A Sacred Covenant

I recently learned in my New Testament class that in the days of Jesus dining with people was like making a covenant with them. If you dined with someone it was like you would promise to protect them if they would be loyal to you. This type of a covenant was created at the Last Supper. Jesus made a covenant that he would always be with them if they would keep His commandments and always remember Him. Soon after this, His disciples betrayed/deny Him and the covenant was broken. But after His betrayal and crucifixion and resurrection, he came to His disciples again and renewed this covenant. During this meal, Jesus asked Peter, "Lovest thou me?" three times. Peter is grieved because he knows he has been disloyal and Jesus had to ask him three times before he realized that the obvious answer isn't enough. He replied, "Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee." It was hard for Peter to face the fact that he had been disloyal to one he loved as much as he loved Jesus. It's like that with us as well. When we sin, it is hard for us (at least it is for me) to acknowledge our mistakes and repent. But we need to be like Peter and come completely unto Jesus and forsake our sins. He gives us plenty of opportunities to do this and plenty of opportunities to renew our covenant with Him. The Sacrament is a sacred covenant between us and Jesus. He will not forsake us if we will not forsake Him. We symbolically dine with Jesus each week when we partake of the Sacrament and we need to remember that and keep our end of the deal.