The bread and water take on new meaning in this insightful infographic about Christ’s mission. Download the Christ Mission in Sacrament pdf.

Body and Blood

What does the bread and water mean? In primary class you will most likely get the answer, “body and blood.” If you are in relief society or elders quorum, hopefully, you have a slightly deeper answer. After all, remembering somebody’s body and blood doesn’t seem to have a benefit. Hopefully, you can at least be specific and answer “Christ’s body and blood.” Now we are getting somewhere.

Overcoming Physical Death and Spiritual Death

Some outside observer might look at your view of remembering “Christ’s body and blood” a little odd. Can you explain why it isn’t strange? Is Christ’s body and blood more special than other bodies or blood? YES! Christ’s body did something no other body has ever done, ever. What did it do? It overcame physical death. He experienced physical death and overcame it. Christ also suffered, bleed from every pore for our sins. In doing so, Christ experienced and overcame spiritual death. Indeed, Christ’s body and blood is something special to be remembered.

Resurrection and Redemption

Christ overcame physical and spiritual death. Isn’t it convenient that we have names for these events? Do you know what they are? When Christ’s body overcame physical death, we call that the resurrection. When his blood overcame spiritual death, we call that the redemption (or Atonement). When you redeem something it is gaining possession of something in exchange for payment.  Jesus paid for our sins  In other words, Jesus redeemed us from sin.

Reunite _____ with ____ forever

So Christ accomplished the resurrection and redemption. An ignorant critic may ask, “So what?” Take a moment to respond to the critic. What are we really trying to get at here? Maybe he has a point. If you are just remember Christ’s accomplishments, maybe you are missing the true meaning of the sacrament. Taking the sacrament personal is at the heart of the ordinance. What is a way you can personalize what Christ has done? How do these things apply to you? Will the resurrection affect you personally? Will the redemption affect you personally? How exactly? The resurrection reunites our body with our spirit forever! I’d say that’s pretty personal. The redemption reunites ourselves with God forever! (If we repent)

Immortality and Eternal Life

So, the sacrament can help remind us that Christ made it possible for some awesome reunions. One, is that we will reunite with our body forever. If only there was a name for living forever… oh yeah, it’s called “immortality”.  And when we are reunited with God forever there is a name for that too. Eternal Life. Moses 1:39 states that this is Christ’s work and glory. To bring to pass the Immortality and Eternal life of all of us!

So what does the bread and water mean? Lots of things. You could easily argue that the bread and water represent “Immortality and Eternal Life through Jesus Christ.” Just think about it. Might be a better answer than “body and blood.”

Still not convinced that bread and water represent immortality and eternal life? Although I came up with this infographic more than a decade ago, recently I heard this conference talk. It pretty much says the same thing.

If you have any insightful thoughts or just want to comment below, feel free!

(you might also be interested in this Christ’s burial infographic)

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