Whasblog

Hello all.

This year (as in previous years), I have the privilege of taking part in a world-wide campaign to invite friends, family and strangers to the most important event in the Christian calendar, the memorial of Christ’s death.

Whilst I know that many of you have your own beliefs, I thought I could take this opportunity to explain why we commemorate this event, what it involves and why it is so important to me.

This year will be the 1,975th anniversary of Christ’s death. Last year 17,672,443 people around the world attended, 222,545 in Britain. This in itself is staggering as only 6,957,852 of these are Jehovah’s Witnesses so there were over 10 million others that joined us for that event. Whilst I am on the subject of this being a world-wide event, I read a rather incredible experience in our 2007 Yearbook, as follows: A number of people in different places wondered whether this invitation was being distributed worldwide. A skeptical man in Brazil told the Witness to wait while he telephoned a friend in the United States to see if he had received it. “Yes”, replied the friend, “ten minutes ago, I received a  copy”. Impressed, the man accepted the invitation and promised to read it carefully.

Jehovah’s Christian Witnesses view attending this event as incredibly important, as it is the only occasion that Jesus commanded his followers to observe (Luke 22:19, 1 Cor 11:25). He instituted this observance on the night of the Jewish passover in 33 C.E. The passover was a celebration that was held just once a year on the 14th day of the Jewish month of Nisan. To calculate the date, the Jews evidently waited for the Spring equinox, where there is approximately 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness. The first observable new moon nearest to the equinox marked the beginning of Nisan. Passover came 14 later, after sunset (the Jewish day begins at sundown). Hence, Jehovah’s Witnesses all over the globe will be attending the Memorial on Saturday 22nd March this year.

Jesus attended the Passover with his apostles on this day 33 C.E and (after Judas Iscariot had left) institued the Lord’s Evening Meal, more commonly known as the Last Supper. This meal replaced the Jewish Passover and therefore is only observed once a year (Matthew 26).

They ate ”bread” and drank “wine”, symbols of Jesus’ fleshly body and blood (They did not eat his literal flesh and blood as this would be a violation of God’s Law- (Genesis 9:3, 4 and Leviticus 17:10).  The bread represents Jesus perfect body. It was made without leaven which is used in the Bible to symbolise sin or corruption (1 Cor 5: 6, 7, 1 Pet 2:22). The wine sybolises his blood which Jesus said was poured out for “forgiveness of sins” but also it validated the “new covenant”.

Only a small proportion of those who attend the Memorial will partake of those emblems; the rest attend as observers to reflect on the great love shown by Jehovah God and Christ Jesus. 

For more information or if you would like to come and need more details, feel free to email me at any point. The one local to me is in Chesham but there are many locations that may be closer to your home.

 Hope you all enjoy your Spring breaks .