¹⁴ When the hour had come, He reclined at the table, and the apostles with Him. ¹⁵ And He said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer …

Leonardo da Vinci painted his famous depiction of the Last Supper (1496-1498) during the early Italian Renaissance period, on a monastery wall in Milan, Italy. Unfortunately, the painting began fading within the artist’s lifetime and the deterioration continued over the centuries. In the seventeenth century, with a lack of appreciation for its artistry, a door was cut into the wall destroying the bottom-center of the masterpiece. Various efforts have attempted restoration over the years with varying results, the latest taking place over 21 years beginning in 1978.

Da Vinci, we are told, intended his artistic memory of the Last Supper to depict the apostles’ reaction upon hearing from Jesus that one of them would betray Him. The expression on each face reveals self-doubt (in the apostle John’s case, a demure or sad look). One can imagine their body language as they repeated in turn: “It is not I, is it?” Questioning, denial, consternation, confusion. It may be that da Vinci recognized the continual ecclesiastical intrigue with its power struggles for control over the church, and thus focused on the need for self-examination. Artists, after all, paint with an agenda to convey a message and often take a single point of reference rather than telling the whole story.

But da Vinci’s take on the meaning of the Lord’s Supper conveys a subsidiary message, not the main thing. Jesus did not commission the Renaissance master to create the definitive memory of the event. Don’t get me wrong, the work is a priceless work of art, but it does not represent how Jesus expressly said He wanted to be remembered. To be sure, when we re-enact the Last Supper, we should examine ourselves (see 1 Cor. 11:27-30) and confess any sin we may be harboring, but presuming we have done so, we are to participate in present-day communion services with clean hearts, confidence, and joy, not guilt and self-flagellation.

The purpose of the Lord’s Supper is to remember Jesus and the meaning of His death. Simple and non-liturgical, He intended to arouse our most profound emotions about Him, to arrest our lives on a regular basis, and to stop us “dead in our tracks” from our usual routines. He wants us to re-focus on who He is and what He has done for us, in the simple act of eating bread and drinking wine. The Bible and church history point to an ongoing commitment of remembering the Lord’s death and resurrection in this way, at least weekly (see Acts 2:42, 20:7, Rev. 1:10). Jesus did not want us to forget His death, take it for granted or leave it, as it were, in our back pocket. Everything in the Christian life depends on the event that the Lord’s Supper signifies.

Luke, recording more detail than Matthew, includes Jesus’ concern that the apostles understand how important this is: “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer” (Luke 22:15). Literally, the Greek words say, “With desire I have desired.” Jesus thought it important that we do as He asks, to remember Him. He clearly and definitively, with no further qualifications, commanded his disciples to “do this in remembrance of Me” (Luke 22:19). This instruction extends to all believers everywhere, for the Great Commission sent the original followers of Christ out to make disciples, “teaching them to observe all that I commanded you” (Matt. 28:20). That would include remembering Him in the elements of the Lord’s Supper. The apostle Paul, some thirty years later affirmed the general acceptance of this teaching when, as part of his disciple-making efforts, he reiterated the Last Supper event to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 11:23-26).

While we may appreciate the artistry of the master painter and his depiction of the Lord’s Supper, we should focus on remembering the Master of our souls, in the way He personally prescribed. If, as the prophet Samuel said, “To obey is better than to sacrifice” (1 Sam. 15:22), then remembering our Lord as He asked is better than anything else we can do. We ascend to the height of worship when we join with Jesus in “desiring with desire” to fellowship with Him around the table and showcase to our heavenly Father that we understand and embrace His son’s death as the supreme sacrifice for us. In this we glorify our Savior for His eternal love for us. We need to remind ourselves constantly, because we so easily forget or take it for granted.

Lord, I want my worship to be acceptable to You, and so I will remember You in the way You instructed.