The sacrament is formally instituted as an act of covenant. By the participation in the act of partaking the sacrament we therefore covenant that “ye are willing to do that which I have commanded you.”
Narrative Setting: At this point the discourse focuses on the twelve. Jesus does not return to speaking to the multitude until verse 17.
Social: The sacrament is an individual covenant with God, but it is an individual covenant made in a public and social setting. This communal affirmation of individual commitment is an essential part of our experience with our religion:
“Prophets try to get people to put religion in perspective, to see it in terms of great fundamentals and in terms of ethics as well as theology. Prophets have never been bound by the past. They speak for God afresh in the interest of man, in the light of the great ideals of religion, and in the light of God’s purpose and character. The other type of religious leader, Weber calls a priest. By this he means a man in any faith whose primary concern is to conserve the religion of the founder—of a Moses or Christ, for example. The priest canonizes scripture, refines doctrine, establishes tradition, records history, performs sacred rites and sacraments. In this way he builds and maintains the church, welding the believers into a meaningful fellowship.
Religion wouldn’t survive if we just had the prophetic word. It would die with the prophet. Religion needs an order of religious leaders who are concerned with conservation and preservation. And I have the greatest respect for men who have done and who do this for us. If we didn’t come together and partake of the sacrament as a body of believers; if we didn’t sing Mormon hymns together and pray together; if we didn’t have traditions to inspire us, we wouldn’t exist as a religious movement, and maybe our individual religious life would fade out.” (Lowell L. Bennion, The Best of Lowell L. Bennion: Selected Writings 1928-1988, edited by Eugene England [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1988], 25.)
The ability to come together and openly share our covenants and our commitments is part of what allows us to continue. The larger the church gets, the farther any single person is from the individual we know as the prophet. However, when we come to our meetings we sit next to another who believes as we do. We share songs, we teach each other the same doctrines, and for a brief, one hopes reverent, time, we share symbols that unite us in our resolve to live the commandments that come from God through the prophets. The prophets may guide us, but the community supports us. The prophet may teach us doctrine, but it is in our communal settings that we teach each other what it means to endure to the end.
It is in this context that we see the following explanation:
“The ordinance of the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper is vital in our quest for deeper spirituality. A friend once asked a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles how to live in this world in such a way as to be prepared to live hereafter in the celestial kingdom. The Church leader answered quickly: “Take the sacrament worthily every week.” Though that answer may sound obvious, it points us to the need for ordinances. If we skip sacrament meeting once in a while, then we are not only missing the spiritual growth that could come through contact with the Saints and participation in sacred music and the spoken word but we are also denying ourselves a regular opportunity to be healed.” (Robert L. Millet, Alive in Christ: The Miracle of Spiritual Rebirth [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1997], 141 - 142.)