Sacrifice and the Sacrament

Sacrifice and the Sacrament

We all know we take the Sacrament to renew our Baptismal covenants. In ancient times, people gave burnt offerings instead of taking the Sacrament, so they were actually renewing their baptismal covenants when they gave burnt offerings. From Adam's time, people were baptized as a covenant. Baptism didn't begin with John the Baptist as many churches believe.

The word baptism is Hebrew (the New Testament was written in Hebrew); in the Old Testament, which was written in Greek, it is sometimes referred to as "washing".

D&C 84 says that John the Baptist was baptized when he was a child. Bruce R McConkie says that Jews were baptized as children but had to be re-baptized when John the Baptist came (and Jesus) because it was the ushering in of a new dispensation. John the Baptist had authority to baptize because he was the son of Zacharias. Men had to be direct descendants of Aaron to have the authority to baptize. (Aaronic priesthood) Jesus walked about 60 miles to be baptized by authority.

So people from Adam's time were baptized but did not take the sacrament - that started with the last supper. After they were baptized, they renewed their baptismal covenants by giving sacrifices, in ANTICIPATION of Jesus' sacrifice. Now we take the sacrament in REMEMBRANCE of Jesus' sacrifice, or atonement.

When Adam was cast out of the Garden of Eden, he was told to sacrifice the first born male of every single female animal. It took some record keeping to be sure the get the firstborn male of each clean animal.

The Devil’s counterfeit of righteous sacrifice is human sacrifice. As a child Abraham almost got sacrificed by his father. Abraham always offered sacrifices, so Isaac was very familiar with the practice.

The book of Leviticus is a handbook for the Aaronic Priesthood. Leviticus 11 explains what animals were to be sacrificed. They understood that the animals represented the Savior who was to come. The first thing Noah did after the arc landed was to do sacrifice of 7 of the clean animals. Poor people didn’t have all the animals, and would sacrifice turtle doves or some other clean animal that was cheaper or easier to get. The male had to be without blemish and was carefully selected.

Cain and Abel were the first sons to have the Priesthood. Everyone knew the importance of making sacrifices and that they drew them closer to God. They would make a sacrifice before going to battle. People also understood the importance of it being a blood sacrifice and the significance of it. That’s why it was such a sacrilege for Cain to offer fruits instead of an animal. It was mockery of Jesus’ great sacrifice – it cheapened it and took away the symbolism of the blood. So he lost the Priesthood and his birthright and became the first son of perdition.

When Saul was about to go to battle, he was waiting for Samuel (the prophet) to come and perform the sacrifice but got impatient, so he took it on himself to do the sacrifice. He didn’t have the Priesthood or authority to do it, thus making a mockery of it and for that he lost his whole kingdom. God is very particular about how His ordinances are done. The Great Apostasy was brought about because they changed some of the parts of the Sacrament. One of the things they taught was that the bread and wine actually turned into the flesh and blood of Jesus when they partook of them.

The daily sacrifices under Mosaic Law were a lot of work. It took the Priests all day to prepare the animals, not allowing them time to do much else, like support their family, so they were allowed to keep the breast portion of the animal to feed their families, and people who brought animals for sacrifice also brought them foods to help them out. They were loved and appreciated for their work.

Lehi lived during Moses’ dispensation and lived the Law of Moses, so they also performed sacrifices. Lehi had the Melchizedek Priesthood, as did all prophets of the Old Testament. Giving burnt sacrifices in those times was equal in importance to our taking the Sacrament weekly. Looking forward to Christ was how people could access the Spirit in their lives.

Joseph Smith saw in vision (D&C 138) when Christ died and went to Paradise. He saw worthy people who were ready – Celestial beings – who were gathered in one place. They were the faithful of the earth. They were the ones who regularly made sacrifices and died firm in the faith – prophets and many faithful women, and the Nephites who died before Jesus.  Now that group would include all the good saints who took the Sacrament faithfully during their lifetime.

After Christ died, the Nephites were gathered at the temple, probably because it was a wonderful place to gather, but also because it was probably where they would offer sacrifices, but Christ’s atonement did away with burnt sacrifices. That’s why the first thing Christ told them was that there was to be no more burnt sacrifices – now they were to offer a  broken heart and contrite spirit. Then He introduced the Sacrament. He told them if they did the Sacrament, they would be built upon the Rock. This was a HUGE change for them.

He had them gather bread and wine for the sacrament, which was probably difficult because of all the earthquakes and destruction. So to have the sacrament again on the 2^nd day, He performed a miracle to provide the bread and wine. He only comes into our lives with miracles after we’ve done all we can do without the miracles. He will never do what we can do for ourselves.

This is why the Sacrament is of such great importance for our lives now and why we should make every effort to participate in it every week and focus to get the most out of it.

Blood sacrifice will again be performed at the second coming by the Levites.

Christ’s wine was “fruit of the vine” – unfermented. The early saints used grape juice – or “new wine”, D&C 27. It was changed to water in 1912. Until the 20^th century, the whole congregation knelt with the Priests for the sacrament prayer. And in the early days everyone drank from the same cup – the same as in Jesus’ time. In 1918 when the influenza was making so many sick or killing them, Heber J Grant changed it so each person had their own cup. They used to be little glasses that had to be washed each week after the meeting.

There is much symbolism in the sacrament. Even the sacrament table, with the cloth over the trays, is to look like a corpse with its shroud cover. In Christ’s time they used unleavened bread. Now we use leavened bread, which is symbolic of the RISEN Christ. The bread is also symbolic of Jesus; He called himself the Bread of Life and the Living Water.

We need to take advantage of the 15 minutes of the Sacrament service to repent, forgive others, rid ourselves of bad feelings and set things straight. We need to bring our gift to the alter of a broken heart.

To take of the sacrament worthily, we need to set things straight so there are no hard feelings. Laurel told of a time when one of her daughters had had a very hard morning and she had yelled at her mom. When they were passing the sacrament, the girl wrote a note to Laurel, asking for forgiveness. It got passed all down the row past all the other kids. The note said, “Can you ever forgive me? Check one: Yes, No, Maybe eventually after a long time.” Laurel quickly checked the yes box and wrote how much she loved her, then passed the note back. The daughter was greatly relieved. It showed that the young girl understood the importance of partaking worthily. 1 Corinthian 15:30 says we can be sick from taking the sacrament unworthily. (I think she said Brigham Young) said this is why so many members are sick.

President Kimball said it is important for children to partake of the Sacrament as practice for after they are baptized; to learn the importance of it. We need to remember that God knows our thoughts and intentions. It is obvious that He can hear our thoughts during the Sacrament, so we need to focus and take advantage of that time for self-reflection and improvement. We can think about making a better start for the new week; count our blessings, think on the life of Jesus, His sacrifice, we can read the sacrament hymns, etc.

When Laurel and Larry were visiting a stake president, he told of when he was a child, he saw his mother crying during the hymn, I Stand All Amazed. It impressed so much on him the importance of singing the sacrament hymn and he always loved that hymn for that memory of his mother. They said you can evaluate the spirituality of a ward by how many people are singing the sacrament hymn.

The General Authorities who are always visiting stake conferences every week are always scheduled at least one Sunday a month to go to their own Sacrament Meeting so they don’t go too long without taking the sacrament.

Laurel said in Russia the sacrament meetings were very reverent. Before the sacrament service they would always announce to the members to prepare their hearts for the most important event of their week, to put away their thoughts of worldly things and prepare their minds and hearts for what they were about to do.

Partaking of the Sacrament we have a promise that we will always have His spirit with us. The Aaronic Priesthood has the keys to the ministering of angels and if we take the sacrament, prepared by Aaronic Priesthood holders, we are worthy of having the ministering of angels. Jesus can be in our midst – the scripture says where 2 or more are gathered, He will be there. Partaking of the Sacrament is a protection for us.