Despised and Rejected of Men

Alma gave us this description of the life of the Savior: “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.” He continued in the next verse, “And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.” I wonder if we can’t consider that first verse as describing His life in general before His great atoning act, and that second verse as describing His suffering in Gethsemane and on the cross. If so, this would suggest that the description of Him “suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind” was in regards to His mortal life as a whole and not only the final days. I have written before about some of the signs of His suffering during mortality that we have in the scriptures. He fasted for forty days in the wilderness, He was tempted then and later of the devil, He was so exhausted on the ship that even the most ferocious storm couldn’t wake Him, and He even suggested that He was literally homeless without “where to lay his head.” As King Benjamin put it, “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” (Mosiah 3:7). Surely those words aptly describe His great atoning sacrifice, but I also believe they tell us about the kind of difficulties He faced in general in mortality.

                One of the important ways that He suffered in mortality was the mental anguish that came because of the people’s wickedness and rejection of Him. For example, even from His own family did not fully accept Him. John recorded a conversation He had with His own brothers and commented, “For neither did his brethren believe in him” (John 7:5). How painful that must have been to Him to have those who in His own household grew up with Him, knowing Him well and the flawless life He lived, to still reject Him. Near the beginning of His ministry He went to the synagogue in Nazareth and declared His mission to a people who surely knew Him well, for this was where He spent much of His childhood. But they too rejected Him: “And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong” (Luke 4:28-29). How devastating that must have been for Him to have those who knew Him so well try to take His life despite the fact that He had never done the slightest wrong among them. Another time when He declared the truth to the Jews at Jerusalem, they similarly sought to take His life violently: “Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by” (John 8:59). In the experience of raising Lazarus from the dead John gave us a brief glimpse into His mental pain with this description, “He groaned in the spirit, and was troubled” (John 11:33). Surely this was not because of the death of Lazarus—He knew He would raise Him—rather it was because of the unbelief and wickedness of the people.

All throughout His mortal life the Savior was rejected by so many around Him, a fact that surely is related to Isaiah’s prophecy of His life: “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3). The rejection by His people who claimed that Jehovah was their God, caused Him to lament during His final days, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!” (Matt. 23:37) This rejection in general by the people of Israel would cause Him after His resurrection to make this sad statement numerous times in our dispensation: “Behold, I am Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I came unto mine own, and mine own received me not” (Doctrine and Covenants 10:57). Surely if we have ever felt rejection, if we have ever suffered from loneliness or betrayal or felt that we were unjustly isolated for doing good even by those who were “our own,” He knows exactly how we feel.