Worth It

In 2008, Bryan Clay won the Olympic gold medal in the decathlon, arguably the most difficult athletic feat in the world.

“How did it feel to win the gold?” asked one reporter.

(Side note. Don’t you love the insightful questions reporters ask? I just want one athlete to say, “Terrible! I hate winning! I was so hoping to lose but, by golly, here we are.” Anyways, I digress.)

Clay said what you’d expect him to say. It was the moment he crossed the finish line.

Clay laid down on the track and closed his eyes.

As he did, he said it was as if he was seeing a slide show of his life. All these scenes were flashing through his head. Then it would stop on one and he’d think, “Oh yeah, that was worth it.” Fast forward again. Stop. “Oh yeah, that was worth it too.”

He lay there until the slide show ended and, once again, he was on the track having finished the race and claimed the gold.

“And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.” wrote the Apostle Paul. “We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.”

I don’t know what it will be like when we cross that finish line.

But if you get a chance to lie down on the track, remember those moments, those decisions, that wore you out and stretched you and almost made you quit.

I have no doubt that you too will be able to say, “Oh yeah, that was worth it.”

Keep running hard, my friends. It is worth it.

Remember

Today is Memorial Day. We remember the men and women who fought to defend our freedom. We honor those still protecting our country.

Remembering the past can change how we face the future. It can inspire and motivate us. It can affect how we think about our identity.

That’s why God calls us to remember.

He tells us to remember those who have gone before us in and laid the foundation for our faith (Exodus 32:13, ESV).

He tells us to remember to love and serve the poor, the widow, and the orphan (Galatians 2:10, ESV).

He tells us to remember others in our prayers (Philemon 1:4, ESV).

He tells us to even remember our sin and rebellion against Him (Deuteronomy 9:7, ESV).

However, one of the most frequent commands to remember has to do with freedom.

God commands us to remember that He has given us our freedom and defended our freedom.

You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. (Deuteronomy 5:15, ESV)

We were never slaves in Egypt, but we were slaves to sin.

God brought us out of our slavery to sin and into freedom. He took the death that we deserved on the cross and offered us life. Now, He protects and defends the freedom we have in Him.

And we are to remember.

Not for the sake of remembering but in order to change how we face the present and the future.

Because of what God has done in the past, we are to trust and obey Him – now and forever.

So, don’t forget to remember.

Remember the men and women who protect and defend the freedom we enjoy in this country.

And remember the God who protects and defends our hearts and ensures our eternities.

Broken and Poured

The defining event in Israel’s history was, undoubtedly, the exodus from Egypt.

God miraculously rescued them from their slavery to the Egyptians and brought them out to be His people. The Passover commemorated this event.

And it is on Passover that Jesus tells His disciples another story of God’s rescue from a different kind of slavery.

The Passover meal was built around four cups of wine. The first two came before the meal and the second two came after.

Listen to Jesus in the book of Luke:

He took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. (Luke 22:19, NLT)

God had commanded His people that, during Passover, only unleavened bread was to be eaten.

Israel left Egypt in haste – they didn’t have time to let the bread rise, so they made it without yeast. Unleavened bread, then, reminded them of their freedom.

Leaven is also used in the Bible as a metaphor for sin. It only takes a little bit to work its way through the whole dough.

So, by removing the leaven, Israel was reminded not only that God had gotten them out of Egypt, but that He intended to get the sin out of them.

It is this unleavened bread that Jesus holds up and of which He says, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” (Luke 22:19, NLT)

This is my body. Without leaven – without sin. This is my body which is given for you. As you take it, as it breaks between your teeth, remember that my body was broken for you.

Jesus then takes a cup of wine.

Remember, the first and second cups of wine come before dinner and third and four cups come after dinner.

Jesus takes the third cup – the Cup of Redemption – and says, “This cup is the new covenant between God and his people—an agreement confirmed with my blood, which is poured out as a sacrifice for you.” (Luke 22:20, NLT)

Jesus is alluding to what the prophet Jeremiah had declared centuries earlier.

“The day is coming,” says the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. This covenant will not be like the one I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and brought them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant, though I loved them as a husband loves his wife,” says the Lord. “But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel after those days,” says the Lord. “I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.” (Jeremiah 31:31-33, NLT)

Jesus is proclaiming the arrival of the new covenant – the new exodus story, the new rescue from a different slavery, the new and better redemption.

When we take the bread and drink the wine, we remember our exodus story.

We have been brought from slavery to freedom…

From darkness to light…

From death to life…

By the broken body and the shed blood of Jesus.

We’re not able to gather and celebrate the Lord’s Supper together right now.

But we will.

Until then, let’s keep telling our exodus story. Let’s keep celebrating His rescue and redemption. Let’s not forget to remember.

Take a look at Luke 22:19-20 and think about the bread and the wine Jesus chose to infuse with new meaning.