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Jesus of Nazareth, Savior and King
Posted On: 03/22/2008 13:48:54
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This is a short talk that I wrote about nine years ago for sacrament meeting. The poem was written about eighteen or nineteen years ago and on a differentversion of MS Word. Unfortunately they're both on different font types and sizes than this blog font and I don't know how to make them all match. I hope I can fix this, because it's really bugging me. Anyway, this talk was inspired by Jeffrey R. Holland who gave a similar speech many years ago.
Jesus of Nazareth, Savior and King
I want to share some of my insights and personal revelations from the scriptures and from talks past. But first, allow me to read verse one of the hymn, from which our theme is derived:
“Jesus of Nazareth, Savior and King! Triumphant over death, Life thou didst bring, Leaving thy Father’s throne, on earth to live, Thy work to do alone, Thy life to give.”
Jesus Christ’s entire life was an act of selflessness. At age twelve he was already aware of His mission. Today we saw deacons passing the sacrament. At this same young age was young Jesus “…sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions. And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers.”
How his parents must have worried for Him as they searched for three days and finally found him only to hear his reply, “…wist ye not that I was about my Father’s business?” Already, young Jesus was aware of his mission in life and was ever close to His Father in Heaven.
I want to share one of the most touching examples of just how selfless Jesus Christ was. One terrible day, Herod had ordered the execution of John the Baptist. We can read in the New Testament in the book of Mark chapter 6 of this story. When Christ’s disciples had heard of the news they went and took John’s body and laid it in a tomb and went and told Christ all that had happened. I think Jesus and John were very close. We read in the first chapter of Luke that when Mary went to visit Elizabeth, the mother of John, little John leaped in the womb for joy and Elizabeth was filled with the Spirit. They both bore strong testimonies of the other during their ministries and now, Jesus Christ’s cousin had been beheaded. I can’t imagine the sorrow Jesus felt at that moment that I am sure He knew was coming. It is one thing to know that a loved one does not have long to live but it is indeed another when the moment arrives. We read that Jesus privately went away to a desert place by ship, no doubt to mourn his cousin’s death and to be alone if for just a little while. We can also compare to Matthew chapter 14. As Jesus sailed away, many people saw Him and immediately went by foot out of the cities and took the long way around to where Jesus was heading and actually got there before he did.
When He arrived, He saw the multitudes there already waiting for Him. Didn’t they know His cousin just died? Couldn’t they let Him be alone for just a little while to mourn and pray? How dare all these people come bother Him now in one of his darkest hours. No, he put His own heavy feelings aside because “…they were as sheep not having a shepherd: and He began to teach them many things.” After a long day, the disciples told Jesus that they were quite a ways away from civilization and these people should depart to go and eat. But Jesus, still compassionate told His disciples, “Give ye them to eat.” But they didn’t have enough food and Jesus performed another miracle for them. He gathered the few loaves of bread and fishes and blessed them and did feed five thousand men, beside women and children and they were all filled. Now they were all satisfied and edified. Here is where Jesus displays great wisdom. He tells his disciples to go into town while he sent the multitudes on their way. They do so and He bids the multitude farewell. I don’t know how long it takes to bid farewell to thousands of people but after finally doing so, it had to be late into the evening. Now at last Jesus can be alone since he wisely sent his disciples away beforehand. He departs into the mountain to be alone, to mourn His cousin’s death and to pray. Of course Jesus couldn’t leave them alone for too long. They went and got into a little storm and He had to go out on the sea on foot and rescue them by calming the storm. This was during the fourth watch which translates to sometime between three and six in the morning. So it was indeed a full day. To me this epitomizes selflessness on the Savior’s part. He tended to the needs of others first, then His own.
Another great example to me, of Jesus Christ, was how close He was to His Father in Heaven and how close Father in Heaven was to Him. When Jesus Christ was baptized, the heavens opened up and a voice came from heaven saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Consider also these excerpts from the New Testament:
John 5:19-20—“The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: …The Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth.”
John 7:28-29—“I am not come of myself, but he that sent me is true, whom ye know not. But I know him.”
John 10:30—“I and my Father are one.”
John 16:32—“Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me.”
John 8: 16, 29—“I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent me…He that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him.”
We can assert that Jesus Christ always looked to His Father in Heaven for strength and support. How very thin the veil must have been between them and how close Father and Son must have been at all times. Even as Christ suffered the pains of mankind as he bled from every pore and prayed to his Father to let this cup pass. And yet how soon after did He say, not My will, but Thine be done. Christ knew there was no other way and this was it. This was the moment for which He prepared His entire life. Humbly He surrendered to His father’s will and drank the bitter cup to the very dregs. He endured these pains as an angel was sent to comfort Him. Now the next part of His final mission lay before Him. He was taken in the middle of the night to be judged, interrogated, derided, abused and suffer all kinds of humiliation. Soldiers beat him with their fists, they scourged Him with whips of leather embedded with fragments of bone and other sharp objects designed to cut open the skin to prepare for the further pains of crucifixion. Finally a crown of needle like thorns was shoved onto his head. He was then taken and laid on a cross while soldiers pounded large spikes into his hands, wrists and feet, delivering extreme amounts of pain, and finally lifted up to suffer the pains of hanging from these spikes. And now, Jesus Christ hangs on a cross for many hours. The onlookers mocked him saying, “Save thyself, and come down from the cross. He saved others; himself he cannot save.” And still Christ said, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. And then the final moment of feeling the heavens close before Him, to feel the weight of the atonement rest solely on Him and Him alone, He cries out, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachtani?” “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
Elder Melvin J. Ballard wrote many years ago: “I ask you, what father and mother could stand by and listen to the cry of their children in distress…and not render assistance? I have heard of mothers throwing themselves into raging streams when they could not swim a stroke to save their drowning children, (I have heard of fathers) rushing into burning buildings to rescue those whom they loved.”
How Father in Heaven must have felt. All throughout Christ’s life, His Father was there to bear witness of His Son, to teach Him line upon line, precept upon precept. He was there to commune with His Son every day. Until now. This was the moment that had been planned for since the very foundation of the world. In those last painful hours of Christ’s life, our Father in Heaven had to turn away. And yet Christ continued to speak to Father in Heaven until the end when he said, “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit,” and he died. After three days of preaching to the people in the spirit world, Christ was resurrected. He then appeared to many and sent the apostles into the world and afterwards ascended into heaven. What an emotional and glorious reunion it must have been for Father and Son to be reunited at long last.
If we live our lives like Christ lived His, what a glorious reunion it will be for each of us as we pass through the gates of heaven and into our Father’s embrace at long last. In closing I want to share a poem that I wrote on Christmas eve in 1990 on my mission in Germany. I have always enjoyed writing poetry and for the longest time I endeavored to write the perfect poem that would express my feelings for the Savior. For over ten years I have kept this very personal and private and have shared it with very, very few people but I feel like this is something that should be shared now and not kept hidden under the proverbial bushel any longer. I hope you can feel my testimony in each word that took me so long to put on paper.
Can words describe Him?
Can words describe the heavens the moment He left home,
Or how His Father watched as He left His promised throne?
Can words describe the picture of the glorious, starry night
As the lamps in a lonely manger burned with fiery light?
Can words describe the image of the tiny newborn’s face
As He gently nestled in His mother’s warm embrace?
Can words describe the scene of the multitudes that day
As the Master stood among them and taught them how to pray?
Can words describe the perfect love which filled the Savior’s soul,
Or the healing touch of His gentle hands as He made the lepers whole?
Can words describe His love for us; His heart so full of grace,
His mercy and His sacrifice to save the human race?
Can words describe His wonder, His tears and agony;
And the drops of blood I caused Him in Gethsemene?
Can words describe His countenance when they smote Him with their hands
And spat upon His face because they didn’t understand?
Can words describe the scourging, the thorns upon His head,
The mocking and the laughter as His weakened body bled?
Can words describe His broken heart and mortal agony
As He hung six hours on a cross and did it all for me?
Can words describe His mercy; the King of every Jew
When He said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”?
Can words describe the picture of the best man crucified;
Of the Savior, of the King, of my big brother as He died?
Can words describe my feelings, my mental agony
To try to comprehend His love to bleed and die for me?
But one day I will see Him and though my heart may fear,
I’ll bow my head and kiss His feet and bathe them with my tears.
Tags: Jesus Christ Nazareth Savior
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