He Suffereth It

To my son,

                Today we partook of the Sacrament as we went to church and committed again to remember the Savior. We covenant each week that we will strive to take His name upon us, and that means that we will try to do what He would do. Recently I was in a meeting at work and suggested a course of action for a particular client with our product, and soon thereafter I got a call from my boss (who was not in that meeting). He told me in a straightforward way that what I had suggested was not at all what should be done, and he said something to the effect of, “You need to think like me and ask yourself what I would do!” As I reflect on that, I realize that is exactly what the Savior wants us to do as we strive to take His name upon us—we need to do our best to think and act like He would do in our interactions with those around us. In any situation we can ask ourselves, “What would Jesus do? How would He react? How would He treat this person?” The more we study the scriptures and learn about Him, the better able we will be to answer those questions and then do it.

                One place we learn a lot about the kinds of things He would do is in the final day of His life as He was being treated with extreme injustice. Nephi summarized what happened this way: “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). He was indeed spit upon. Matthew recorded this about how the Jews treated Him after taking Him from the Garden of Gethsemane: “Then did they spit in his face, and buffeted him; and others smote him with the palms of their hands.” Later after He was handed to the Roman soldiers He received the same treatment: “And they spit upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head.’ Pilate also “scourged Jesus” and “delivered him to be crucified”—to be scourged meant that He was whipped in a terribly painful way” (Matthew 26:67, 27:26, 30). After all of this He was nailed to the cross and hung in agony for hours as He finished His suffering out of love for all of us. After all of this, He still was able to express that love to those around Him. Despite the brutal treatment, He said to His Father of the Roman soldiers: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). In an unbelievable show of mercy He asked the Father to forgive those who were in the process of taking His life in one of the most painful ways imaginable. While He hung on the cross as He died, He somehow found the strength to think of others. He called out to John to make sure His mother would be taken care of: “Behold thy mother!” (John 19:27) And He also provided comforting words to on of the two criminals beside Him saying, “Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). The Savior found a way to serve and bless and forgive others even while He was in excruciating pain. And that is how we should strive to be—always seeking to help and lift up others around us even when we ourselves are hurting. I encourage you to continue to seek to take His name upon you and strive to develop the kind of patience and loving-kindness He had towards all who were around Him.  

Love,

Dad