A Complete Sacrifice

To my son,

                In this week’s Come, Follow Me lesson we learn about the Savior’s sacrifice in the Garden of Gethsemane. Luke recorded what happened in these words: “And he came out, and went, as he was wont, to the mount of Olives; and his disciples also followed him. And when he was at the place, he said unto them, Pray that ye enter not into temptation. And he was withdrawn from them about a stone’s cast, and kneeled down, and prayed, Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done. And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground. And when he rose up from prayer, and was come to his disciples, he found them sleeping for sorrow, And said unto them, Why sleep ye? rise and pray, lest ye enter into temptation” (Luke 22:39-46). This was one of the most important moments in all of time as the Savior of the World suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane. There He took upon Him the price of the sins of the world as He would later describe: “I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent; But if they would not repent they must suffer even as I; 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).

I cannot fathom what the means to bleed from every pore, but this is what one source says about the pores of our body: “Pores can be found on every inch of skin, except for the palms of your hands and the soles of your feet. In fact, the adult has an average of 5 million pores on their body, with about 20,000 of those on the face.” That would suggest that the Savior bled from five million places on His body. That of course is incomprehensible and seems impossible, but we know that He suffered “even more than man can suffer, except it be unto death” so that any mortal who would have undergone the same pain would have simply died. But He was the Son of God, with power over death, and thus He could suffer infinitely while still retaining His life, which is exactly what He did. You’ll notice that in the above citation from Luke there are many references to prayer, and I was impressed by the fact that prayer was so central to this most pivotal moment in history. Jesus invited the disciples to pray, then He prayed, then He prayed more earnestly, and then He invited His disciples again to pray. Surely that invitation is for all of us, and if prayer was important then, it is important for each of us every day. As we think about the Savior’s sacrifice for us, we should be reminded to pray in similitude to how He sought the Father in the garden. And when life is challenging, we too can “pray more earnestly” as He did. I want to invite you today to pray every day personally, morning and night, as you seek to remember Him and your Father in Heaven. I know that the Father will bless and strengthen you each day as you seek Him in prayer as He did the Savior on that supernal night.

In addition to my surprise at how many million pores we have on our body according to the above quotation, I was struck by something else it said: the only place we don’t have pores are on the palms of our hands and the soles of our feet. You remember that after Jesus suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane, He was arrested, condemned, and sentenced to die on the cross at Calvary. There they drove nails into the palms of His hands and into His feet, an action so cruel that I simply cannot comprehend the amount of pain that would cause. What hit me was that here the Savior was allowing essentially the only part of His body that had not already suffered to likewise be inflicted with pain. He had just bled from every pore, which meant everywhere on His body except His palms and feet. And then here those final two places were added in to finish His perfect and complete suffering. He literally gave His whole self as a sacrifice for man, not leaving one part of Him free from suffering and pain. I certainly do not understand how this is possible, but I know that because of what He did we can look to Him in our lives for forgiveness and strength. I hope that as you pray more earnestly you will feel His power to help you in all your challenges.  

Love,

Dad