An Empty Sacrament Table

One Sunday morning our teenaged son stood with two other priests to administer the sacrament, as they had done on many prior occasions. They pulled back the white cloth, but to their dismay there was no bread. One of them slipped out to the preparation room in hopes some could be found. There was none. Finally our troubled son made his way to the bishop and shared the concern with him. A wise bishop then stood, explained the situation to the congregation, and asked, "How would it be if the sacrament table were to be empty today because there were no Atonement?" I have thought of that often -- what would it be like if there were no bread because there had been no crucifixion, no water because there had been no shedding of blood? If there had been no Atonement, what would the consequences be to us? Of course, the question is now moot, but it does put in perspective our total dependence on the Lord. To ask and answer this question only heightens our awareness of, and appreciation for, the Savior. What might have been, even for the "righteous," if there had been no atoning sacrifice, stirs the very depths of human emotion.

First, there would be no resurrection, or as suggested in the explicit language of Jacob: "This flesh must have laid down to rot and to crumble to its mother earth, to rise no more" (2 Nephi 9:7).

Second, our spirits would become subject to the devil. He would have "all power over you" and "seal you his" (Alma 34:35). In fact we would become like him, even "angels to a devil" (2 Nephi 9:9).

Third, we would be "shut out from the presence of our God" (2 Nephi 9:9), to remain forever with the father of lies.

Fourth, we would "endure a never-ending torment" (Mosiah 2:39).

Fifth, we would be without hope, for "if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain...If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable" (1 Corinthians 15:14, 19)...

Without the Atonement, Macbeth's fatalistic outlook on life would have been tragically correct; it would be a play without a purpose:

"Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage

And then is heard no more. It is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing" 

(William Shakespeare, Macbeth, 5.5.25-28).

Life would signify nothing without Christ's redemptive act.

By Tad R. Callister

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