Keywords

Christ's blood, Christ's body, sacrament prayers, Gethsemane

Document Type

Article

Abstract

Each Sunday, as part of one of the most familiar rituals in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we hear in our sacrament prayers that the broken bread we eat is a symbol of Christ’s body, and the water we drink a symbol of Christ’s “blood . . . , which was shed for [us]” (Doctrine and Covenants 20:79). Most importantly, we are invited to take these emblems “in remembrance” of his body and shed blood, both at that moment and “always.” Integral to the spiritual cleansing we can experience as we take the sacrament is our remembrance of and reflection on Christ’s Atonement—but what exactly are we being invited to reflect on when we consider Christ’s blood “which was shed for [us]”? For many modern Latter-day Saints, the first or primary image that comes to mind when thinking of Christ shedding blood is the Savior suffering in Gethsemane. As part of a recent class, a teacher asked his Latter-day Saint college students the following question: “Consider this sentence: ‘The blood of Christ was shed to atone for our sins.’ Do you think the phrase ‘the blood of Christ was shed’ in this sentence mostly describes Christ’s sufferings in Gethsemane or his death on the cross?” Students were given only two response options: (a) Christ’s sufferings in Gethsemane or (b) Christ’s death on the cross. Across 108 students surveyed, 74 percent selected “Christ’s sufferings in Gethsemane.” In a different class, the teacher slightly modified this question by offering a third possible answer: (c) Equally what he experienced in Gethsemane and on the cross. In this case, of the 68 students, 53 percent selected “Equally,” while 43 percent selected Gethsemane and 4 percent selected Calvary. Both versions of the survey indicate that these students focus more heavily on Gethsemane than they do Calvary when thinking of Christ’s blood being shed.