In a garden outside of Jerusalem came the culminating moment of Jesus' mortal life. The moment where He went from being just Our perfect example to being Our perfect Savior; the moment when the power-hungry members of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish leadership counsel, had decided that this man, Jesus, had gone too far. The plotting had ended, the betrayal had occurred, and their devilish plan had begun to unfold. It was near an olive tree garden called Gethsemane that they found Him, completely exhausted...It was there that Jesus had taken upon Himself all--our pains, our struggles, our sins. The pain would have killed any other man, but not He who was the only One who could endure it. He was taken, He was spat upon; He was brought before the High Priest and before Pilate; He endured the terrible scourging, and was forced to carry His own cross after hearing the condemning chant of His brethren, who He loved: "Crucify Him." He was nailed to that cross and forced to suffer that most diabolical form of execution imaginable. In this we see the true Humility of Christ: His submission in the garden, His perspective on the road to Golgotha, and His empathy and love upon rising gloriously on the third day.
Submission in Gethsemane
There was no other good enough
To pay the price of sin.
He only could unlock the gate
of heaven and let us in.
("There Is A Green Hill Far Away", LDS Hymn 194, verse 3)
Remember back to a time when you were in the depths of despair--when the only thing left to do was to get down on your knees and cry to your Heavenly Father to ask for relief. Remember what you felt next. Our Savior fell on His face in the greatest despair anyone could feel, as the burden of all sin and all pain and all despair came upon Him. Luke records, "He was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast, and kneeled down, and prayed saying, Father if thou be willing, remove this cup from me." How many of us in that moment of despair have cried through spiritual fatigue-caused tears that we could have our burden removed? Have we not all asked for it? But how many of us have then said, as Jesus did, "Nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done?" The submission and acceptance that the Christ showed came as a result of perfect humility and a perfect understanding that God knew what was best, and would bless Him if He was willing to go through what was necessary to go through in order to fulfill His will. Once the Savior had said this, we read, "And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling to the ground" (Luke 22:41-44). That was what was necessary for Jesus to endure. For us, nothing can compare, except that same Christlike recognition that ultimate submission to the will of the Father will bring us the ultimate blessings of now and eternity. Next time you feel you are in the depths of despair, try to change your attitude from "remove this cup from me," to "nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done." What an example, also, we see in the fact that the Lord will always give us the strength to overcome. Angels will give us strength, just like the angel that came to Jesus in the lowest point in human history. I testify of the power of humbling ourselves to the point of becoming willing to go through whatever is necessary in order to become our best selves.
Perspective on the Road to Golgotha
And the world, because of their iniquity, shall judge him to be a thing of naught; wherefore they scourge him, and he suffereth it; and they smite him, and he suffereth it. Yea, they spit upon him, and he suffereth it, because of his loving kindness and his long-suffering towards the children of men.
(1 Nephi 19:9, The Book of Mormon)
I have often pondered the type of restraint that was required to endure the type of physical suffering the the Jews and the Roman soldiers inflicted upon the Savior on that day. I have never been spat upon. Nobody has ever beaten me or whipped me or degraded me verbally like they did to Him. The people that I have come to love have not turned on me for unjust, selfish reasons, and subsequently called for my execution. How would I react in a situation like Jesus'? I sure as heck would not be able to keep my mouth shut as they did so! For the purposes of my preparation for this piece, in pondering how Our Beloved Savior showed His trait of humility, I came to the deep realization that an important part of humility is perspective. The Jews taunted Him, but He said nothing and did nothing, because what He was doing was far greater and far more important than a witty comeback or a firey rebuke. He was in the process of dying for the sins of the world. He did not need to react. It was that type of perspective that allowed that restraint. It was that perspective that allowed Him to bestow His own forgiveness upon the soldiers who were ignorant of His true identity. It was that perspective that allowed Him to think of His mother while rusty nails were all that supported Him on that hunk of wood. That type of perspective can't come to us unless we have a perfected understanding of what should really matter in our lives. That understanding can only be perfected through humble inquiry to that very Being that went through it Himself. We would do well to remember this moment when persecution comes upon us in any way, shape, or form: sometimes we just need to keep our mouths shut, because it just doesn't matter.
Empathy on the Road to Emmaus
Abide with me; 'tis eventide,
and lone will be the night
if I cannot commune with thee
nor find in thee my light
O Savior, stay this night with me:
Behold, 'tis eventide.
("Abide with Me; 'Tis Eventide" LDS Hymn 165, verse 3)
It was Sunday, the third day since the leaders of the Jews had thought themselves victorious. "They" had killed He who had been the oppressor of their fight to hold to tradition. Not too far outside Jerusalem, two disciples walked to a village called Emmaus, talking of the events of the days prior--how the man they had thought would be their Savior and King was dead, but that His body was nowhere to be found on this day. They were down, depressed, and confused. The voice of a fellow traveler came to them, teaching them of the words of the prophets and the prophesies of the Messiah. Uplifted and enlightened, the disciples reached the fork in the road, the road going on to Jerusalem, and Emmaus before them. "And they drew night unto the village, whither they went: and he made as though he would have gone further," Luke writes. The humble and perfect empathy of this fellow traveler, who was the Resurrected Christ, shows through. These uplifted yet still tender and ignorant disciples said, "Abide with us." Essentially their petition was, "Please don't go; stay with us, for we still need thy help." And He did stay (Read the full account, in Luke 24:13-35). He stayed because through His mortal life and His suffering to death, the Savior had gained a perfect understanding of what these men and all men and women who were living or who would live on earth were feeling. He knows how He can comfort us accordingly. The question then comes: do we ourselves strive to be empathetic? Do we strive to live our lives trying to be considerate of the feelings and desires of those around us? If we are to become Christlike, we must humble ourselves. C.S. Lewis said, "True humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less." Christ in His beautiful and perfect humility had lived His life and died thinking not at all of Himself, but of all of us. Can we not strive in our pursuit of perfection to do the same? I think we would do well to ponder how we can be more empathetic of others' needs as we go about our daily lives.
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