Photo supplied, Intellectual Reserve

There can never be too many reminders of who Jesus really was and what he really stood for.

President Jeffrey R. Holland, acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, centered his talk at the church’s general conference earlier this month on Jesus Christ. I hope that as I discuss his words, a greater appreciation for who he really was and what he really taught will occur.

First of all, Jesus was not an ordinary man, and that was obvious to those who came in contact with him. Said President Holland:

“Consider this scene from the last week of Jesus’s mortal life. A multitude had gathered, including Roman soldiers armed with staves and strapped with swords. Led by officers from the chief priests who had torches in hand, this earnest company was not off to conquer a city. (Matthew 26:47-57; Mark 14:43-46) Tonight, they were looking for only one man, a man not known to carry a weapon, receive military training or engage in physical combat at any time in his entire life.

“As the soldiers approached, Jesus, in an effort to protect his disciples, stepped forth and said, ‘Whom seek ye?’ They replied, ‘Jesus of Nazareth.’ Jesus said, ‘I am he. … As soon … as he had said unto them, I am he, they went backward, and fell to the ground.’ (John 18:4-6)

Ryan Comer, Standard-Examiner

“To me, that is one of the most stirring lines in all of scripture. Among other things, it tells me straightforwardly that just being in the presence of the son of God — the great Jehovah of the Old Testament and Good Shepherd of the New, who bears no weapons of any kind — that just hearing the voice of this refuge from the storm, this Prince of Peace, is enough to send antagonists stumbling into retreat, piling them in a jumble, making the whole group wish they had been assigned kitchen duty that night.

“Just a few days earlier, when he had entered the city triumphantly, ‘all the city was moved,’ the scripture says, asking, ‘Who is this?’ (Matthew 21:10) I can only imagine that ‘Who is this?’ is the question those muddled soldiers were now asking.

“The answer to that question could not have been in his looks, for Isaiah had prophesied some seven centuries earlier that ‘he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.’ (Isaiah 53:2) It certainly wasn’t in his polished wardrobe or his great personal wealth, of which he had neither. It could not be from any professional training in the local synagogues because we have no evidence that he ever studied at any of them, though even in his youth he could confound superbly prepared scribes and lawyers, astonishing them with his doctrine ‘as one having authority.’ (Matthew 7:29)

“From that teaching in the temple to his triumphant entry into Jerusalem and this final, unjustifiable arrest, Jesus was routinely placed in difficult, often devious situations in which he was always triumphant — victories for which we have no explanation except divine DNA.”

That divine DNA was widely recognized, even by those who one might think wouldn’t have been able to recognize it.

Consider the story of the Roman centurion who went to the Lord and said his servant was paralyzed at home. Jesus offered to go and heal him, to which the centurion said he wasn’t worthy of such an appearance, but that Jesus could perform the miracle if only he would speak it. Jesus was amazed by the faith demonstrated and told the centurion it would be done according to his belief. The servant was healed that very hour. (Matthew 8:5-13)

Consider the Samaritan woman at the well. Jesus revealed that he knew she had been married five times and that she was living with a man to whom she was not married, to which she responded that she perceived he was a prophet. (John 4:18-19)

Jesus’ divine DNA was recognized when he was only an infant by Simeon, a devout man in Jerusalem who was told he would not die before he saw Christ. When Simeon saw Jesus in the temple, he “took he him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.” (Luke 2:28-32). He then told Mary, “Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel.” (Luke 2:34)

Even evil spirits knew who Jesus was.

“And there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit; and he cried out,

“Saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God.” (Mark 1:23-24)

We also read from Luke:

“When he saw Jesus, he cried out, and fell down before him, and with a loud voice said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God most high? I beseech thee, torment me not.

“(For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For oftentimes it had caught him: and he was kept bound with chains and in fetters; and he brake the bands, and was driven of the devil into the wilderness.)” (Luke 8:28-29)

These are just some examples.

Despite having all this recorded for us, some people diminish the power Jesus had.

“Yet down through history many have simplified, even trivialized our image of him and his witness of who he was,” President Holland said. “They have reduced his righteousness to mere prudishness, his justice to mere anger, his mercy to mere permissiveness. We must not be guilty of such simplistic versions of him that conveniently ignore teachings we find uncomfortable. This ‘dumbing down’ has been true even regarding his ultimate defining virtue, his love.”

Speaking more in depth of Jesus’s teachings, President Holland continued:

“During his mortal mission, Jesus taught that there were two great commandments. They have been taught in this conference and will forever be taught: ‘Love the Lord thy God [and] love thy neighbor as thyself.’ (Matthew 22:37, 39) If we are to follow the savior faithfully in these two crucial and inextricably linked rules, we ought to hold firmly to what he actually said. And what he actually said was, ‘If ye love me, keep my commandments.’ (John 14:15) On that same evening, he said we were to ‘love one another; as I have loved you.’ (John 13:34)

“In those scriptures, those qualifying phrases defining true, Christlike love — sometimes referred to as charity — are absolutely essential.

“What do they define? How did Jesus love?

“First, he loved with ‘all [of His] heart, might, mind and strength,’ (Doctrine and Covenants 4:2) giving him the ability to heal the deepest pain and declare the hardest reality. In short, he is one who could administer grace and insist on truth at the same time. (Joseph Smith Translation, John 1:4, 14; Moses 1:6) As Lehi said in his blessing to his son Jacob, ‘Redemption cometh in and through the Holy Messiah; for he is full of grace and truth.’ (2 Nephi 2:6) His love allows an encouraging embrace when it is needed and a bitter cup when it has to be swallowed. So we try to love — with all of our heart, might, mind and strength — because that is the way he loves us.”

Jesus exemplified this ability to “administer grace and insist on truth at the same time” in a number of situations. One particularly notable example involved a woman caught in adultery. Jesus showed grace and truth in the same sentence when he said “Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.” (John 8:11)

John records an example of Jesus healing a man who for 38 years “had an infirmity.” (John 5:5)

Jesus told him to “Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.

“And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked.” (John 5:8-9)

Later on, Jesus found him in the temple and told him, “Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.” (John 5:14)

Jesus administered grace and also truth to him.

The story involving the woman at the well was another classic example of Jesus administering grace and truth. Jesus didn’t have to start a conversation with the woman. She clearly wasn’t expecting it because he was a Jew and she was a Samaritan and the Jews and Samaritans had no dealings with each other. Yet he did anyway because he wanted to offer her “living water,” which represented himself and his gospel. He even offered it despite knowing about her unchaste life, just like he offers his gospel to all of us despite our sins because he loves us. He offered her, and he offers all of us, grace and truth. (John 4:1-19)

Continuing, President Holland said:

“The second characteristic of Jesus’s divine charity was his obedience to every word that proceeded from God’s mouth, (Doctrine and Covenants 84:44) always aligning his will and behavior with that of his Heavenly Father. (Mosiah 15:7; 3 Nephi 27:13-15)

“When he arrived on the western hemisphere following his resurrection, Christ said to the Nephites: ‘Behold, I am Jesus Christ. … I have drunk out of that bitter cup which the Father hath given me, … in the which I have suffered the will of the Father … from the beginning.’ (3 Nephi 11:10-11)

“Of the myriad ways he could have introduced himself, Jesus did so by declaring his obedience to the will of the Father — never mind that not long before in his hour of greatest need, this only begotten son of God had felt totally abandoned by his Father. (Matthew 27:46) Christ’s charity — evident in complete loyalty to divine will — persisted and continues to persist, not just through the easy and comfortable days but especially through the darkest and most difficult ones.”

Do we sometimes forget just how hard it was for Christ? Regarding his experience in Gethsemane, we read:

“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.” (Luke 22:41-44)

Jesus was perfect, but that doesn’t mean things were perfectly easy for him. Jesus knew completing the atonement was going to be hard, and we can see just how hard it really was, yet he surrendered his will to the will of Heavenly Father anyway. How much does that say about the love he has for all of us?

How can any of us complain about the difficulties associated with obedience after that?

“Jesus was ‘a man of sorrows,’ (Isaiah 53:3) the scriptures say,” President Holland said. “He experienced sadness, fatigue, disappointment and excruciating loneliness. In these and in all times, Jesus’s love faileth not, and neither does his Father’s. With such mature love — the kind that exemplifies, empowers and imparts — ours will not fail either.

“So, if sometimes the harder you try, the more difficult it seems to get; if, just as you try to work on your limitations and your shortcomings, you find someone or something determined to challenge your faith; if, as you labor devotedly, you still feel moments of fear wash over you, remember that it has been so for some of the most faithful and marvelous people in every era of time. Also remember that there is a force in the universe determined to oppose every good thing you try to do. (Moroni 7:12)

“So, through abundance as well as poverty, through private acclaim as well as public criticism, through the divine elements of the restoration as well as the human foibles that will inevitably be part of it, we stay the course with the true Church of Christ. Why? Because as with our redeemer, we signed on for the whole term — not ending with the first short introductory quiz but through to the final exam. The joy in this is that the Headmaster gave us all open-book answers before the course began. Furthermore, we have a host of tutors who remind us of these answers at regular stops along the way. But of course, none of this works if we keep cutting class.”

I love that analogy. Life is one giant test, and it can be really hard at times to have to go through, but none of us need to fear it or feel overwhelmed because we have all the answers for how to pass it, and we have tutors (the prophet, apostles and other church leaders) to help us. It’s not a matter of whether we have the ability to pass the test. It’s a matter of whether we have the patience to pass it. For such a reward as eternal life, “which gift is the greatest of all the gifts of God,” (Doctrine and Covenants 14:7) I’m compelled to say, it’s definitely worth the effort.

President Holland concluded with his testimony.

“‘Whom seek ye?’ With all our hearts we answer, ‘Jesus of Nazareth.'” he said. “When he says, ‘I am he,’ (John 18:4-6) we bow our knee and confess with our tongue that he is the living Christ, that he alone atoned for our sins, that he was carrying us even when we thought he had abandoned us. When we stand before him and see the wounds in his hands and feet, we will begin to comprehend what it meant for him to bear our sins and be acquainted with grief, to be completely obedient to the will of his Father — all out of pure love for us. To introduce others to faith, repentance, baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost and receiving our blessings in the house of the Lord — these are the fundamental ‘principles and ordinances’ (Articles of Faith 1:4) that ultimately reveal our love of God and neighbor and joyfully characterize the true Church of Christ.

“Brothers and sisters, I testify that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the vehicle God has provided for our exaltation. The gospel it teaches is true, and the priesthood legitimizing it is not derivative. I testify that Russell M. Nelson is a prophet of our God, as his predecessors were and as his successors will be. And one day that prophetic guidance will lead a generation to see our messenger of salvation descend like ‘lightning … out of the east,’ (Matthew 24:27) and we will exclaim, ‘Jesus of Nazareth.’ With arms forever outstretched and love unfeigned, he will reply, ‘I am he.’ (John 18:5) I so promise with the apostolic power and authority of his holy name, even Jesus Christ, amen.”

Contact Ryan Comer at rcomer@standard.net. Follow him on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/rbcomer8388 and on X at @rbcomer8388.