As a historian and lover of history, I am always fascinated in my travels when I come across statues, historical markers, and other means that localities choose to mark where significant people, events, or ideas originated or just affected their community. Within the tri-state area of Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois, there are literally thousands of such memorials that commemorate everything from famous people, Revolutionary and Civil War battles and participants, Astronauts, and the Great Flood of 1927.
In our homes we also continue to celebrate milestones and people on a more personal level. In the entryway of the townhouse my family lives in we have pictures of things we have done with our daughter. Upstairs, in our bedroom there is a copy of our wedding invitation that has been mounted in a frame that now hangs on the wall. Each family has photographs and portraits of family members, many who have gone on before; pictures of graduations, marriages, first car, first house, or other important family events are often prominently displayed for all to see. We use these things to create memorials so that we will remember those we love and what they or we have been able to achieve.
In the Old Testament, we see that often God instructed those men we consider as the patriarchs – Abraham, Isaac, Israel (Jacob), and Moses were often instructed to build altars, pillars, and to institute feasts and holy days – each with a specific intent in mind: to be continual memorials of the goodness and holiness of God. One of the study methods commonly used is called the law of first usage which is basically any term in the Bible is defined throughout by the first usage of it in Scripture. In the case of the word memorial it is found here: And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations (Exodus 3:15). In this case, the very name of God is to be the memorial to the Children of Israel that for each generation, they would remember that it was God – Yhwh – who had delivered them from their bondage in Egypt.
Within the New Testament, there are such memorials that the Lord Jesus Christ has instructed us to continue within the church. The first, which is also the only memorial that is considered as one of the two sacraments of the church, is the Lord’s Supper. Within the gospel of Luke, we see Jesus and the disciples as he began what Christians continue to celebrate today: And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me (Luke 22:19). This idea of the Lord’s Supper as a memorial continues into the teachings of the Apostle Paul: For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come (I Corinthians 11:26). It’s easy to understand the significance of such a memorial to commemorate the death of Christ on the cross as payment for our sins.
