That Which Reminds Us

 

And when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me" 

1 Corinthians 11: 24 NKJV 

Those little sticky notes are a good thing.  Many times, half of my day is looking at these little reminders to remind me what not to forget.  Sooner or later, however, I need to tear down all of those reminders in order to make space for a new batch of what not to forget.  And the cycle continues.  I was thinking the other day of our lives in Christianity and how we have those little reminders of things we need to remember.  Consider the cross for example.  For thousands of years the cross has been a symbol of Christianity.  You see a cross on the side of the road, and you immediately know that a church must be nearby.  I always found this a bit disconcerting.  Consider if you were Jesus (yes, as believers of Christ in us we proclaim that we are, in essence, Jesus), would you desire to memorialize your own death?  I don't believe that the symbol of the cross is meant to remind us of Jesus as much as what was done to Him.  When we gaze upon that cross in the church sanctuary, and we do well to recall the insults, the scourging and the nails in his flesh.  Yes, the cross is a reminder for us, but only if we see it in the right context.  The early followers of Jesus viewed the cross with fear.  Good thing to, because most of the time the Roman authorities were looking to put more followers of Jesus on more crosses.  It was the job of men like Saul (yes, the same Damascus Road experience Saul) to seek out and punish these followers of Jesus {Acts 9:1}.  As a result of this, I don't see the cross as a good symbol of Christianity.  Of course, the man-made Christian religion has developed plenty of symbols through the years.  Unfortunately, for someone who has been in the church for quite a while, these symbols are hard to see and have become commonplace.  

Among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.  But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved).

Ephesians 2: 3 - 5 NKJV 

More than a few of the symbols of Christianity are disguised as the rituals we follow.  The holy communion, the offering (although I question this tradition) and baptism just to name a few.  Now, I know that I will catch some flack over any criticism of these seemingly Godly traditions, but it's ok.  I ask you only to look upon yourself and your own knowing of what it is that reminds you of Jesus.  For myself, I am reminded of Jesus whenever I think of that man I used to be.  That man who stood outside a strip club one night with the sudden knowing that I didn't belong there after all.  That is what reminds me of Jesus.  The fact that He first loved me in spite of myself {1 John 4:19}.  I don't need the symbol of a cross to remind me of Him.  I will go a step further and say that when we reduce our memory of Christ to that of a symbol, we lose the relationship we could have had with Him.  The apostle Paul didn't need a cross to remind him of that which Jesus had done in his life.  How He saved him from a life of persecuting Jesus to a life of speaking to His love and grace.  So intimate was Paul's relationship with Christ that he spoke to how his old man had been replaced by Jesus Himself {Galatians 2:20}.  For Paul, he lived only through Christ in him.  We do well to realize that despite all of the symbols and rituals, it is Jesus who never changes {Hebrews 13:8}.  

~Scott~