Why Do You Partake of the Sacrament?

My Come, Follow Me studies for this week took me to Matthew 26, Mark 14, and John 13 in a lesson titled “In Remembrance.” The lesson material was preceded by this bit of counsel: “As you read about the events described in [the scripture block], pay attention to any impressions you receive, especially those impressions that deepen your faith in Jesus Christ and your commitment to Him.” The lesson was then introduced with the following information. 

The day before He died, Jesus gave His disciples something to remember Him by. He “took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; for this is my blood” (Matthew 26:26-28).

That happened about 2,000 years ago, in a place most of us will never see, in a language few of us can understand. But now, every Sunday in our own meeting places, priesthood holders, authorized to act in the name of Jesus Christ, do what He once did. They take bread and water, bless it, and give it to each of us, His disciples. It’s a simple act—can there be anything simpler, more fundamental, than eating bread and drinking water? But that bread and water are sacred to us because they help us remember Him. They’re our way of saying, “I’ll never forget Him”—not just, “I’ll never forget what I’ve read about His teachings and His life.” Rather, we are saying, “I’ll never forget what He did for me.” “I’ll never forget how He rescued me when I cried out for help.” And “I’ll never forget His commitment to me and my commitment to Him—the covenant we have made.”

As usual, this block of scriptures contains several principles that could be discussed, but I have chosen to discuss this principle found in Matthew 26:26-29 and Mark 14:22-25: “The sacrament is an opportunity to remember the Savior.” First, we will look at the actual scripture. The wording in Matthew and Mark are similar, so I will go with Matthew 26:26-29:

26 And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body.

27 And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink e all of it;

28 For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

The disciples of Christ must have been a little surprised when He gave them bread and told them that it was His body and then gave them wine and told them that it was His blood. Jesus Christ had a purpose for introducing the sacrament to His disciples – and to us. His purpose is to encourage us to remember Him. The bread and water used in the sacrament service are symbolic of Christ’s body and blood.

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints gave the following explanation about how we can remember the Savior.

With a crust of bread, always broken, blessed, and offered first, we remember His bruised body and broken heart, His physical suffering on the cross where He cried, “I thirst,” and finally, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (John 19:38; Matt. 27:46.)

The Savior’s physical suffering guarantees that through His mercy and grace (see 2 Nephi 2:8) every member of the human family shall be freed from the bonds of death and be resurrected triumphantly from the grave….

With a small cup of water we remember the shedding of Christ’s blood and the depth of His spiritual suffering, anguish which began in the Garden of Gethsemane. There he said, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death” (Matt. 26:38). He was in agony and “prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as if it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground” (Luke 22:44).

The Savior’s spiritual suffering and the shedding of his innocent blood, so lovingly and freely given, paid the debt for what the scriptures call the “original guilt” of Adam’s transgression (Moses 6:54). Furthermore, Christ suffered for the sins and sorrows and pains of all the rest of the human family, providing remission for all of our sins as well, upon conditions of obedience to the principles and ordinances of the gospel he taught (see 2 Ne. 9:21-23). As the Apostle Paul wrote, we were “bought with a price” (1 Cor. 6:20). What an expensive price and what a merciful purchase!

That is why every ordinance of the gospel focuses in one way or another on the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ, and surely that is why this particular ordinance with all its symbolism and imagery comes to us more readily and more repeatedly than any other in our life” (“This Do in Remembrance of Me,” 67) (As quoted in the New Testament Student Manual – Religion 211-212, pp. 82-83).

We are counseled to partake of the sacrament each Sunday in remembrance of the Savior and His atoning sacrifice. In doing so, we renew the covenants that we made with Him in baptism. We covenant to take His name upon us, to always remember Him, and to keep His commandments. In return, He covenants to have His Spirit to always be with us.