8 SYMBOLS OF THE SACRAMENT

  1. BREAD: The bread is broken as Christ’s body was broken for you: the scourging, crucifying, the physical nature of his ordeal. “Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit – and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink…” (D&C 19:18).

How do you know when you have “broken” a horse? You can lay the reins in the open hand (temple imagery).

  1. BLOOD: “His infinite atonement affected every age, every dispensation, and every person. Hence the appropriate symbolism of His bleeding at each and every pore—not just some—in order that “as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” (1 Cor. 15:22) Neal A Maxwell, Nov. 1988, p.33.
  1. TABLE: It is the table that demands attention – a representation of the raised altar of sacrifice, the place where one went to be cleansed. “And he shall make an atonement for the holy place, because of their transgressions in all their sins… And he shall . . . offer his burnt offering, and the burnt offering of the people, and make an atonement for himself, and for the people” (Leviticus 16:16, 24).
  1. WHITE LINEN – the table cloth: Evidence of the purity of that which is to be offered. The word atonement means, “to cover”. “…Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered” (Romans 4:7). “And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8). It was the women of Christ’s day who brought the white linen to prepare him for burial. Today it is the Relief Society that washes and prepares the white linen for the sacrament.
  1. PRIESTS: Who do the priest represent? If the sacrament is a representation of Christ lying on the altar, who is the person who gave His Only Begotten Son as a ransom for man? Heavenly Father, the Great High Priest, offers his Son to us.
  1. DEACONS: Who brings the testimony of Christ to everyone for all to partake? The Holy Ghost.
  1. MEMBERS: What good is it to have a sacrament and no one to partake of it? Those who partake of the sacrament are those who represent themselves as one worthy of Eternal Life.

8.RIGHT HAND: You partake of the sacrament with the right hand, “The right hand is the covenant hand” (Joseph F. Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, 3:107-108). “Then shalt thou kill the ram, and take of his blood, and put it upon the tip of the right ear of Aaron, and upon the tip of the right ear of his sons, and upon the thumb of their right hand, and upon the great toe of their right foot, and sprinkle the blood upon the altar round about (Exodus 29:20). The right hand is symbolic of acceptance: “Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world…” (Matt. 25:34). “And ascended into heaven, to sit down on the right hand of the Father, to reign with almighty power according to the will of the Father…” (D&C 20:24).