1. Not as I will, but as thou wilt.” Matt
26:39
a. If we follow the savior’s example, and
submit to the will of our father, we will be showing him our faith and in turn
he will help us get through any trial that is placed in our path. This scripture is amazing to me especially
because of the immense amount of humility this shows from someone who knew that
he could have anything he desired. In
the manual, it says “The faith to believe in the Lord and endure
brings great strength. Some may say if we have enough faith, we can sometimes
change the circumstances that are causing our trials and tribulations. Is our
faith to change circumstances, or is it to endure them? Faithful prayers may be
offered to change or moderate events in our life, but we must always remember
that when concluding each prayer, there is an understanding: ‘Thy will be done’
which I really like and it really makes me want to be better with waiting for
things on the Lord’s time since I can get impatient sometimes.
a. This principle is that even in times
of our greatest temptation, we do not need to prove ourselves to the tempters;
we just need to trust in the Lord and even if it isn’t what we want, the
outcome will end up the best in the longrun.
Sometimes we have to endure things that are not easy, and they will
suck, but just because we pray and God loves us does not mean that he is going
to take those things away from us. I
tried to really imagine Jesus on the cross hanging there in pain and completely
alone, with people telling him to come down. He knew that he could end the
suffering and pain with one word, and he didn’t. There is absolutely nothing in the world more
profound than that. . That is absolutely incredible that someone would be
capable of that big of a sacrifice and endurance, and sets such an example for
all of us.
3. Mark 15:34 “Eloi,
Eloi, Lama Sabachthani? … My God, My God, Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me?”
a. This scripture kind of confused me
when I read it, and it always has, so I looked into it a little more this time,
and found out why God forsook Jesus like the scripture says. He obviously did not leave him there, but I
think it means that he may have strengthened the veil for a little. In the manual, it says that he knew that in
order for the atonement to be complete, the Savior needed to suffer spiritual
death (separation from the father) and physical death, so that he could truly
understand what each of us go through when we are on earth, because he had
never before been separated like that from his father. I am so grateful to have
a savior that knows everything I go through so well and so completely. That is so comforting to me when I mess up
and such a good motivation to keep repenting even when I feel really dumb.
“It is important to remember that Jesus was capable of sinning,
that he could have succumbed, that the plan of life and salvation could have
been foiled, but that he remained true. … He was perfect and sinless, not
because he had to be, but rather because he clearly and determinedly wanted to
be” (“The Temptations
of Christ,” Ensign, Nov. 1976, 18–19).
“Imagine the Being whose power, whose light, whose glory holds
the universe in order, the Being who speaks and solar systems, galaxies, and
stars come into existence—standing before wicked men and being judged by them
as being of no worth or value!
“When we think of what he could have done to these men who took
him to judgment, we have a new and different sense of his condescension. When
Judas led the soldiers and the high priests to the Garden of Gethsemane and
betrayed him with a kiss, Jesus could have spoken a single word and leveled the
entire city of Jerusalem. When the servant of the high priest stepped forward
and slapped his face, Jesus could have lifted a finger and sent that man back
to his original elements. When another man stepped forward and spit in his
face, Jesus had only to blink and our entire solar system could have been
annihilated. But he stood there, he endured, he suffered, he condescended”
(“Knowest Thou the Condescension of God?” in Bruce A. Van Orden and
Brent L. Top, eds., Doctrines of the Book of Mormon: The 1991 Sperry
Symposium [1992], 86).
Bible scholar Frederic W. Farrar described the particularly
cruel nature of death by crucifixion:
“The feet were but a little raised above the earth. The victim
was in full reach of every hand that might choose to strike, in close proximity
to every gesture of insult and hatred. He might hang for hours to be abused,
outraged, even tortured by the ever-moving multitude. …
“For indeed a death by crucifixion seems to include all that
pain and death can have of horrible and ghastly—dizziness, cramp, thirst,
starvation, sleeplessness, traumatic fever, tetanus, publicity of shame, long
continuance of torment, horror of anticipation, mortification of untended
wounds—all intensified just up to the point at which they can be endured at
all, but all stopping just short of the point which would give to the sufferer
the relief of unconsciousness. The unnatural position made every movement
painful; the lacerated veins and crushed tendons throbbed with incessant
anguish; the wounds, inflamed by exposure, gradually gangrened; the
arteries—especially of the head and stomach—became swollen and oppressed with
surcharged blood; and while each variety of misery went on gradually
increasing, there was added to them the intolerable pang of a burning and
raging thirst; and all these physical complications caused an internal
excitement and anxiety, which made the prospect of death itself—of death, the
awful unknown enemy, at whose approach man usually shudders most—bear the
aspect of a delicious and exquisite release. Such was the death to which Christ
was doomed” (The Life of Christ [1874], 640–41).
“Imagine, Jehovah, the Creator of this and other worlds,
‘astonished’! Jesus knew cognitively what He must do, but not experientially.
He had never personally known the exquisite and exacting process of an
atonement before. Thus, when the agony came in its fulness, it was so much,
much worse than even He with his unique intellect had ever imagined! …
“The cumulative weight of all mortal sins—past, present, and
future—pressed upon that perfect, sinless, and sensitive Soul! All our
infirmities and sicknesses were somehow, too, a part of the awful arithmetic of
the Atonement. (See Alma 7:11–12;
Isa. 53:3–5;
Matt. 8:17.)
The anguished Jesus not only pled with the Father that the hour and cup might
pass from Him, but with this relevant citation. ‘And he said, Abba, Father, all
things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me.’ (Mark 14:35–36.) …
“In this extremity, did He, perchance, hope for a rescuing ram
in the thicket? I do not know. His suffering—as it were, enormity multiplied by
infinity—evoked His later soul-cry on the cross, and it was a cry of
forsakenness. (See Matt. 27:46.)
“Even so, Jesus maintained this sublime submissiveness, as He
had in Gethsemane: ‘Nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.’ (Matt. 26:39.)”
(“Willing to Submit,” Ensign, May 1985, 72–73).
“With all the conviction of my soul I testify that He did please
His Father perfectly and that a perfect Father did not forsake His Son in that
hour. Indeed, it is my personal belief that in all of Christ’s mortal ministry
the Father may never have been closer to His Son than in these agonizing final
moments of suffering. Nevertheless, that the supreme sacrifice of His Son might
be as complete as it was voluntary and solitary, the Father briefly withdrew
from Jesus the comfort of His Spirit, the support of His personal presence. It
was required, indeed it was central to the significance of the Atonement, that
this perfect Son who had never spoken ill nor done wrong nor touched an unclean
thing had to know how the rest of humankind—us, all of us—would feel when we
did commit such sins. For His Atonement to be infinite and eternal, He had to
feel what it was like to die not only physically but spiritually, to sense what
it was like to have the divine Spirit withdraw, leaving one feeling totally,
abjectly, hopelessly alone.
“But Jesus held on. He pressed on. The goodness in Him allowed
faith to triumph even in a state of complete anguish. … Because Jesus walked
such a long, lonely path utterly alone, we do not have to do so” (“None Were
with Him,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2009, 87–88).
No comments:
Post a Comment