He Suffereth It

Yesterday I reflected on this prophecy of Nephi concerning the Savior: “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 Savior was scourged, and He suffered it humbly. He was beaten, and He suffered it willingly. He was spit upon, and He suffered it without reviling. This is the example we are to follow in our interactions with others, especially those in which we feel we are victims of the negative actions of others. Mormon, who lived in a time when nearly all the people had turned to evil and hatred, gave this stirring counsel to his son: “My son, be faithful in Christ; and may not the things which I have written grieve thee, to weigh thee down unto death; but may Christ lift thee up, and may his sufferings and death, and the showing his body unto our fathers, and his mercy and long-suffering, and the hope of his glory and of eternal life, rest in your mind forever” (Moroni 9:25). In order to combat the vitriol and contention and hatred of our day, we need to let the suffering and long-suffering of Jesus “rest in [our] mind forever” so it can inspire us to respond to evil with goodness, even as He did. Perhaps Jacob had a similar message as Mormon when he wrote these words, “Wherefore, we would to God that we could persuade all men not to rebel against God, to provoke him to anger, but that all men would believe in Christ, and view his death, and suffer his cross and bear the shame of the world” (Jacob 1:8). We suffer His cross with Him when we face pain and suffering with the long-suffering and patience that He had.

                Luke recorded these words of the Savior in mortality: “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me” (Luke 9:23). Surely there are multiple ways we might understand this instruction to take up our cross, but perhaps one is that we suffer in the way that He suffered on the cross, namely with patience and love and kindness. We take up His cross as we develop the kind of long-suffering that He showed. In our dispensation the Lord said, “And he that will not take up his cross and follow me, and keep my commandments, the same shall not be saved” (Doctrine and Covenants 56:2). He said similarly to the Twelve, “Arise and gird up your loins, take up your cross, follow me, and feed my sheep” (Doctrine and Covenants 112:14). After instructing them to avoid hatred and immorality, the Savior said to the Nephites, “Behold, I give unto you a commandment, that ye suffer none of these things to enter into your heart; For it is better that ye should deny yourselves of these things, wherein ye will take up your cross, than that ye should be cast into hell” (3 Nephi 12:29-30). We take up our cross as we refuse to let negative feelings of hatred to enter into our hearts, instead letting the Savior’s example of long-suffering guide us to humbly face the evils and provocations of our time. His words in the Sermon on the Mount stand as the ultimate achievement in long-suffering and patience that all followers of Christ should hope to attain unto: “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you” (Matthew 5:44).