THE NOBLE AND GREAT ONES

 

 

I listened to Handel’s ‘Messiah’ this Christmas. This would have to be the most spiritually charged and soul-stirring piece of music ever written. A good choir could lift the roof of a building singing something so majestic and powerful. Even though angelic host can do even better,  I wondered as I listened how the Saviour would feel listening to such songs of praise. I wondered if His heart would swell within His chest, if He felt being ‘a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief’ for a season was worth it (Isaiah 53:3). I wondered how He felt reflecting back on His difficult mortal, sacrificial life that He lived exclusively for others. Reflecting on this  made me weep wondering how He could endure it all on His own but then I realized something that gave me a fresh perspective: the success of His mission was aided by some very noble spirits.

Consider first the most pure vessel chosen to be His earthly mother. Tradition has it that Mary was only 15 years old when she had Jesus. Such a responsibility for one so young seems overwhelming, nevertheless, her spiritual maturity must have exceeded her mortal years. And Joseph, the noble son of God who was chosen to rear the Saviour from infancy to adulthood; who protected Him at every turn, taught Him the law, and schooled Him in a profession and responsibilities of a righteous Hebrew man. And what of Peter and the apostles who left behind everything to follow Him and went to their deaths willingly to further the cause of Him whom they professed had ‘the words of eternal life’ (John 6:68)? And John the Beloved…..what kind of love would it have to be to want to remain on this earth for over 2,000 years doing missionary work (D&C 7:1-3)? And what of friends who loved Him and offered refuge from His sorrows such as Lazarus, Mary and Martha?  These were the noble and great hand-picked supporters who were converted to the cause of the truth long before the earth began. These were the ones who made the Saviour’s mortal life bearable. I am certain that when He reflects on His experience His heart swells with gratitude for the committed, the valiant, the accepting fellow travellers on the greatest journey ever undertaken.

What faith You had

In those who held You

by Your mortal hand;

How loyal to their charge

Were they who sustained You

When it all began.

How tender their heart

To see the Hope of Israel

And recognize The Great I am.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Child of Grace by Liz Lemon Swindle)

DIVINE SUBMISSION

 

As Christians our primary focus should be the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and rightly so because it relates to our salvation. As much as I believe in it, revere it and constantly express gratitude for it, my ultimate admiration for the Saviour lies in His condescension. This, more than anything tells me about the man and His life. It represents in my mind divine submission at every turn of His earthly years, in small and great ways. It suggests renewed commitment every time He was reminded what His purpose was and where His life would end. Imagine the determination, the commitment, and the integrity that defeated retreat.

I imagine that his upbringing from the very beginning, in heavenly realms, was fostered with acute sense of responsibility for His younger siblings.  He would have been tutored and molded by Father’s perfect character to be like Him. A God yet a man, no doubt with His own desires, His own vision, His own destiny, submitted to the responsibility of the Firstborn in His care for those less than Him, His primary focus doing the will of the Father rather than His own.

This is what Christ’s condescension tells me of the man we call our King.  You would have to be devoid of the least degree of pride to lay aside a godship that you had so diligently earned through impeccable obedience and lower yourself to a corruptible, mortal body and painstaking mortal life. This selflessness is the kind that seeks only the wellbeing of others even if they do not want it or deserve it.  For this He exchanged ‘the dominion of a god for the dependence of a babe. He gave up wealth, power, dominion, and fulness of His glory – for what? – for taunting, mocking, humiliation, and subjection. It was a trade of unparalleled dimension, a condescension of incredible proportions, a descent of incalculable depth. And so, the great Jehovah, creator of worlds without number, infinite in virtue and power, made his entry into this world in swaddling clothes and a manger’. (Tad. R. Callister, The Infinite Atonement, p 69)

And what of the Father He so valiantly defended when the Son of the Morning sought to usurp His power and glory? The depth, the width, the entirety of His devotion to the Father in whose shadow He walked and into whose image He grew cannot be overlooked or overstated. Ultimately the price of His willingness to descend to a mortal life unworthy of Him, was to preserve and add to the glory of the Father. It was the ultimate expression of perfect love only a god could bestow upon another. The selflessness is beyond compare.

This is Christ the King, the Saviour of the weak, the Babe of Bethlehem. Glory be His forever and ever.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Born This Day by Liz Lemon Swindle)