A MAN OF GRIEF

 

“I…beheld the Lamb of God going forth among the children of men….and I beheld multitudes of people who were sick, and who were afflicted with all manner of diseases, and with devils and unclean spirits; and….they were healed by the power of the Lamb of God; and the devils and the unclean spirits were cast out.” (1 Nephi 11:31)

“Jesus was touched with a feeling of their infirmities. Those cries pierced to His inmost heart; the groans and sighs of all that collective misery filled His whole soul with pity. His heart bled for them; He suffered with them; their agonies were His; so that the Evangelist St. Matthew recalls, with a slight difference of language, the words of Isaiah, “Surely He bore our griefs and carried our sorrow.” (F.W. Farrar, “The Life of Christ, London: Cassell & Co., Ltd., 1874)

“Isaiah’s clear meaning is that the Messiah takes upon himself the sins – and hence the griefs and sorrows, for these come because of sin – of all men on condition of repentance…..the physical healings are a type and pattern of the spiritual healings wrought through the infinite and eternal atonement of Him who ransoms men both temporally and spiritually.” (Bruce R. McConkie, “The Mortal Messiah From Bethlehem to Calvary” Book 2”, 52)

 

O the pain that seared Your heart

As You encountered human misery

On the dusty roads of Galilee!

You embraced it all so lovingly

And took it with You to the hill of Calvary.

You, who ached for our misery,

Became the beacon of hope

For all who accept Your godly suffering.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN

(Art: A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief by Jay Bryant Ward)