IN WHOM THERE IS JOY

Surely he has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows,

He was wounded for our transgressions,

He was bruised for our iniquities,

The chastisement of our peace was laid upon him.

With his stripes we are healed.

The Lord has laid on him the iniquities of us all,

He is brought as a lamb to slaughter.

(Isaiah 53)

Enduring the unspeakable suffering of Gethsemane, exhausted and bathed in blood and sweat from the agony, betrayed by one and forsaken by the rest who loved Him (Matt 26:56), Jesus was arrested as a thief in the night and forced to walk to Caiaphas' Palace, to the Antonia Fortress, to Herod's palace, and back to Antonia Fortress. In the process he had been without food for twelve hours, slapped, beaten with fists, palms and rods and mocked and scourged. Treated like the basest of criminals and betrayed for the price of a slave yet innocent of all the charges they could bring against Him, He subjected Himself to the cruelest and most unjust of all trials and deaths, for the greater good of all who in the realms above had chosen Him to pay the ransom for their souls and to bring them to life eternal.  

Accused unjustly for blasphemy during an illegal nightly court held by the Sanhedrin, Jesus was taken to Pilate, the Roman procurator who had the power to sanction death, the power which the Sanhedrin, the highest Jewish court of justice and the supreme legislative council at Jerusalem, did not possess. The Sanhedrin condemned Jesus to death for blasphemy but knowing that blasphemy would bear no weight with the Roman law, they accused Him of treason against the Roman State saying He claimed He was the King of the Jews, unwilling to pay tribute to Caesar. Not being able to find any fault in Jesus (Luke 23:4) and attempting to pass the judgment of death onto Herod and the Jewish people with no success, Pilate violated his own best instincts and indulged his hypocrisy by condemning Jesus to death. Pilate feared the Jewish people because of many minor acts of violence, extortion and cruelty which the Jews held against him. 'He realised that his tenure was insecure, and he dreaded exposure. Such wrongs had he wrought that when he would have done good, he was deterred through cowardly fear of the accusing past' (Talmage, Jesus the Christ, pp 648-649). Making it clear to this man of hypocrisy that it is not really within his power to save or take away His life, the Saviour just about exonerated him from His imminent death by telling him: "To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world" (John 18:37). 

"Reproach [had] broken [his] heart; and [he was] full of heaviness: and [he] looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but [he] found none."

(Psalm 69:20)

"Stripped, He was raised on the cross with a mocking sign over His head: 'JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS'. As He hung in anguish, the rulers and people gaped and cursed and condemned Him, taunting: 'He saved others; let him save himself' (Luke 23:35). Through the anguish, He had only loving words. To His mother, Mary, who must have felt the pangs of near-death in her own body, it was concern that she be cared for. To the thief who would repent, He gave hope. At noon the heavens grew black for three hours, as if the universe itself were weeping for the agony of the Creator. In that time all the infinite agonies and merciless pains of Gethsemane returned, and His Father's spirit itself withdrew that the victory might be His. At the ninth hour, 3:00 pm, 'Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying....My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? (Matt 27:46). In that eerie mid-afternoon darkness, someone ran and filled a sponge with vinegar. Having received the vinegar, Jesus said: 'Father, it is finished, thy will is done' (JST Matt 27:54). As He died, the veil of the temple was rent, and the earth quaked and rocks were rent as if to say with a nearby centurion, 'Truly this man was the son of God' (Mark 15:39). (Scot and Maurine Proctor, Lesson 26, To This End Was I Born, Meridian Magazine)

We may ask ourselves why the suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane alone did not suffice as the Atonement for the sins of mankind? Why all this emphasis on the shedding of blood? Why is the Atonement incomplete without it? Why do we need to dwell with such emphasis, and so repetitively, on Christ's death and the manner in which it was executed? The reason is startling and compelling: "Where salvation is concerned, we are dealing with life and death; we are born into mortality so that we may have the privilege of dying and coming forth in immortality. In our search for salvation, we are dealing with mortal life and the natural death; we are dealing with immortality and eternal life; we are seeking to learn how mortality becomes immortality, and how men, having bowed to the natural death, can yet come forth and gain eternal life. To crystallize in our minds and to dramatize before our eyes what is involved in all this, the Lord has chosen blood as the symbol of both life and death" (McConkie, The Promised Messiah, p. 259).  It was never the flesh of the sacrificial animals that was required for mortal men to understand the infinite sacrifice that would bring life eternal, but the blood. Because life is in the blood (Lev 17:14), blood is the element and symbol of life, thus the necessity for the blood atonement, for as the shedding of man's blood brings death, the shedding of Christ's blood brings life. Thus the blood atonement becomes the symbol of eternal life.

It was through the agony of Gethsemane and the blood Atonement of Calvary that the Saviour could offer freedom and eternal life to those who languished in spirit prison following His crucifixion. With what joyful hope they must have received word that they could be freed from the prison of death, of hell and of endless torment now that the sacrifice was complete. That they would, through repentence and acceptance of His gospel be 'free from the sorrow of sin, free from the chains of hell, free from that spiritual death which is to be dead as pertaining to the things of righteousness - all this is part of the glorious doctrine of salvation for the dead, and it includes the fact that our Lord ministered personally to the spirits in prison' (McConkie, The Promised Messiah, p 240).  It was of these captives that Zechariah prophesied when he spoke of 'prisoners of hope', that the Lord their God would save them 'by the blood of thy covenant', meaning the gospel covenant, which would only have effect through the shedding of the blood of Christ (Zech. 9:11,12). With what gratitude those in spirit prison must have bowed before Him knowing the atoning blood had been spilt, the mercy extended, the justice satisfied. 

And what of us who had not yet been born, who were valiant in our testimonies of Jesus? Could we have been been with the departed spirits of the just who had rejoiced to hear of the accomplished sacrifice and had gathered to welcome the triumphant Saviour back into their midst? If we shouted for joy at the time of creation (Job 38:6,7), we must have shouted for joy at the time of redemption: "And there were gathered together in one place an innumerable company of the spirits of the just, who had been faithful in the testimony of Jesus while they lived in mortality; And who had offered sacrifice in the similitude of the great sacrifice of the Son of God, and had suffered tribulation in their Redeemer's name. All these had departed the mortal life, firm in the hope of a glorious resurrection, through the grace of God the Father and his Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ. I beheld that they were filled with the joy and gladness, and were rejoicing together because the day of their deliverance was at hand (D&C 138:12-15). How joyous we must have been knowing that godhood which we so valiantly fought for was now within our reach. For if the chosen Saviour had overcome the world, the power would be ours to do likewise. And so 'trailing clouds of glory' we each took our turn, with eagerness and joy, coming to a fallen world to work out our salvation through the grace of Him who has paved the way, Immanuel, The Lord of Hosts, The Lord of Glory, Eternal King, Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

"Let the earth break forth into singing. Let the dead speak forth anthems of eternal praise to the King Immanuel........Let the mountains shout for joy, and all ye valleys cry aloud; and all ye seas and dry lands tell the wonders of your Eternal King! And ye rivers, and brooks, and rills, flow down with gladness.. Let the woods and all the threes of the field praise the Lord; and ye solid rocks weep for joy! And let the sun, moon, and the morning stars sing together, and let all the sons of God shout for joy! And let the eternal creations declare his name forever and ever!" 

(D&C 128:22)

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.