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Built Upon My Rock

On that day when the Lord Jesus Christ appeared in Bountiful, some 2500 people saw Him, touched Him, and were taught, blessed, and healed by Him. And then after announcing that His time was at hand and He must leave, He looked upon the weeping audience that pleaded with Him not to go. In the tenderest of compassion, He lingered and blessed them further—healing and praying for them in a way they would never forget.

And then when you would expect Him to depart and fulfill His schedule, He commanded His disciples to go and bring bread and wine. He broke and blessed the bread and commanded it to be given to the multitude. Can you imagine covenanting to always remember His atoning body, broken and bruised in the atonement, while He stood gloriously in the flesh before you?

He then blessed the cup of wine and commanded that it be administered as well. “I give unto you a commandment that ye shall do these things. And if ye shall always do these things blessed are ye, for ye are built upon my rock.” Note the key word, ‘always’.

And then He departed. That night the word spread across the land and the next morning “an exceedingly great number” assembled in the place where Jesus had promised to appear. While they were in the act of praying and being ministered to by angels, Jesus appeared again.

After a season of some of the most significant prayer in history, the record says:

“And it came to pass that He commanded the multitude that they should cease to pray, and also His disciples. And He commanded them that they should not cease to pray in their hearts.”

And Jesus administered the sacrament again, this time providing the emblems Himself. Once they had partaken and were filled, Jesus taught them again, revealing new scripture to them and expounding all the scriptures in one. And again, He ascended into heaven.

Mormon writes:

“Therefore, I would that ye should behold that the Lord truly did teach the people, for the space of three days; and after that he did show himself unto them oft, and did break bread oft, and bless it and give it unto them.”

In those days when He was with them, He taught them, healed them, prayed for them, and each time offered them the sacrament. Why?

Considering the multitudes gathered and the logistics thereof, why did the Lord take the time to administer the sacrament each time He came? There are, perhaps, many reasons, but at least this seems evident: if the sacrament was that important to Him when He was with them, how much more important would it be when He was not with them? The sacrament prepares our hearts every week to hear and receive Him.

He said to His Apostles in Jerusalem, just after administering the sacrament to them:

“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me.”

And by what means do we come unto Jesus now—partaking worthily of the sacrament every week. If it mattered that much to Him then, it still does. Just as those Nephites had their personal moment with Him then, the sacrament is our personal moment with Him now. Are we taking full advantage?

Sources:

3 Nephi 17, 18, 19, 26