The Emblems of the Sacrament

One of the tenets of some Christian churches is the concept of transubstantiation.  This is the idea that bread and wine used in the Eucharist are actually turned into the body and blood of Christ.  Elder Talmage described it this way: the “doctrine of ‘transubstantiation’ is to the effect that the bread and wine administered as emblems of Christ’s flesh and blood in the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper are transmuted by priestly consecration into the actual flesh and blood of Jesus Christ."  As Latter-day Saints we don’t believe in this interpretation of the Sacrament, but I can understand from some verses in the New Testament why one might think that.  For example, here is how Matthew described the Sacrament of the Lord’s supper: "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.  And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins" (Matt. 26:26-28).  Taking this literally—that the bread is His body and the wine is His blood—one might come to agree with the concept of transubstantiation.  Similarly, John recorded these words of the Savior from the Bread of Life sermon: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you" (John 6:53).  Without looking further at a more complete set of scriptures, this too might lend itself to supporting the idea that the Sacrament is somehow literally turned into Christ.

               Serious consideration and a closer look at all of the scriptures that teach us about the Sacrament clearly show that the idea of transubstantiation is false.  For example, in the same Bread of Life sermon the Lord said—partly in response to those who murmured, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”—"It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life" (John 6:63).  He was of course not trying to tell them they would physically eat his body but was speaking symbolically and spiritually.  The account to the Nephites I think makes this distinction clearer: "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 key phrase here is “to the soul”—we eat of his body and blood to our souls.  It’s not a literal, physical eating but a spiritual nourishment that the atonement of Christ gives us. 

               Many other scriptures teach us that the important part of the Sacrament is that we remember the blood and body of Christ.  It’s not about physically eating his flesh but spiritually remembering and pondering and thinking about the sacrifice of the Son.  For example, Paul related the Last Supper this way to the Corinthians: "And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.  After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me" (1 Corinthians 11:24-25).  To the Nephites He used similar language: "And this shall ye do in remembrance of my body, which I have shown unto you. And it shall be a testimony unto the Father that ye do always remember me " (3 Nephi 18:7).  In our dispensation the Lord described it this way: "For, behold, I say unto you, that it mattereth not what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink when ye partake of the sacrament, if it so be that ye do it with an eye single to my glory—remembering unto the Father my body which was laid down for you, and my blood which was shed for the remission of your sins" (D&C 27:2).  Again the focus is on remembering the blood and the body; the Sacrament is not about a physical experience but a spiritual one, a deep remembering of how Christ dies for us. 

               Symbolically taking in us the body and blood of Christ extends to more than the Sacrament alone.  In his last general conference talk, Elder Christofferson said, "To eat His flesh and drink His blood is a striking way of expressing how completely we must bring the Savior into our life—into our very being—that we may be one….  We partake of His flesh and drink His blood when we receive from Him the power and blessings of His Atonement."  More important than discussions of semantics around the substance of the emblems of the Sacrament is the real question for us to consider: how completely have we brought the Savior and His teachings into our own being?