TO REMEMBER THE LORD BEING TO EAT THE LORD’S BODY AND DRINK THE LORD’S BLOOD
In the Bible we cannot find the Lord telling us to meditate on Him in our remembrance of Him. What then did the Lord say? While eating the final Passover, He “took a loaf and gave thanks, and He broke it and gave it to them, saying, This is My body which is being given for you; do this in remembrance of Me” (Luke 22:19). The Lord did not tell the disciples that at the Lord’s table they had to quiet their hearts to meditate on Him in remembrance of Him. Rather, the Lord said, “This is My body which is being given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” What the Lord indicated was that to remember Him is to eat Him. The remembrance in the Bible is not meditating. First and foremost, it is eating. What do we eat? We eat the Lord’s body.
Verse 20 continues, “And similarly the cup after they had dined, saying, This cup is the new covenant established in My blood, which is being poured out for you.” What the Lord meant was that He wanted them to drink the cup in remembrance of Him. Hence, what is it to remember the Lord? We remember the Lord when we eat the Lord’s body and drink the Lord’s blood. The remembrance of the Lord in the Bible is to eat and drink the Lord. To remember the Lord is to eat the Lord’s body and drink the Lord’s blood.
THE LORD BECOMING OUR FOOD
What does it mean to eat the Lord’s body and drink the Lord’s blood? To eat the Lord’s body and drink His blood is to eat and drink of the Lord Himself. A person may say, “I have eaten some chicken.” How was he able to eat the chicken? Without death and without the shedding of blood, the chicken could not have entered into him. The reason that the Lord Jesus can enter into us and become our food is because He died and shed His blood.
One day the Lord Jesus told the Jews, “Work not for the food which perishes, but for the food which abides unto eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you” (John 6:27). This meant that the Jews should not have sought to eat bread and be filled, because that bread was merely physical food and was temporary. Instead, they should have sought the food that abides unto eternal life. The bread that the Lord would give was His flesh, but the Jews did not understand Him, so they contended with one another, saying, “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?” (v. 52). Then the Lord Jesus said, “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life…. For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me and I in him” (vv. 54-56). Then many of His disciples said, “This word is hard; who can hear it?” (v. 60). This was due to the fact that they were full of their natural concepts.
What is it to eat the Lord’s flesh and drink the Lord’s blood? To eat the Lord’s flesh and drink His blood is to take the Lord into us by eating and drinking Him. The Lord is life. Therefore, when He comes into us, eternal life comes into us.
(The Crucified Christ, Chapter 10, by Witness Lee)
