From Every Pore

The angel described the suffering of the Savior to King Benjamin in these words, “And lo, he shall suffer temptations, and pain of body, hunger, thirst, and fatigue, even more than man can suffer, except it be unto death; for behold, blood cometh from every pore, so great shall be his anguish for the wickedness and the abominations of his people” (Mosiah 3:7). There is only one other location in the scriptures that we learn that the Savior bled from every pore in His body. He described His suffering in our dispensation with these words: “Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit—and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink” (Doctrine and Covenants 19:18). What stuck out to me this time I studied these verses was the angel’s explanation for why He bled from every pore: “so great shall be his anguish for the wickedness and the abominations of his people.” The angel seemed to have been saying that because the Savior was suffering in spirit and in his mind so intensely—experiencing the effects of all the wickedness and abominations of mankind—that his body responded physically by bleeding from every one of the approximately five million pores on the skin. In other words, the mental suffering was greater than the physical suffering, if that’s possible, as He took upon Him all the pains and trauma and anguish of the children of men. The above passage in the Doctrine and Covenants also highlights that He suffered both “body and spirit,” suggesting again that there was an internal suffering independent of the bleeding and the scourging and the crucifying that caused such unfathomable physical pain. And so, He can succor us not only in our physical pains but in our own mental and emotional anguish, whatever the cause.

                Elder Patrick Kearon spoke about the healing power of the Savior’s atonement in these words: “Though it may seem impossible, feel impossible, healing can come through the miracle of the redemptive might of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, who is risen ‘with healing in his wings.’ Our merciful Savior, victorious over darkness and depravity, has power to right all wrongs, a life-giving truth for those wronged by others. Please know that the Savior has descended below all things, even what has happened to you. Because of that, He knows exactly what real terror and shame feel like and how it feels to be abandoned and broken. From the depths of His atoning suffering, the Savior imparts hope you thought was lost forever, strength you believed you could never possess, and healing you couldn’t imagine was possible.” In that time in Gethsemane where He bled from every pore, He descended below all emotional and mental trauma so that He could succor us no matter how alone we feel in our suffering. Elder Kearon also quoted these powerful words of Paul that speak of the Savior’s ability to reach us no matter what our suffering is: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? … Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us” (Romans 8:35, 37). We must trust in the Savior’s ability to help us and succor us above all else. Too often we seek to be “replenished from the east,” as Isaiah put it, instead of being succored from above (Isaiah 2:6). Even in the most difficult moments, like Nephi we can turn upwards from strength beyond our own: “O Lord, I have trusted in thee, and I will trust in thee forever. I will not put my trust in the arm of flesh…. Yea, I know that God will give liberally to him that asketh. Yea, my God will give me, if I ask not amiss; therefore I will lift up my voice unto thee; yea, I will cry unto thee, my God, the rock of my righteousness. Behold, my voice shall forever ascend up unto thee, my rock and mine everlasting God” (2 Nephi 4:34-35). We can trust, because of His infinite suffering in Gethsemane and Calvary, that as we lift our voices to Him He will give liberally to help and succor us.