³ But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year.

Memories are the things songs are made of … and things our lives are filled with. They are the historical record etched in the mind, the play back recording of life up to this point. Alzheimer’s Disease is the terrible malady that robs the individual of the history—and the history becomes shorter and shorter the more the disease progresses. We can’t live without our memory, in the same way that we can’t live without pain. Without pain, we would self-destruct. Without memories we have no continuity of life and the mind becomes untethered from reality.

Sometimes in Scripture, remembering is an invocation to action. “God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the cattle that were with him in the ark; and God caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the water subsided” (Gen 8:1). But, remembering can also be a call to action for us humans as well: “Remember His wonders which He has done, His marvels and the judgments uttered by His mouth…” (Psalm 105:5). Further, God calls on us to remember His past actions in our lives. Is not the Passover (for the Jews) and the Lord’s Supper (for Christians) God’s memory device so that we won’t forget His redemption in our lives?

In our passage today, we are reminded (no idle repetition intended here) that the sacrifices of the Levitical worship system were not intended to be efficacious (that is, bring about righteousness), but to remind us that we are not righteous, that we are sinners. In speaking of the Day of Atonement, where the High Priest entered the Most Holy Place once yearly for the collective sins of the people of Israel, sin is brought front and center. Israel may have gone through the year and not thought about their sin much, but at least once in twelve months, they had to deal with it.

We humans are prone to spiritual Alzheimer’s Disease—we forget. We forget some of the most important things of our existence: 1) we are sinners and 2) God has provided redemption. The Day of Atonement spoke of redemption in shadowy form by providing a temporary covering over of sin. But the covering was not permanent, for next year the sacrifice had to be done all over again.

In the Lord’s Supper, where Jesus said, “Do this in remembrance of me,” (Luke 22:19), we are not to remember sins, but our redemption from sin. We are forgiven. We are not sacrificing Christ repeatedly, we are simply repeatedly remembering the once for all sacrifice. Let us not forget this!

Lord, thank You for the most excellent memory of our Lord Jesus Christ, who made the perfect sacrifice for my sin, once for all.