It’s Not About You

He took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this to remember me.”

Luke 22:19

Children often wear their self-centeredness on their sleeve. When the family is making the long drive to Grandma and Grandpa’s house, for example, a seven-year-old might say: “I’m bored. I don’t want to go to Grandma and Grandpa’s house anyway. There’s nothing to do there. I wish we weren’t even going.” Many a parent would respond with something like: “It’s not about you. We’re going because it makes Grandma and Grandpa happy. So stop complaining. This is not about you.”

When Jesus and his disciples shared in the Passover meal together, they remembered how God had delivered the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. The various foods and cups of wine each had special meaning, pointing to different aspects of the exodus experience. So you can imagine how startled the disciples must have been when Jesus did something unexpected and confusing. He took some of the bread from the meal and said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this to remember me.” Then, a little later, he did a similar thing with one of the cups of wine.

How unsettling! How apparently self-centered! I’m actually surprised that Peter didn’t speak up at that point and say, “Master, it’s not about you. This is about how God saved his people. We do this to remember him and our experience of his mercy. It’s not about you.”

But, in this case, Peter would have once again missed the point. Yes, the Passover did point back to God’s deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt. But it also pointed ahead to the greater deliverance yet to come. The Passover did indeed point to Jesus. Through him, God was about to save, not only the children of Israel, but, indeed, the whole world. This time, the blood that saves would not be that of actual lambs, but rather of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Because the Passover is about Jesus and his sacrifice, it is also about you. When you put your trust in Jesus as your Savior, when you accept his sacrifice for your sin, then you participate in the meaning of the Passover. You are welcomed into the family of God through the broken body and shed blood of Jesus.

QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER REFLECTION: How do you understand the meaning of Jesus’ death? In what ways does his death for you make a difference in your daily life?

PRAYER: Lord Jesus, thank you for using the Passover to help us understand the meaning of your death for us.

Thank you for giving your body to be broken for me. May I always remember this amazing gift.

Thank you for offering your shed blood, so that I might enter into a new kind of relationship with God.
All praise be to you, Lord Jesus, because the Passover really is about you. Amen.