Yes, rituals are important (and very easy to mock), especially when a message involves things that we find uncomfortable to talk about, like sin; or when important things have happened that are difficult to comprehend, like transubstantiation.  I'll leave it to the psychologists and theologians here to explain why.  But that the oldest and most followed religions have rituals and large, ornate places of worship is no accident.  

That Jesus was a Jew who taught in the temple suggests that he was supportive of ritual.  The last supper was a ritual of Judaism and Jesus' new religion.