About the time of the Passover, Jesus performed two miracles in a row: He fed about 5,000 people bread and fish, and then He walked on water. Immediately after those miracles, a large number of people found Him on the other side of the sea and asked Him several questions. In response, He delivered a sermon which troubled and confused many of them. At the heart of this sermon, He made the following declaration:
I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world….
Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.
Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.
For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.
John 6:51, 53-55
This was a turning point for His disciples, many of whom “went back, and walked no more with him” (John 6:66). But Peter and others reaffirmed their testimony of Him: “Thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God” (John 6:68-69).
About a year later, Jesus and those disciples again celebrated Passover, this time in Jerusalem. As they sat together, He broke bread, blessed it, and offered it to them saying, “Take, eat; this is my body,” or as Joseph Smith rephrased that passage, “This is in remembrance of my body, which I give a ransom for you” (Matthew 26:26; Joseph Smith Translation: Matthew 26:22; see also Mark 14:22, Joseph Smith Translation: Mark 24:1, Luke 22:19). Then, He blessed a cup of wine, saying, “Drink ye all of it; For this is my blood [or “this is in remembrance of my blood”) which is shed for many for the remission of sins” (Matthew 26:27-28, Joseph Smith Translation: Matthew 26:24; see also Mark 14:23-24, Joseph Smith Translation: Mark 14:22-23, Luke 22:20). Surely they connected this new ordinance with the doctrine which He had taught them a year earlier.
After His death and resurrection, Jesus visited a group of Israelites who had migrated to the American continent centuries earlier. On the first day of His ministry, He introduced to them the ordinance of the sacrament, saying of the broken bread, “This shall ye do in remembrance of my body, which I have shown unto you,” and of the wine, “Ye shall do it in remembrance of my blood, which I have shed for you” (3 Nephi 18:7, 11).
The following day, He administered this ordinance again, adding this promise:
He that eateth this bread eateth of my body to his soul; and he that drinketh of this wine drinketh of my blood to his soul; and his soul shall never hunger nor thirst, but shall be filled.
3 Nephi 20:8
The prayers on the bread and the wine, which were subsequently recorded by Moroni, and which we still use in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints today, incorporate elements from each of these stories. The priest who offers the prayer asks the Father “to bless and sanctify this bread [or this water] to the souls of all those who partake of it.” Then, he adds, “that they may eat in remembrance of the body of thy Son” or “of the blood of thy Son, which was shed for them,” with a promise “they are willing to…always remember him” or “that they do always remember him” (Moroni 4:3, Moroni 5:2).
Today, as I partake of the sacrament, I will the Savior’s instructions concerning these symbols. I will remember that He is the living bread and that His flesh and blood give us life. I will remember that He gave His body and shed His blood for me and for all of us. I will remember that the emblems of His flesh and blood have been blessed and sanctified to my soul, with a promise that this action is leading me to eternal life.
Leave a Reply