We are quickly approaching the time of year that is most precious to Jehovah’s Witnesses; the Memorial of Christ’s death. 

This meeting is hugely important and great amounts of time, effort and endeavour are spent on the part of Jehovah’s Witnesses globally as they prepare their Kingdom Halls to welcome the millions who come to celebrate the Memorial. 

Many Jehovah’s Witnesses take holiday time from work and spend around 50 hours in one month preaching from door-to-door and inviting their neighbours, workmates and family members to attend the Memorial. It is expected that over 11 million people world-wide will be in attendance.

Much care and attention is paid to the technicalities of the meeting. For example, someone will be assigned to purchase the exactly correct type of unleavened bread and unfortified wine. In fact, it’s likely the brother delivering the Memorial talk will highlight this during his discourse; how the bread is unleavened and unsalted, the wine has no added ingredients and how this symbolised Christ’s perfect body and shed blood.

Likely the Memorial emblems will be placed on a table at the front of the Kingdom Hall,perhaps on the platform next to the speaker. The table will be covered in a gleaming white, crisply pressed tablecloth.

The emblems will be arranged on thetable with incredible care and attention.

Jehovah’s Witnesses take this meeting very seriously. Most will be dressed and groomed to an even higher standard than normal. All will be on their reverent best behaviour, even the children. Many will have spent time in the days leading up to the Memorial studying the passages of scripture where Christ and his apostles prepared to celebrate the Passover. They will have read and perhaps even meditated and prayed over the verses of scripture where Christ took the bread and, after giving thanks, broke it and explained that it represented his body which was to be broken on their behalf. And then how he took a cup of red wine, prayed over it and passed it around, instructing his closest friends - the men he called brothers - to drink from it, explaining that it represented his blood which would be poured out to forgive sins.

On Memorial night itself a local elder will be called to pray over the bread and a little later another elder will pray over the wine. It will be painstakingly explained that the bread and wine represent Christ’s loving sacrifice to atone for mankind’s sins. But, strangely, the speaker - if he sticks closely to the outline provided by the “faithful and discreet slave” class - will also be at pains to point out that for virtually everyone in the Kingdom Hall eating the bread or drinking the wine would be wrong.

Why?

Because Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that Christ’s broken body and shed blood apply for only 144,000. This means that Christ died for literally 144,000, enabling them alone to have the benefits of his sacrificial death.

So, while great care, time, thought and attention has gone into preparing the ‘Lord’s Supper’ at the Memorial, 99.7% of those in attendance will not take a bite from the bread nor a sip from the cup. As the symbols of Christ’s death and sacrifice are passed around the Kingdom Halls of Jehovah’s Witnesses, each person in attendance will - one after another - pass them on. Each one will refuse to eat the bread and will refuse to drink from the cup.

How would Jesus himself have felt about this?

I don’t think he’s left us in much doubt.

“Most truly I say to you, ‘Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood,you have no life in yourselves. He that feeds on my flesh and drinks my bloodhas everlasting life, and I shall resurrect him at the last day; for my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. He that feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood remains in union with me, and I in union with him’” - John 6:53-56

Yes, Jehovah’s Witnesses desire everlasting life. They live with that hope in their heart and mind. But when presented with the means to achieve it, they pass it on.

No matter how much preparation goes into the Memorial, no matter how much thought is put into buying the unleavened bread and unfortified wine, no matter how clean and tidy the Kingdom Hall is, no matter how many people have been dutifully invited to attend, no matter how many Auxiliary Pioneered in the lead up to the celebration, no matter how crisp the tablecloth is, it matters not one jot if we choose to refuse Christ’s sacrifice when presented with it.

How does Jesus feel, looking down from heaven, when he sees people who claim to be his followers refuse his body and his blood?

If you are a Jehovah’s Witnesses, please, prayerfully consider whether you wish to have everlasting life or not and read again the means by which Jehovah has made this possible.

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