorposts. Looking ahead, the focus was on the cross and the blood of a perfect sacrifice. In less than 24 hours, He would accomplish what He came to do.

He loved them. He loved them to the end. In an upper room, Jesus set in motion a memorial that still speaks to us. The Lord’s Supper, communion, is a memorial of a broken body and shed blood. The bread does not become the body nor the cup the blood. We do not need to crucify Him again. We do need to remember. This is like a snapshot of the real thing. Jesus is the real thing. We see Him pictured every time we observe the Lord’s Supper.

Just outside the walls of Jerusalem is a house with a large upper room. There is some speculation it may have been the same place where they were gathered when the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost. We don’t know that.

What we do know is that the time had come. Across Jerusalem was Golgotha and beyond that, a brand new tomb.