WHEN HE COMES AGAIN

"As Samuel poured oil on the head of Saul and anointed him to be captain over the Lord's inheritance........as he also poured oil on David and anointed him in the midst of his brethren.....and as Zadok took an horn of oil and anointed Solomon........so Mary of Bethany poured costly spikenard from her alabaster box upon the head of Jesus, and also anointed his feet, so that the next day, the ten thousands of Israel might acclaim him King and shout Hosanna to his name" (Bruce R. McConkie, Mortal Messiah Book 3, p 327)

As Jesus left his beloved village of Bethany and approached Jerusalem, He stood on the Mount of Olives, overlooking the splendor of the city and wept. As he wept, he lamented, "If thou hadst known...the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes" (Luke 19:42) for the people were 'divided into conflicting and contending sects, each professing more holiness and righteousness than the other and all closing their eyes to the truth' (The Life and Teachings of Jesus and His Apostles, p. 140). After all that He had done, all that was left to Him was to weep for the city which was too late to save.

Jesus entered Jerusalem riding 'lowly, upon an ass', not a symbol of humility but the symbol of Jewish royalty (McConkie Mortal Messiah Book 3, p 338), for it was His right to do so as the descendant of King David to whom the throne truly belonged. As His disciples, 'the children of the kingdom' (JST Matt. 21:13)  shouted hosannas to His name and proclaimed Him king for the first and only time of His mortal ministry, Jesus entered the Herodian splendor of the city. Not even the accolades which they heaped upon Him would have comforted Him as He contemplated their impending doom. What a strange Messianic triumph that was. On one hand they hailed Him as the one who could save but on the other they refused the salvation. With hope of deliverance from Roman rule pulsating in the heart of the glittering, golden Jerusalem, with its' imperial mantle of proud towers, a city regarded as a wonder of the world, who could have foreseen its' destruction? Just one, the one who sat upon 'the colt of an ass'.

Following His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, Jesus once again cleansed the temple of the 'den of thieves', the chief priests who saw themselves as the guardians not only of the temple but of 'the whole structure of Jewish religion. They glutted themselves on the profits from temple business, and so the temple was not just the source of their favoured social position (which they coveted so jelously) but also the source of their incomes - more, their fortunes' (The Life and Teachings of Jesus and His Apostles, p. 143). . During the first cleansing of the temple, Jesus referred to it as 'my Father's house' (John 2:16). This time, upholding his kingly welcome into the city, Jesus referred to it as 'my house' (Matt 21:13). One can only imagine the seething in the vengeful hearts of those who plotted His death upon hearing such words for Jesus' declaration of His messiahship was pure blasphemy to their ears. When the purging was over, those who accepted His declaration and believed Him to be the promised Messiah gathered around Him to receive the fruits of His ministry. There, in His house, surrounded by those who believed in Him Jesus once again healed the blind and the lame, an exquisite symbol of the spiritually blind and lame He came to save.

Jerusalem paid dearly for rejecting and crucifying their God. As they left Jerusalem, Jesus gave the Olivet Discourse to His disciples where He predicted the sacking of Jerusalem by saying that not 'one stone will be left upon another' (21:6) and that the desolation of which Daniel spoke (Daniel 9:27) would be fulfilled. Jesus also told them that this destruction would come in their day and warned that the righteous should flee when they see the signs of its' coming. Less than 40 years after His death Titus descended on Jerusalem with his Roman legions and leveled the city to the ground but not before Jerusalem had endured unimaginable suffering through oppression and famine which saw women eating their own children as prophesied by Moses (Deut 28) and witnessed by Josephus (The New Complete Works of Josephus, The Jewish War, p 893). The destruction was so brutal that 'hunger exceeded human endurance; blood flowed in the streets, destruction made desolate the temple; 1,100,000 Jews were slaughtered; Jerusalem was ploughed as a field; and a remnant of a once mighty nation was scattered to the ends of the earth. The Jewish nation died, impaled on Roman spears, at the hands of Gentile overlords' (McConkie, DNTC, 1:644-45). Only the righteous were spared, the saints who dwelt in Jerusalem at the time had heeded Jesus' warning and had fled, guided by revelation, to Pella in Perea.

Why is it important for us to know about the destruction of Jerusalem? Because the destruction which will befall the wicked at the time of His Second Coming will be akin to what the Jewish nation endured in 70 AD. History will repeat itself because the world is still rejecting the Saviour, stoning the prophets and disregarding the word of God. During His Olivet Discourse Jesus spoke of the last days and the signs of His coming: "All the desolation and waste which attended the former destruction of Jerusalem is but prelude to the coming siege......In the coming re-enactment of this 'abomination of desolation', the whole world will be at war, Jerusalem will be the center of the conflict, every modern weapon will be used, and in the midst of the siege the Son of Man shall come, setting his foot upon the mount of Olives and fighting the battle of his saints (Zech. 12:1-9). Speaking of these final battles which shall accompany His return, the Lord says: 'I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city'. However, the final end of the conflict shall be different this time than it was anciently. 'Then shall the Lord go forth', the prophetic record says, 'and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives....and the Lord shall be king over all the earth' (Zech. 14). (McConkie, DNTC, 1:659-60)

During the Olivet Discourse Jesus told His disciples that when He returns one will be destroyed and one will be left. The two He spoke of were the wicked and the righteous. Those that shall remain on the earth and not be destroyed will be those who are honest and upright and who are so living that they would at least inherit terrestrial kingdom at the time of resurrection. As the Millenium will reflect the terrestrial glory, those who are living by telestial standards will not be able to remain on earth. Those of the telestial world are: 'sorcerers; adulterers; false swearers; those who oppress the hireling, the widow, and the fatherless in their wages; those who lead men away from the truth; those who do not fear God; members of the true Church who do not pay an honest tithing; they that work wickedness; and the proud. All these, he says, shall be as stubble when the day comes that shall burn as an oven. (Mal. 3:4; D&C 64:23-25). (McConkie, DNTC, 1:669)

Jesus wept when He reflected on the destruction of Jerusalem. Will He lament over us as He did over Jerusalem before he unveils His face? Will He weep over His saints who had abandoned their covenants and gone after the pleasures of the world? Will He sorrow over the lost sheep that have not been found? Will His heart break over those who profess to know Him but are found with empty oil lamps and regrets they are too late to rectify? When the comfort zone is ended it will be too late to put up the necessary defenses and watchtowers against the evils of the world. The day of preparation will be past and some of us will be found wanting. We live in the day preceding His return, the day of wars and rumors of wars, famines, pestilences and earthquakes, the day when iniquity is abounding causing the love of men to wax cold. These are all Saviour's predictions found in the scriptures. He has described His Second Coming as 'the great and dreadful day of the Lord' (D&C 110:16), dreadful for those who are in the clutches of iniquity but great for those who are seeking after righteousness and who are waiting with anticipation for the day of the Lord when all His promises shall be fulfilled. The question begs to be asked, are you scared or are you excited?

When He comes again, He will come as the Lord of Lords and King of Kings and He will seek out His own that He might dry the tears from their eyes and embrace them in the arms of His love. A God of power, a God of majesty, a God of glory, but most of all, a God of love.

"HE WHOM THOU LOVEST IS SICK"

During His mortal ministry Jesus performed many miracles: he opened the eyes of the blind, cast out devils, cleansed lepers, calmed storms, walked on water, fed thousands with a few barley loaves and fishes and raised the daughter of Jairus and a widow's son from death. All of these acts of kindness and mercy were truly miraculous but none as meaningful as was the raising of Lazarus, whom Jesus loved. The death of Lazarus was not just another miracle but the final testament of Jesus' divine sonship through which He as the Son of God was glorified. It was also an act of faith, an act of love and an act which sealed his fate and sent Him to Golgotha.

Lazarus lived in the Judean town of Bethany, two miles east of Jerusalem. In this same village lived his beloved sisters, Mary and Martha. These particular siblings were devout disciples of Jesus who often offered Him refuge from rejection and surcease from toil and rest from his labours. It was in their company and in their homes that Jesus found acceptance and kindness which no doubt fed His sensitive soul and made His labours seem worthwhile. It was this Mary who anointed His head for His burial and His feet with costly spikenard and bathed them with her tears just before the Fourth Passover. Lazarus, Mary and Martha were three of the most intimate friends Jesus had on earth. As such friends,they knew of His whereabouts and where His ministry took Him from day to day for when Lazarus fell ill Mary and Martha sent for Jesus who was in Perea, which was a day's journey away. The message they sent was one of tenderness and supplication to the one they were sure would come and rescue them from imminent pain like He had done to so many others: "Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick" (John 11:3). Imagine then how they felt when Jesus showed no apparent concern and continued His labours in Perea for another two days without attempting to leave, knowing full well that Lazarus was dead by the time He received the summons.

Jesus knew why Lazarus got sick and He offered this explanation: "This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby" (John 11:4). Lazarus had a special mission and purpose, to die so that Jesus could be glorified by raising him from the dead. This was not a matter of repelling death when it came knocking on one's door, this was a precursor of the power of resurrection which only the Saviour possessed. Lazarus was foreordained to die; it was part of the eternal plan that he should do so and remain in paradise until his tabernacle of clay began to decay, until corruption and decomposition were well under way so that his return from the dead would be a testament of Christ's power to resurrect us all and give us eternal life (Bruce R. McConkine, Mortal Messiah Book 3, p 271) . It was likewise a witness of Christ's ability to raise Himself from death as He had foretold. Thus Lazarus became a witness of Jesus' divinity.

When Jesus returned to Bethany, Lazarus had been dead for four days. Running out of her house to meet Him was Martha who met Him not with words of accusation but words of faith: "Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. But I know, that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee" (John 11:21,22). Mary's salutation was not one of benign and flattering words but of such faith that can only come by the power of the Holy Ghost. That her salutation was born of the Spirit and not of her own faith is evidenced by the fact that she was subsequently reluctant for Jesus to enter Lazarus' tomb pointing out that Lazarus had been dead four days and the smell of decay had begun to set in (John 11:39). Up to this point in history, resurrection was only a principle in theory. The raising of Lazarus was akin to resurrection as his body had started to decay and was no longer fit for the habitation of his spirit which had already entered the spirit world where spirits who had ended their mortal probation resided. This Jesus confirmed by saying: "I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live" (John 11:25). Lazarus was fully restored to mortality, to a body of flesh and blood. Jesus, however, was resurrected to a body of flesh and bone only thus making Him the first fruits of resurrection.

Surrounded by sorrow and grief Jesus displayed utmost tenderness towards those He loved and He himself wept as He proceeded to the tomb which would prove that Jesus indeed is the Christ, the Messiah, the Promised One who can grant life to all who believed. None but the Son of God could do what He was about to do. He had prayed and prepared for this moment and the Father had heard and granted His plea and thus 'with the hearts of Martha and Mary perfectly united with that of their beloved Lord; with the body of Lazarus lying in the dust, eaten by worms, every vital organ in process of rotting away; with the spirit of this man of divine destiny, in paradise, awaiting the Promised Voice - at this moment the Lord of Life spoke: LAZARUS, COME FORTH' (Bruce R. McConkie, The Mortal Messiah Book 3, p 279).  Not just anybody chosen for this most special of all moments of Christ's life, but Lazarus whom Jesus would love and who would love Him; Lazarus, whose faith and no doubt his valiance in his testimony of Jesus in the realms above, qualified him before this world was to be a special witness of Christ; Lazarus came forth from the tomb and glorified the Saviour of the world.

'The shock waves of the emergence of Lazarus from the tomb rolled from Bethany across the Mount of Olives, spanned the Kidron Valley, and beat against Caiaphas' Palace' (Ted Gibbons, NT Lesson 19: Thy Faith Hath Saved Thee). As Caiaphas, the high priest, and the Sanhedrin considered this most important of all miracles they concluded once and for all that He who subverted their Mosaic religion and ran counter to the tradition of elders had to die: "If we let him thus alone", they reasoned, "all men will believe on him and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation" (John 11:48). "Their dilemma was both religious and political. 'If this man's gospel is true, the day of Moses and the law is past, and we shall lose our prominence and power as rulers in Israel. The people will rally round him as their Messiah and Deliverer, and Rome will then destroy us with the sword" (Bruce R. McConkie, Mortal Messiah Book 3, p 281). In a nutshell, better that one man die than a whole nation, even if it requires the death of a god.

When the morning stars sang together and the sons of God shouted for joy, you are I were among that happy throng giving praise to Him who would rescue us from the sting of death. Because of our faith in Father's Firstborn we knew we would not be eternally lost and alienated from home. We trusted He had the power to redeem us, to sanctify us, to make us whole and fit for exaltation. In return we promised our all. We promised we would glorify His name whilst in mortality through the life that we live. May we be faithful to that cause and when the time of resurrection comes may we be found amongst those who will hear the first trump sound and the beloved Saviour's voice saying: "Come forth".

THE ROCKCLIMBER

"Brenda was a young woman that wanted to learn to rock climb. Although she was terribly afraid, she went with a group and they faced this tremendous cliff of rock that was practically perpendicular. In spite of her fear, she put on the gear and took hold of the rope and started up the face of that rock. Well, she got to a ledge where she could take a breather. As she was hanging on there, whoever was holding the rope up at the top of the cliff made a mistake and snapped the rope against Brenda's eye and knocked out her contact lens. You know how tiny contact lenses are and how almost impossible to find. Well, here she is on a rock ledge, with who knows how many hundreds of feet behind and hundreds of feet above her.

Of course, she looked and looked and looked, hoping that she would be able to find that contact lens. Here she was, very far from home. Her sight was now blurry. She was very upset by the fact that she wouldn't be anywhere near a place where she could get a new contact lens. And she prayed that the Lord would help her to find it. Well, her last hope was that perhaps when she got to the top of the cliff, one of the girls that was up there on the top might be able to find her contact lens in the corner of her eye. When she got to the top, a friend examined her eye. There was no contact lens to be found. She sat down with the rest of the party, waiting for the rest of them to come up the face of the cliff. She looked out across range after range of mountains, thinking of that Bible verse that says, "The eyes of the Lord run to and from throughout the whole earth". She thought, "Lord, You can see all these mountains. You know every single stone and leaf that's on those mountains and You know exactly where my contact lens is".

Finally the time came when it was time to go down. They walked down the trail to the bottom. Just as they got there, there was a new party of rock climbers coming along. As one of them started up the face of the cliff, she shouted out, "Hey, you guys! Anybody lose a contact lens?" Well, that would be startling enough, wouldn't it? She had found the contact lens! But you know why she saw it? An ant was carrying that contact lens so that it was moving slowly across the face of the rock. What does that tell you about the God of the universe? Is he in charge of the tiniest things? Do ants matter to Him? Of course they do. He made them. He designed them. Brenda told me that her father is a cartoonist. When she told him this incredible story, he drew a picture of that ant lugging that contact lens with the words: "Lord, I don't know why you want me to carry this thing. I can't eat it and it's awfully heavy. But if this is what you want me to do, I'll carry it for you". If God is in charge of the ants, don't you think He cares about you and me? One could learn a valuable lesson from that ant: TRUST IN GOD! We could probably all say a little more often, "God, I don't know why you want me to carry this load. I see no good in it and it's awfully heavy. Still, if you want me to, I'll carry it for you".

-  Author unknown


What can we learn from this story? Several things as a matter of fact:

1. God answers prayer.
2. He uses others to meet our needs.
3. No request of Him is too small or too great.
4. Good sees and knows all things. What is important to us is likewise important to Him: "And not one hair, neither mote, shall be lost, for it is the workmanship of mine hand" (D&C 29:25)
5. When we feel inspired to do something we should do it, even if we don't understand why for God is working through us to bring about His purposes. Like Nephi of old who was commanded to abridge two sets of plates because 116 pages of the Book of Mormon translation would one day be lost, we should say: "....the Lord knoweth all things from the beginning; wherefore he prepareth a way to accomplish all his works among the children of men.......for thus hath the Lord commanded me, and I must obey" (1 Nephi 9:6, 2 Nephi 33:15)
6. We should trust in God to bail us out of situations we have no power to resolve. He stands ready to help in all things. Like any father, He is devastated when we do not turn to Him in times of need. 
7. While we are climbing our mountains, we should remember that without God we can do nothing and that with Him, we can do everything.
8. All things and all creations on this earth God has created have a purpose. Remember that next time you are about to step on an ant. Be careful how you treat others for God might need to use them one day for your saving grace.
9. When your vision is blurry and you cannot see, God will provide the perspective and the lens you need to see your path clearly: "Behold, I will go before you and be your rearward...I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts....(D&C 49:27, 84:88). When we walk in darkness, we are not alone, God is on our left, and on our right, and before us and behind us. We are not alone.
10. God is a god of love. He cares for all his creations and we, His sons and His daughters, matter to Him the most. We are at the forefront of all His doings and all His concerns. When God showed Moses all the worlds He had created, Moses was astonished and exclaimed that man is nothing in comparison but God replied, 'No, you are wrong Moses, 'man is the underlying and over-riding purpose of all my work. Man's success constitutes my glory. Man is everything' (Ted Gibbons, OT Lesson 1, "This is My Work and My Glory") 

TO BE LOST AND BE FOUND

"A few years ago there appeared in one of our magazines, the story of a little lad who wandered from his mother's lap in the Badlands of the Dakotas and was lost. As night came on, the mother was distracted and the neighbors alarmed. The next morning, on the public square of the town near there, the sheriff met a group of farmers, teachers, office mane, citizens of all ranks. He organized them for a systematic search. Before they started out he said, 'Little Ronald is somewhere out in those Badlands. We must organize and search every bush, every crevasse, every water hole. We must not come back without that little boy. Pray God that we are not too late'. They started out that Wednesday, but it was not until Thursday, and at about three o'clock in the afternoon that a mighty shout went up, They had found the boy" (McKay, Gospel Ideals, pp. 404-5). Why is it that people generally will do everything possible to rescue a person who is physically lost, but seldom put forth a similar effort to rescue one who is spiritually lost?" (Student Manual, The Life and Teachers of Jesus and His Apostles, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, p. 127)


There was in Rabbinic teachings of Jesus' time the following saying: "There is joy before God when those who provoke Him perish from the world" (Alfred Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, 1883,  2:256). This stands in stark contrast to the gospel and its' view of joy in heaven when a sinner repents. When publicans and sinners drew near to Christ to hear Him preach, the Scribes and Pharisees murmured against Him, not understanding that those who needed Him most were those that needed to be found. In an effort to teach that His gospel is a gospel of love, Jesus unfolded three parables to teach how great is the worth of a soul in the eyes of God (D&C 18:10). The three parables are:

1. The Lost Sheep: It strayed without intending to, seeking greener pastures as sheep go where grass is. In the lost sheep we can see some members of the Church who wander away from the fold in legitimate ways seeking 'success in business, success in their professions, and before long they become disinterested in Church and finally disconnected from the fold; they have lost track of what true success is....' (David O. McKay in CR, Apr 1945, p. 120)

2.  The Lost Coin: Which was lost through the carelessness and neglect of another. The lost coin in this parable represents lost souls which fall through the cracks because of lack of care. Being our brother's keeper, we the stronger ones are admonished to be mindful of those who are weaker, whose testimonies are not yet strong enough to stand alone.

3.  The Lost Son: Who was lost through his own choice and willful disobedience. The prodigal son was not only immature in his judgment but he resented the father's careful guiding eye. Once he had procured his heart's desire in obtaining his inheritance, he moved to a far country beyond the reach of his father's influence where he could do whatever he wanted spending his inheritance in riotous living.

The prodigal son who sought so desperately to be away from his father's protective care, became the foolish hunger-driven younger son forced into the most degrading of all occupations among the Jews, that of herding swine. 'Jews detested swine so much that they would only speak of a pig euphemistically as dabhar acheer, 'another thing', and considered those who kept them as cursed. So impoverished and hungry was the prodigal son that he longed to eat the swines' husks which 'were unfit for human consumption' (Bruce R. McConkie, Mortal Messiah Book 3, p. 249). The inheritance having been spent, the son had no choice but to make his home with the swine that he kept, wallowing in a pigsty, far removed from the luxuries and comforts of his home that he once so fully enjoyed. The contrast must have sunk deeply into his heart for the son 'came to himself' (Luke 15:17); the lesson learnt, the repentance inevitable. An astonishing thing happened though when he returned to his father begging to be his servant. Instead of wrath and indignation, the father 'had compassion' (Luke 15:20) on his wayward son and welcomed him back into the fold re-instating him as his son.

Imagine the joy this father felt when he saw his son coming back because not ever seeing him again would have been a fate unimaginable. And not only coming back, but returning repentant. How many of us, as we wallow in earthly mire, feeding on husks of mortality do we ever reflect on the loving Father who hopes against all hope that we would not be lost? As we wander from the fold how many of us reflect on the unfathomable price that was paid for our souls in the Garden of Gethsemane so that we would be found? As we diminish ourselves by allowing sin to stain and corrode our souls, we so easily risk losing sight of our worth, and we forget the comfort and the love and the protective care of Him who drank the bitter cup for our sake. And when our sins are piling on top of us threatening to engulf us in everlasting misery, we forget the unfailing mercy which allows the Saviour of all mankind to forgive us over and over again, so eager is He for us to be saved and have eternal life. Even though this parable was addressed to the Scribes and Pharisees who resembled the older son, to me, the emphasis on this parable is not the resentful son but the forgiving, merciful father who welcomed his rebellious son into the arms of His love.

We might have forgotten the outline of His face, or the warmth of His embrace, but He stands waiting, always watching, always hopeful and ever longing to have us in His arms once again. The promise is real, the path is clear, the journey back possible through Him whose mercy welcomes back those who are lost who wish to be found. For has He not said:

"No man cometh unto the Father but by me" (John 14:6)