Remembering Our Absent Lord - All The LORD is near Daily Devotionals for 2026

Do this in remembrance of Me.
1 Corinthians 11:24

Remembering Our Absent Lord
The Lord's Supper brings before us the fact that He is not here—we announce the death of our Lord until He returns—and one reason why He is not here is that the world cast Him out: "And He was numbered with the transgressors." His name was blotted out from David's royal line and inscribed on the criminal roll of Jerusalem. Yes, the name of Jesus of Nazareth would be found along with the names of thieves and murderers.

And we announce the Lord's death until He comes again. As we eat His Supper, we announce the fact that we are identified with Him whom the world slew; we are identified with Him because we love Him. He made us His own forever by a love that gave Himself for us. How easily we forget this. If He were to stand in our midst and show us His wounded hands and side, as He did to His disciples on the resurrection day, His love would without doubt be a great reality to us. But "out of sight" is so liable to be "out of mind," so fickle are we; and knowing this, He instituted His Supper, which should be a constant and perpetual reminder to us of a love that is stronger than death.

And so, as we sit at His Supper, we follow Him in thought through the gates of David's city—that city that He loved so well and for which He wept—to Calvary. We see Him there for us, no light shining on Him from above, no friend ministering comfort below. We hear His broken cries, but men only mock them and heaven is dumb; and at last He dies. The Prince of Life hangs dead upon a cross for us; His body was there given for us and His blood shed for us. It is this that the broken bread and the poured-out wine speak of: Christ dead for us. And we need this Supper to keep Him in this great love ever fresh before our soul. If He were here, we should not need it; because He is absent, we do.

J. T. Mawson