TRIUMPHANT CHRIST

 

 

Nothing touches my heart like the jubilation that greeted the Saviour when He arrived in the spirit world following His triumphant mortal mission. As the multitude of FAITHFUL spirits who ‘awaited the hour of their deliverance from the chains of death’ rejoiced and bowed before the Saviour, when He appeared, acknowledging Him as the Redeemer and Deliverer, their countenance shone and they sang praises unto His holy name (D&C 138:18,23,24).

 

Can you envisage this scene of joy and heartfelt gratitude? Can you imagine the sung praises  echoing throughout the heavens??? Was it not fitting that after the rejection, humiliation, derision and torture of the Garden and the cross at the hands of sinners, the Saviour would receive such a triumphant welcome from the faithful who rejoiced in His sacrifice, who believed in Him, who accepted Him, who loved Him??? Did He weep at such heartfelt acceptance and gratitude for what He had done and the honour that was paid to Him? 

 

The Saviour did not go to the unjust and the ungodly and to them His voice was not raised for they resided where the darkness reigned (vs 20,21,37) but following such heart rendering joy, the never ending merciful heart of the Saviour of the world would not forget that He atoned for them also and so to them He sent ‘the spirits of the prophets who had testified of Him in the flesh’ to proclaim His power of deliverance (vs 28,29,30,36). Amongst the wicked was the multitude of spirits who had perished in The Flood, over whom the Father wept when He showed them to Enoch (Moses 7:29-34) and to whom Noah preached for 120 years before the flood came (Genesis 6:3; Moses 8:17). Is this second chance not the merciful heart of God? Is this not love unfeigned and mercy unflawed? Is not this the heart of Jesus? This is the God we love, this is the God we worship, this is the Redeemer of our souls and the Saviour of our hearts and should we not sing praises to His holy name now and forever???

 

There is none like Thee,

My Saviour and my King

With power and glory in Thy wings!

How great Thy wisdom,

How great Thy mercy,

How great Thy love

That fills my joyful heart;

How very great Thou art!

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Jesus of Nazareth by John Zamudio)

THE WILL OF GOD

 

I am certain we are all in awe of the Saviour’s submission to God’s will in the face of unfathomable agony of the Garden. Even though He foresaw more agony yet to come, He was willing to see it to the end.

What is, in reality, God's will? If God's work and His glory, meaning His entire purpose, is to bring to pass ‘the immortality and eternal life’ of His children, then this becomes His will. Whereas immortality means resurrection for all, eternal life means a life with God the Father, forever, because Eternal is His name (D&C 19:10-12). It means to be exalted to the status of gods. In our pre-existence, we chose to accept this will of God. Our lives were planned and shown to us and we gave our consent. My dearest friend reminded me recently that even the Saviour was shown His life to which He consented but even He didn’t anticipate how incredibly hard it was going to be (Mark 14:33). And so it is for us. Now that we are here, we see the reality of it, and some of us are no longer on board with God’s will and choose not to follow through to the end.

When the Saviour said to the Father before the earth was formed, ‘Thy will be done and glory be Thine forever’ (Moses 4:2), He gave up His own will and He affirmed that choice throughout His mortal life. The same is asked of us. Our mortal lives are a continual round of trials and ups and downs and so it also becomes a continual round of acceptance of God’s will. It is a choice we are faced with over and over again. It is seldom a one off choice which sees us through every rough spot in our mortality.

That Christ wanted to atone for us due to His love for us cannot be disputed (John 15:13). However, as He descended into the bottomless pit of human agony in the Garden, it was His love and commitment to the Father that made Him accept the bitter cup (Matthew 26:39). Our telestial telescope does not give us a clear view of eternal life. It is our love for the Father which has the power to enable us to accept His will for our immortality and eternal life. When that love is strong enough then we can say as the Saviour said, “I always do those things which please Him” (John 8:29). That’s acceptance. That’s love. That’s life eternal.

I long for God’s acceptance

Of the paltry offerings of my heart;

Hardly seeing His approval

Through my earthly inept sight.

Yet crafted with the heaven’s pen,

Sealed and sent through heaven’s door,

Ever constant, ever present,

From loving God that I adore.

• CATHRYNE ALLEN

(Art: He Lifts Me Up by Danny Hahlbohm)

THE HOUR OF DEEPEST HUMILIATION

 

 

I have always been amazed at the humiliation that the Saviour must have suffered at the hands of His captors prior to the crucifixion. Mark records that after His arrest, Jesus was brought into the palace of the high priest (Mark 14:53,54) where a mockery of a trial was conducted condemning Him to death and where His accusers ‘began to spit on him, and to cover his face, and to buffet him….and the servants did strike him with the palms of their hands’ (v 65). Luke records that ‘the men that held Jesus mocked him, and smote him, and when they had blindfolded him, they struck him on the face and asked him, saying, Prophesy, who is it that smote thee? And many other things blasphemously spake they against him’ (Luke 22:63-65). Imagine a God who creates worlds, controls the elements, performs miracles, and has the power to subdue all enemies under His feet, allowing and enduring such humiliation at the hands of pathetic, weak and sinful humans. My dearest friend once told me that ‘meekness is strength turned tender’. There is no doubt in my mind that many of the Saviour’s sufferings during His earthly ministry were tolerated due to His meekness and His consistent focus on His mission. 

 

That His love for the Father and for us was the primary motivation for His focus cannot be disputed. This, however,  made me understand  further Christ’s tolerance of the unjust treatment He received in His final hour. The humiliation in question came immediately following the Saviour’s agony in Gethsemane which  James Talmage called ‘the hour of His DEEPEST humiliation’ (Jesus the Christ, p 611). But what could be deeper and more humiliating than being spit upon, smitten and stripped naked to be crucified on the side of a road? I reflected and then I understood the humiliation a God in His pure and sinless state would have suffered when He took upon Himself my sins, your sins, our families’ sins, our nation’s sins, the world’s sins and indeed the sins  of all mankind from Adam to the end of the world. In fact, ‘in that hour of anguish Christ met and overcame all the horrors that Satan, “the prince of this world”, could inflict’ (Jesus the Christ, p 613). Imagine a man who would NEVER do anything wrong, to any degree, taking upon himself all the existent sins as if He had committed them Himself. The spiritual anguish He suffered was no doubt due to all corroding feelings associated with sin and evil such as guilt, shame, embarrassment, lack of esteem, self-hatred, fear of God’s wrath….and indeed, deepest humiliation. Following the humiliation of Gethsemane, would any other be worse???

 

Will the sinner for whom you suffered, 

Who rejected and reviled Thee

Weep in the end for Thy pain and Thy sorrow?

Will his heart understand

When he kneels before Thee

The debt he owes for the existence

Of his merciful tomorrow?

- CATHRYNE ALLEN

(Art: Christ by David Beraru)

A TIME SUCH AS THIS

 

 

I studied the last week of the Saviour’s ministry reluctantly, not only because of His impending death but because I have savoured every morsel of fresh insight I received into Him this year. I saw the man, the Son, the God, and I did not want that to end. At times I felt that I was on the shores of Galilee in awe of the Galilean whom the people thronged for His mercy with hope to inhale His holiness into their souls. I reflected often on what it would have been like to be alive back then to see the rise of His fame and all the work He did that was given to Him of the Father (John 17:4) but I recoil at the memory of the cross. I know that I wept with the hosts of heaven when that time came. 

 

Neal A Maxwell defined the peopling of the earth in this way: “When we say God has a plan, He truly has a plan – not simply a grand scale, but for each of us as individuals, allocating some special talent to this dispensation and some to another. I regard God as the perfect personnel manager….after all, if you’ve got only one Abraham Lincoln, you’d better put him in that part in history when he’s most needed…..” (Deposition of a Disciple, p 46). A Jewish woman in exile, known as Esther, who married a king, is well known for her uncle’s prophetic advice to her that she was born for ‘such a time as this’, a time when she could prevent annihilation of all Jews in Persian empire (Esther 4:14).

 

We all know why Jesus came. His time had to be 2023 years ago when the conditions of the earth were perfect for His purpose. Because the Jewish iniquities, superstitions and hardness of heart were at its peak and because of it there was no other nation on earth that would crucify their God (2 N 10:3), the Meridian of Times was Christ’s time. The crescendo of Christ’s earthly purpose was suffering hence also the necessity of Roman Empire’s cross and the crucible of Calvary. 

 

I know I was not suited for the earthly experience in the Meridian of Times. I enjoy, with gratitude, having a voice in the world as a woman today and I draw strength from the promise the Saviour made through prophet Joel that in our day He will pour out His spirit upon all flesh and we women will prophesy and men shall dream dreams and see visions (Joel 2:28). It rends my heart with gratitude because I live for this. 

 

I was tempted my problems

To lay to Your charge;

I considered them acutely unfair.

Then you opened my heart

And showed me Your godly task,

Beyond human capacity to bear.

Knowing where you had gone

I would never have to go,

I sorrowed and sought

My arrogance to bury;

In humility I assent,

Your mortal burden,

So valiant, so holy,

I would never in this life

Have to carry.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN

(Art: Radiant Saviour by Greg Collins)

JOY

 

 

“We were created to have joy. It is our intended destiny as children of a loving Heavenly Father. He wants to share His joy with us…..joy typically means much more than passing moments of contentment or even feelings of happiness. Joy in this context is a godly attribute, found in its fulness when we return to dwell in the presence of God (Psalm 16:11). It is more profound, elevating, enduring, and life-changing than any pleasure of comfort this world can offer.” (Elder Craig C. Christensen, “There Can Be Nothing So Exquisite and Sweet as Was My Joy”, General Conference April 2023)

 

Imagine being elated with consistent feelings of joy throughout eternity. But this is the destiny and blessed state of the faithful. In this world of sorrow and ups and downs it is hard to imagine this state of being. Maintaining expectancy of the fulness of joy whilst ploughing through the tears of mortality can be achieved through something we often hear about in the Church and that is, eternal perspective. Eternal perspective is the path of trust and faith that motivates us to repentance, but the greatest motivator should be this: When the Saviour taught the Nephites, He told them that the FATHER rejoiced because of them….because none of them were lost (3 Nephi 27:30-31).

 

In this too, our beloved Saviour was the perfect example who ‘for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross’ (Hebrews 12:1-2). For whose joy did the Saviour endure the cross? For ours, for His, for the Father’s. It takes the eternal perspective to the new level, does it not? If He could give so much for the eternal joy of us all, should we not be able to give so little that is asked of us in comparison? With so many of His children on the path to destruction in the world today, should we, who have the truth, not strive to bring joy to our beloved Father in every way and every day? Should we not ensure that none of us are lost? 

 

I yearn to feel the closeness of 

Thy presence

And once again feel the warmth of 

Thy embrace.

I come to You, Father,

Through the gift of 

Thy Son’s benevolent grace.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN

(Art: Arms of Faith by Yongsung Kim)

THE PRODIGALS

 

I see an important simile in the parable of the Prodigal Son. I see in it Christ’s redemptive power. I will not rehash the parable itself as I am presuming that most of us know it so I will outline what it is that I see.

 

The father of this parable is in every way symbolic of our Father in Heaven who respects our free agency and yet welcomes back, with compassion, forgiveness and immense joy, anyone who returns to Him. We, like the younger son, are the prodigals, who have gone out into the world and are spending more than what our part of the inheritance would have been worth. The First Born of the Father, the Saviour himself, can be compared to the good son in the parable, but with a huge difference. The parable's good son never sought him who was lost, despite the kinship, despite the brotherhood, despite the Father's sorrow over his loss. And when his brother returned, he was reluctant and fearful he would have to share his inheritance with him.  The Saviour, on the other hand, knowing from the beginning that He alone would inherit all the Father has, propagated and promoted His willingness to share the inheritance with his younger siblings. But the loving kindness did not end there. Because of His perfect nature and the purity of His love, He was able to say: ‘I will not only share with them all that I have but I will make it possible for them to return. If they come to Me, none will stay in deficit’.

 

I have been faithful to God all my life, carefully avoiding sin, and whilst recognising that I, like everybody else am not sinless, I had not fully resonated with the prodigal son until I realised one day that I, like him have made unwise decisions in my life, not exercising the power of foresight when I made them. Because like sin, every decision carries with it consequences and repercussions, I have suffered much over the years because of them. But the Saviour’s Atonement covers all sin and all foibles of mortality and its ensuing suffering, and even that of bad decisions. The Atonement is not only cleansing but also consoling. Like a salve to a wound, it relieves the pain and heals the once broken, the once torn, the once damaged, the once suffering. Its' restorative power makes us whole and once again aligned with God. It means all our sins, our bad choices and our unwise decisions can be swept away. 

 

I sometimes hear such merciless comments as: they deserved what they got, or they made their bed, they have to lie in it now. The thing to remember is that some of us will have more to be forgiven of than others, because we are not all equally strong. Some of us are good sons and some are the foolish ones. Some are strong and some, for whatever reason, are weak. Where would we be if the Saviour had said: If I can be sinless, so can you! I know, for one, I would be lost. Because of Him, I, the prodigal, can return. It means I can once again be safe, be loved and never be lost again….and I can still have it all.

 

 - CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: The Lost Is Now Found by Greg Collins)

THAT WHICH IS GOD'S

 

When Jesus was questioned by the conniving Pharisees and Herodians if it is lawful to give tribute to Caesar, Jesus answered the question in two parts, one more significant than the other (Matthew 22:17-21). In summation, He asked for them to produce a coin and asked them whose image was on the coin that was accepted as legal currency by all the Jews. They answered it was Caesar’s. Jesus then replied since Caesar’s image was on the coin, the coin was his as was the Empire he ruled and therefore taxes needed to be paid to him in tribute. And then this: “…and unto God the things that are God’s (v 21). And what is God’s? We are.

 

If God created man in His own image, and imprinted that image upon him then it becomes obvious that every living soul belongs to God and the Universe that He rules. We are, as it were, of divine mintage….We are not our own. God the Father is our ruler and our sovereign, as Caesar was to the Roman Empire….but with a vast difference. Whereas Caesar conquered against will,  the Father of our souls employs tactics of salvation to make us His own forever. Whereas Caesar was motivated by power and control, the Father is motivated by love and a desire to give us His all. It should be our life’s work to return to Him to whom we rightly belong. This is our homage, this is our tribute to the King of Heaven. The way has been provided. The price for the journey has been paid.

 

I have no life but this,

To follow the path to Thy throne;

To be greeted with a holy kiss,

And know the reality of such bliss.

 

 

(For further understanding of Christ’s interchange with the Herodians regarding this question, see Jesus the Christ by James Talmage, p 544-7)

- CATHRYNE ALLEN

(ART: As One by Danny Hahlbohm)