This morning I want to talk about a dichotomy in scripture. Dichotomy is one of those big words that I recall in vague terms but always have to look up before I use it to make sure I remembered the meaning correctly. It describes something with seemingly contradictory qualities.

The Lord’s Supper is a dichotomy in a sense.

On the one hand, it’s a solemn memorial. We gather each week to remember the sacrificial death of the perfect, sinless Son of God and the agony he endured on the cross. On the other hand, it’s a hopeful reminder of the promise of everlasting life.

As Paul wrote in I Corinthians 15:54-57: “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Jesus didn’t deserve to have His body, which is represented by this bread, marred, mutilated and mocked. But He rose in, and from, that dead body and then went home to His Father. So can we.

As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man. (I Corinthians 15:48-49)

The Messiah didn’t deserve to have His blood, which is represented by this cup, dripping from his feet, his hands and his brow, or pouring from His pierced side. But there is life in His blood; there is power in His blood.

“For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Hebrews 9:13-14)

“Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.” (Romans 5:9)

So as we do every week, let’s remember the death of Jesus — and the life we have in Him.