Descended Below Them All

Yesterday as I was driving in the car with my son, we heard an ad on the radio for some kind of medicine. As they quickly went through the potential side effects of the drug, they listed one of them as “death.” My son thought that was quite amusing that they would advertise a medicine that might cause death, the “worst thing that can possibly happen” as he described it. I thought about that as I pondered these words today of the Savior to Joseph Smith in Liberty Jail: “The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he?” (Doctrine and Covenants 122:8) He had said something similar in an earlier revelation: “He that ascended up on high, as also he descended below all things” (Doctrine and Covenants 88:6). What does it mean that He descended below all things? It certainly includes the fact that He took upon Himself death, that which many would view as the worst thing that could happen to them. The Savior had Himself spoken about this supernal act He would perform when He said to His apostles, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). Earlier He had also explained, “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again” (John 10:17-18). He was not just killed but He willingly laid down His life for the salvation of mankind. And as a part of that act, He experienced all that we might suffer in mortality, descending below it all.

               Many scriptural passages describe the suffering that the Savior went through to accomplish His great atoning act, and they give us a glimpse into what it meant to descend below all things. The angel said to King Benjamin: “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). He suffered more than is humanly possible to suffer and still live, and yet He lived through it because He was divine. Isaiah poetically described His suffering this way: “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed…. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb so he opened not his mouth” (Mosiah 14:3-5, 7). Being despised, rejected, sorrowful, stricken, smitten, chastised, wounded, bruised, oppressed, and afflicted were all a part of His descent below all things. This passage from Isaiah was quoted by Abinadi to the priests of King Noah, and he then commented, “And thus the flesh becoming subject to the Spirit, or the Son to the Father, being one God, suffereth temptation, and yieldeth not to the temptation, but suffereth himself to be mocked, and scourged, and cast out, and disowned by his people. And after all this, after working many mighty miracles among the children of men, he shall be led, yea, even as Isaiah said, as a sheep before the shearer is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. Yea, even so he shall be led, crucified, and slain, the flesh becoming subject even unto death, the will of the Son being swallowed up in the will of the Father” (Mosiah 15:5-7). The Savior was scourged, cast out, disowned, crucified, and slain as He carried all our burdens. Alma put it this way to the people of Gideon: “And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people. And he will take upon him death” (Alma 7:11-12). He took upon Himself pains, afflictions, temptations, sicknesses, and ultimately death.

               Perhaps the most powerful scriptural passage describing what the Savior had to endure to descend below all things is found in His own words. He said to Martin Harris: “For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent;… 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—Nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I partook and finished my preparations unto the children of men” (Doctrine and Covenants 19:16-19). He endured pain so bad that He bled from every pore, suffering both physically and mentally, and so intense was the suffering that even He wanted to shrink from the bitter cup before Him. But He did partake and overcame the world and all its suffering, so that He could say to Joseph, “The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he?” We can find strength and help and divine aid through Him because He has already descended below it all—He has gone through the worst thing that can possibly happen.