As Jesus sat at supper with His disciples prior to His fated suffering, He instituted the sacrament through which they could remember Him and through which they could covenant to keep His commandments on the condition of love. Such was the theme of the last supper of His mortal life. In John's account of the Last Supper in chapters 13-15 Jesus used the word 'love' 20 times in 14 verses. This made it clear indeed that what He was about to do for them through His infinite sacrifice was a token of love and should be a token of love forever more. Then the admonition to all who would accept that love through the emblems of sacrament: "This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you" (John 15:12); "...this do in remembrance of me" (Luke 22:19).
One might ask why the Lord chose the Last Supper as a discourse on love. What to us became The Last Supper and the institution of the sacrament we observe to this day, was in actuality Jesus' last Passover meal or the feast of unleavened bread which was an ancient festival that commemorated the salvation of Israel from bondage in Egypt. The Passover had been kept by Israelites for generations as a token of the Lord's love for them: "Because the Lord loved you...hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt" (Deut. 7:8). When Jehovah freed the Israelites from Egyptians, He freed them from physical bondage of slavery and likewise from spiritual bondage by giving them laws and commandments which with the passing of time they had great difficulty in keeping. The atoning sacrifice which Jesus was about to perform for Israel following the last Passover was to free them once more from physical and spiritual bondage, physical being the sting of death and spiritual being the pathway to eternal life through the sacrifice of a broken heart and a contrite spirit. As the Jewish day ends and begins at sunset, thousands of Paschal lambs were killed on the day of the Passover signifying that the lamb was the great and last sacrifice. That same day, before the sun set again, Jesus hung on the cross, in realisation of that significance, the offering of His body grounded in ultimate love for "greater love hath no man that this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13).
Jesus predicted that in our day people will not keep the commandments and because 'iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold' (Matt 24:12). But more than that, the love of many within their own families shall wax cold and brother shall rise against brother, and father against the son, and children against their parents (Mark 13:12). We see evidence of this constantly in media where families are torn and at war with one another; where hatred abounds instead of love; where family feuds cause generations to foster animosity and breed bitterness, resentment and ill will; and where blood is thinner than water. The Church is not exempt from this. There we encounter hypocrisy where some members, to be seen of men, are more courteous, loving and kind to other Church members than they are to their own families; where parents allow familiarity to breed disrespect between each other and their children; where parents mete abuse; and where children are so disobedient to their parents that instead of havens their homes become battlegrounds. It has been said 'you hurt the most those you love the most'. Why is it that we are more mindful of hurting the feelings of our friends and strangers than we are of hurting our families? If we are at odds with any family members we will not be fit for the kingdom. Our family members are those that count the most, we cannot be saved in the Kingdom of God without them in the sense that if we harbour unforgiveness, hatred or ill will toward them. I feel that we will be held accountable for any issues we have caused or pain we have inflicted that we do not seek to rectify. In extreme cases where abuse has been involved, there might need to be professional mediation to bring the perpetrator to repentance and the victim to healing.
Most importantly, if we are not bound in love, we cannot hope to have the Lord's spirit with us always as it is promised us through the token of the sacrament. When we are not bound in love to our family members, no matter what their feelings are towards us, we are not fully worthy to partake of Christ's flesh and blood through the sacredness of the sacrament for that which was wrought in love should be partaken in love. No man can confess to fully love God when he does not love his fellow beings for when there is an absence of love, more often than not there is a presence of adverse feelings which are not worthy of true disciples of Christ. Regarding this President Joseph Fielding Smith Jr said the following: "If any of the members are not in good standing; if they have in their hearts any feeling of hatred, envy, or sin of any kind, they should not partake of these emblems. If there are any differences or feelings existing between brethren, these differences should be adjusted before the guilty parties partake; otherwise they will eat and drink unworthily and bring on them the condemnation spoken of by Paul. We should see that our hearts and hands are clean and pure. (Doctrines of Salvation, 2:343)"
The importance of cherishing and honouring family relationships can be seen through the following story:
"Some time ago a friend of mine related an experience that I should like to pass on to you. He said:
'My father's cousin and my father lived in the same community and were competing in the construction business. There grew up over the years a very keen and bitter rivalry between them. This was triggered in the beginning in the bidding of construction contracts, and later in our city political affairs where they opposed each other in very spirited elections. Our immediate families inherited this situation upon the death of my father, for we boys seemed to take over where Dad left off. It was quite a strain on the members of his family and ours even to be civil to one another, even in our Church callings where he served as bishop of one ward and I in another, and later in the high council where we were both members. When we came together it seemed that Satan took over, and I am sure he did, for haven't we been told that where contention is, the Spirit of the Lord is not?
This situation continued to fester. Suddenly I found myself with a call to put aside all worldly things and go to preside over a mission. This was a thrilling experience to contemplate, and yet I subconsciously had a most uneasy feeling about it. I kept asking myself: 'Are you really worthy to accept such an important call?' I was living the Word of Wisdom, I was a full tithe paper, I was faithful in all my Church activities, I was morally clean, and yet this uneasy feeling persisted. I set about immediately to get my business and personal affairs in a condition where others could handle them when we were gone. While returning home from my office one afternoon, it really happened. I didn't hear a voice, but as clearly as if a voice spoke to me something said: 'You must go to your father's cousin and get things straightened out. You cannot go on this mission and teach the gospel of love when this terrible feeling exists between you.'
I drove to his home, and with great fear and trepidation went up and rang the doorbell. There was no answer. After waiting a few minutes I went back to my car and said silently, 'Lord, I made the attempt. I am sure this will be acceptable.' But it wasn't. This uneasy feeling still persisted. I prayed earnestly about it. The next day as I sat in a funeral service, my cousin came in and sat across the aisle from me. The Spirit moved me to ask him if I could see him at his home after the service. He agreed. This time I went with calmness and tranquility in my soul because I had asked the Lord to prepare the way for me.
When I rang the doorbell he invited me into the living room and congratulated me on my mission call. We talked a few minutes about things in general, and then it happened. I looked at him with the feeling of love, which replaced all the old bitterness, and said: 'I have come to ask forgiveness for anything I have ever said or done that has tended to divide us and our families.' At this point tears came into our eyes, and for a few minutes neither of us could say a word. This was one time when silence was more powerful than words. In a few minutes he said: 'I wish I had come to you first.' I replied: 'The important thing is that it is done, not who initiated it.' At this moment we had a rich spiritual experience, which caused us to purge our lives and our souls of those things which had separated us, which has resulted in our having proper family relationships. Now I could go on my mission and teach the true meaning of love, because for the first time in my life I had experienced its deepest dimension, and now I could honestly say that there wasn't a person in the world that I didn't love and appreciate. Since that day my life has never been the same, for it was then that I learned in a most positive way as I had never understood before the injunction of the Master to his disciples when he said: 'A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another' (John 13:34) (N. Eldon Tanner in CR, April 1967, pp 105-6, The Life and Teachings of Jesus and His Apostles, p. 161)
"Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end." (John 13:1)
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