PERFECTION PERSONIFIED

 

There lived in the town of Bethany, two miles east of Jerusalem, two sisters by the name of Martha and Mary. They and their brother Lazarus were three of the most intimate friends Jesus had on earth. Because of them, Bethany was a place of refuge for one so widely misunderstood, unaccepted and ultimately rejected. Imagine what restraint Jesus had to exercise not to rush to this town after He received this devastating news from the two sisters: “Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick” (John 11:3). The restraint would have been difficult knowing He could spare the sorrow and anguish of the sisters He loved by healing their brother. Nevertheless, it was exercised because Lazarus was destined to be a part of the Saviour’s ultimate miracle which would glorify Him and solidify the testimony of His divinity in the hearts of the believers. The miracle of bringing Lazarus back from death was one through which Jesus would prove that He was ‘the resurrection and the life’ (v 23). 

 

Now consider this….. He, who knew that Lazarus was dead without receiving news of his death (v 11-14) could have known also where he was laid, yet when He arrived in Bethany, He enquired as to the location (v 34); He who calmed the sea of Galilee could have easily by His word removed the stone of the sepulchre but instead He asked others to do it (v 39); He who could reunite spirit and body could also have freed bound Lazarus from the graveclothes by His word but instead He requested those present to do so (v 44). The Saviour was never about showmanship because He was devoid of pride. In no instance of His life, did He unnecessarily use the superhuman powers He possessed. His divine energy was only ever used as a testament of His divinity and for the benefit of others. The balance between His divine Sonship with all its inherent powers and His humility is beyond admiration. The perfection of His character is transparent in all holy writ but most obvious in the New Testament through which we get but a fraction of His mortal life (John 21:25). Through this most spiritually charged record we see: the man, the dedicated Son, the Saviour, the Redeemer, the God….we see perfection personified. 

 

The raising of Lazarus from death was a nail in the Saviour’s coffin. From then on He was destined for the cross (John 11:53). The cross that would herald to the world, and not just the plains of Judea: “I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live” (v 25). 

 

 

 - CATHRYNE ALLEN

(Art: I Am the Resurrection by Liz Lemon Swindle)

UNITY OF FAITH

 

 

She was a Greek woman from Tyre. A Canaanite of pagan birth held in derision by the Jews. She came seeking Jesus, a man of many miracles who had the power to heal. And so she came and begged the Master whose reputation of compassion spread through all of Galilee and the coasts of Tyre. Her relentless pleading pressed upon Jesus to heal her daughter who was ‘vexed with a devil’ (Matthew 15:22). And then this: she called Him ‘the son of David’. She, with not a drop of Jewish blood in her veins, a pure Gentile, knew what that meant….He was the Messiah of Israel. She, however, was ‘the dog that ate the crumbs off the children’s tables’ (Matthew 15:22-28). And this she humbly accepted because she was not of the ‘chosen race’. And so because of Her humility and her undaunted faith, the great Lord of Israel granted her heart’s desire and her daughter was healed ‘from that very hour’ (Matthew 15:28).

 

I was born and raised in Croatia. When I was a youth I moved with my family to Australia where I joined the Church some 40 years ago. For most of these years I felt disadvantaged because I had not been born as a child of the covenant, in Utah, to goodly parents. I felt I was not, so to speak, of a ‘chosen race’. I wondered why I did not qualify for that privilege. In time, however, that became less important and belonging to the household of faith came to mean so much more. As I have yielded my heart to God these 40 years, I have been given a  remembrance of my eternal identity. I carry with me every day a strong sense of who I really am and have always been. I have no words to explain it. With this awareness has come a strong understanding of myself as a woman of faith. Now it matters less where I was place in this life and more that I am like the woman from Tyre who became, through her faith, a part of the ‘chosen race’. 

 

The Saviour unites us from the four corners of the earth through our faith in Him and His saving power. Because of Him all races, nationalities and cultures are one through salvation in His name. He is the validator of all souls, the lifter of all hearts, the succor of the weak, the rewarder of the strong, the unifier of us all. 

 

Thy love burns within us ever so bright

We bear Thy holy name

And in Thee unite

through Gospel’s everlasting light.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN

(Art: Hope of the World by Greg Collins)

 

THE WILLING HEART OF THE SHEPHERD

 

How dear to the heart of the Shepherd

Is the flock of His sheep!

With tenderness and love

He watches over those in His keep.

How much do they love their Shepherd!

How closely they stay by His side,

With every footstep they follow

To forever with Him abide.

“….I lay down my life for the sheep…..No man taketh it from Me, but I lay it down of myself…” John 10:15, 18). How deeply significant is the operative word here which is ‘lay’. From God the Father, Jesus inherited the power of immortality, the power to live forever. An immortal being cannot die a natural death and neither can someone else take his life from him. As an immortal being Jesus was immune to death with the exception that He willed it and allowed it. How much this says about the Saviour who never had to experience death but willed Himself to die for the eternal welfare of us, His sheep!!! It takes the willingness to die to another level, does it not??? Cherish your beating heart, you were worth it…..

- CATHRYNE ALLEN

(Art by Yongsung Kim)

(For further understanding of this concept see “Jesus the Christ” by James Talmage, p 418 and “The Mortal Messiah Book 3” by Bruce R McConkie, p 216-217)

THE WEIGHT OF THE CROSS

 

I carried my cross to the foot of Calvary,

While you carried yours to the top.

I cried bitter tears over the injustices of my life,

While you bled valiantly for all that was lost.

I carried my hurts like a badge

So scornfully proud and spiritually poor,

While you rose to the heights of your exalted throne:

Perfected, ennobled and infinitely more.

You are so high

And I am so low;

I consent to climb to Calvary’s top,

I consent to be lifted to Thy throne.

 

 

“If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me” (Matthew 16:24). The Saviour’s mandate to the true followers of Christ to deny themselves and be like Him, takes His gospel of obedience to the next level. 

 

Prior to this reference to individual cross, the Saviour spoke to His apostles of His imminent death and resurrection (Matthew 16:21; Luke 9:22; Mark 8:31). Not fully understanding Christ’s mission of redemption, Peter was outraged to hear such talk and began to rebuke Jesus saying, “Lord, this shall not be unto thee” (Matt 16:22,23). Being wounded by the suggestion of His unfaithfulness to Father’s trust of Him to fulfil His earthly purpose, the Saviour’s reply to Peter was forceful and suggestive of Satan’s temptation to evade the sacrifice and suffering that lay before Him (see Talmage, Jesus the Christ, p 364). It was unthinkable to the Saviour that He would not take up His cross and carry it to Calvary. This speaks volumes of His character and integrity, does it not?

 

I have contemplated a lot about something I have noticed this year during my study of the New Testament. The Saviour’s focus on His mission to atone for us and to bring honour and glory to the Father has at times left me breathless and in awe of this man we call Jesus who has become our Saviour, our God and our King. This, above all of His examples He has given us, should be the greatest. Whether our cross is one of denial of appetites and passions and worldly pursuits; or one of avoidance of obedience and good works, that we find difficult to do, our cross should be strapped to our backs every day, never losing focus, to the end of our destination.  If we, unlike the Saviour, fail to carry our cross to the foot of Calvary, He will not help us walk the rest of the way to the top. 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN

(Art: Crucifixion by Liz Lemon Swindle)

THE POWER OF ENDURANCE

 

I am amazed at the Saviour’s resistance to many temptations He encountered in mortality to invoke His godship so He could be worshipped for who He truly is. I consider this His greatest trial second only to His Atonement. Consider just three examples:

 

1.     Whilst in the wilderness being tested, the adversary tempted Him to cast Himself off the pinnacle of the temple. How easy it would have been to prove His divinity to the throngs of worshippers below if He had cast Himself down and allowed the angels to save Him. What proof that would have been that He was the Son of God! What a beginning to His ministry it would be have been if people could have seen immediately who He truly was. They would have flocked to Him accepting Him as the awaited Messiah. Seductive as the temptation was, He resisted. (Matthew 4:5-7)

2.     The miracle of feeding 5,000 produced a profound impression upon the masses who saw in Him the awaited Prophet like Moses who would feed them manna from heaven. Not only could He feed them like Moses, but He could also deliver them like Moses. Their recognition of the King that stood before them fanned the fire of the Messianic prophecy.  All the Saviour had to do is take up the sword against the Romans and defeat them with not only the Jews who were ready for the uprising but with His legions of angels. He could have there and then sat on the throne of David as the rightful king that He was. This the Saviour resisted to do. (John 6:3-15)

3.     With the hour of His immense suffering approaching, the ruling class of the people who sought to kill Him demanded He produce a sign from heaven to prove that He was the Son of God. Once again, how easy that would have been for Him to do so and avoid going through the worst suffering imaginable. How easy it would have been to instead assume His role as the God of this earth and all the earths He had created. (Matthew 16:2-3; Mark 8:12)

 

The Saviour was completely devoid of pride and focused entirely on the one true thing that could ennoble His godship, His Atonement. Nothing else mattered. Enduring to the end was the ultimate act that would glorify Him and His name. So it is with us, whether we are here simply to be proven worthy of our final destination or to achieve something of great significance on the way, we must not be derailed because the reward is only in endurance. Endurance is power and that power is in Christ. By virtue of our discipleship we have access to that power. The crown awaits for all who desire it, pray for it and work for it. 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN

(Art: Lion of Righteousness by Greg Collins)

THE BREAD OF LIFE

You have fed me from the banquet of Your love

With bread everlasting…….

 

With the exception of the Atonement, there is no sadder time of Jesus’ mortal life than the time He declared Himself to be The Bread of Life. Up to that moment, the Saviour’s popularity amongst the common people was immense and people thronged Him everywhere He went (Matthew 8:1,15:30; Mark 3:8,7:24,8:1; Luke 6:17,12:1) but finding this doctrine too hard to ‘bear’, many of His disciples ‘walked no more with him’ (John 6:66). From the time of this sermon, He was headed for the cross.

 

The sermon of The Bread of Life came on the heels of five loaves and two fishes. By this extraordinary miracle the Saviour ignited the fire of the Messianic prophecy. Hungry for freedom from bondage and oppression suffered for over 700 years, the Jewish nation was ready for deliverance. Having been fed so miraculously, they knew just who would deliver them as they sat on Bethsaida’s hill feasting on the miracle of ‘manna from heaven’. He had to be the one to break the bands of bondage and if He refused to do so they would take Him by force to make Him king (John 6:14,15). They did not expect to be told to ‘eat’ His flesh and ‘drink’ His blood instead (John 6:32-35; 51-58), even if by metaphor. Instead of being miraculously fed from heaven continuously, which would guarantee a life of luxury and ease they expected, they presumed they would be saddled with more laws, forgetting so conveniently the familiar Jewish metaphor of eating for spiritual benefit, to which Christ really referred through His sermon.  And so even the baptised and most converted to the Saviour abandoned Him and thus began the rejection of the common people easily manipulated by the leadership to propel Him to the cross. 

 

Eating the body of Christ as the bread of life extends beyond the sacramental table. It means feasting upon the words of Christ for they will tell us all things what we should do to obtain eternal life (2 Nephi 32:3). We must not only eat but feast, feast with hunger and gladness and eagerness and joy. We must revel and delight in the body that was offered on the altar of sacrifice so that we will never be in bondage to the enemy of all righteousness and we will be able to say, like Peter of old: “Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life….” (John 6:67,68)…….to whom indeed???

- CATHRYNE ALLEN

(Art by Eva Koleva Timothy)

 

THE HIGH MOUNTAINS OF ISRAEL

 

People flocked to Him wherever He went. Whether they recognised in Him the healer or the Messiah, one thing they knew for sure is that He would not turn them away. Following a  rigorous interrogation by Pharisees, Mark records that Jesus retreated into a house near Tyre seeking solitude but He could not deny anyone seeking Him ‘for He had compassion on all men’ (JST Mark 7:22-23).

 

This compassionate heart of Jesus led to feeding immense crowds of people on two separate occasions. When the apostles returned from their first  mission they presented themselves to Jesus to account for all their labours (Mark 6:30). Mark notes that the crowds thronged them so much that they could not find time or place to eat (v31). For this reason Jesus invited them to retreat with Him by ship to a solitary place. When they arrived and Jesus came out of the ship he saw a multitude of people who had run on foot out of all the cities to see Him (v33). Mark records that He was moved with compassion when He saw them ‘because they were as sheep not having a shepherd and He began to teach them…’ (v34). And when the day was far spent He would not send them away hungry but fed 5,000 men plus women and children with five loaves of bread and two fishes (Matthew 14:21). As with the first, so the second occasion of feeding 4,000 men beside women and children, who were with Him for three days, with seven loaves and a few little fishes, all because: “I have compassion on the multitude….” (Matthew 15:30-38)

 

In my favourite chapter of Ezekiel,  Jehovah speaks extensively about the shepherds of Israel who had scattered His sheep through neglect and then promises He would find them and feed them upon the high mountains of Israel (Ezekiel 34:2,4,11-16,25,31). Was He cognisant of the promise He made through Ezekiel when the physically and spiritually lame flocked to Him, like sheep seeking their Shepherd, feeding upon the compassion spilling from His soul and turning the high mountains of Israel into pasture hereto before unknown??

 

Compassion rent His godly heart

When He saw His scattered sheep,

Upon the high mountains of Israel

Running to His shelter, for His promise to keep.

A promise He would honour

That His lost sheep He would find,

Upon the high mountains of Israel

That heartless shepherds left behind. 

So His promise He valiantly fulfilled

As His sheep sat hungry on Bethsaida’s hill,

And fed upon the loaves and fishes

That multiplied upon His will. 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN

(Art: I Have Compassion by Greg Collins)