Here's another talk that I recently gave for a church activity, this time on the life of Jesus Christ. Enjoy! :)
**All footnotes are at the bottom.
Lesson 11: The Life of Christ – How Jesus Lived Out the
Beatitudes
Presented by Alexis J. Milam
“The voice of him that crieth in the
wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a
highway for our God.”
“And behold, he shall be born of Mary, at Jerusalem, which is the land
of our forefathers, she being a virgin, a precious and chosen vessel, who shall
be overshadowed and conceive by the power of the Holy Ghost, and bring forth a
son, yea, even the Son of God.”
“…unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government
shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor,
The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”
“For behold, the time cometh, and is not far distant, that with power,
the Lord Omnipotent who reigneth, who was, and is from all eternity to all
eternity, shall come down from heaven among the children of men, and shall
dwell in a tabernacle of clay, and shall go forth amongst men, working mighty
miracles, such as healing the sick, raising the dead, causing the lame to walk,
the blind to receive their sight, and the deaf to hear, and curing all manner
of diseases.”
“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 himself the pains and the sicknesses of his people. 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.”
“And
he shall be called Jesus Christ…”
The life of Christ—what a broad
topic. Luckily, it didn’t take me long to figure out what I would focus on. I
wanted to focus on something that Christ taught either by His example or in His
teachings that we can find recorded in the scriptures. But first, I’d like to
quickly introduce this topic and how I became acquainted with it:
When I was a young teenager, I was
a part of a Christian drama ministry, and this is what we did: spoken word and
drama. Each performance was made up of several one-acts that centered around a
theme, and this theme would be our spoken word piece. For example, the first
performance I ever did had the Beatitudes as its theme, and our spoken word
portion of the performance was Matthew 5:1-16 (which, for readability purposes
and per request of the director, we memorized in the NIV). Nearly seven years
later, I still have it memorized in NIV, and I will recite it as such, but I
will reference the verses in both NIV and the traditional KJV.
“Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a
mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach
them, saying:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
“Blessed are the meek, for they
will inherit the earth.
“Blessed are those who hunger
and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
“Blessed are the merciful, for
they will be shown mercy.
“Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
“Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called sons of God.
“Blessed are those who are
persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are you when people
insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because
of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the
same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
“You are the salt of the earth.
But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no
longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.
“You are the light of the world. A city on a
hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl.
Instead they put it on a stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In
the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good
deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”
Now, I wish to focus on portions of
this passage of scripture. I will be going a bit out of order.
First, I want to talk about salt real
quick. It’s the difference between something bland and something
flavorful—mediocre versus good—or between seeing okay and seeing well. I feel
that we hear about the light analogy a lot, so I want to focus on the salt.
If salt has lost its saltiness, it
is no good. Without its flavor, salt is just tasteless grains of white. Without
the gospel, what is the purpose of life? The gospel gives us purpose, gives us that answer to what the purpose of life
is. Alma shared in the ancient Americas that “this life is the time for men to
prepare to meet God.”
Without the gospel, we would not know this, and without the scriptures, we
would not know how to prepare. In
order to prepare to meet God, essentially we must live after Christ’s example.
Let’s look at a few examples from this passage.
First, “blessed are they which do
hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.”
In the New Testament, Luke gives a
unique account from the Savior’s childhood. When Jesus was twelve, He and his
parents traveled to Jerusalem for Passover. About a day after they had begun
their journey home, Mary and Joseph realized that Jesus was missing. They
hurried back to Jerusalem to search for Him, and where did they find Him? In
the temple, both asking and answering questions.
He “hunger[ed] and thrist[ed] after righteousness.” He acted upon that desire
by going to the temple.
I love even more when Christ shares
the same message in the Americas following His death and resurrection, but
phrases it a bit differently: “…blessed are all they who do hunger and thirst
after righteousness, for they shall be filled with the Holy Ghost.”
What are some of your thoughts on this verse?
First, “blessed are the meek, for
they will inherit the earth.”
What do you think it means to be meek?
I looked at the footnotes in my
quad, and this is what it said about being meek: “gentle, forgiving, or
benevolent.” According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, some synonyms for
meek are mild, submissive, and moderate.
I believe that, of those terms, the term submissive
is the most appropriate here. Christ was meek, and as I look at His example, I
see gentleness, forgiveness, benevolence, and submissiveness to the Father as
being some of His strongest attributes. We should strive to be meek like He was
and is: gentle, forgiving, benevolent, and submissive to the Father’s will.
He showed ultimate submission to
the Father’s will. While suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane, He prayed, “O
my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless, not as I
will, but as thou wilt.”
When He went to pray a second time, He said, “if this cup may not pass away
from me, except I drink it, thy will be done.”
Jesus knew what was coming, and He
didn’t want to die that awful death if He could help it. However, He knew that
it was the Father’s will that this happen so that salvation could be available
for all; so He did it. We may not always like what we face, but we can learn to
“drink [the bitter cup] and be strong, trusting in better days ahead.”
Finally: “blessed are they which
are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all
manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.”
I don’t know about you, but growing
up, when I thought of religious persecution, I thought of people like Stephen
(whose trial and stoning is recorded in the New Testament), Joan of Arc (who
was burned at the stake in 1431), Jim Elliot (who was killed by Huaorani
warriors in Ecuador in 1956), or Joseph and Hyrum Smith (who were shot and
killed in Liberty Jail in 1844). But if you think about it, people are
persecuted every day for what they believe, and not just by their mortal lives
being ended.
In this past April’s General
Conference, Elder Holland shared about how a sister and her companion were spit
upon by a man while eating lunch. Later on, he said, “You may wonder if it is
worth it to take a courageous moral stand…or to go on a mission only to have
your most cherished beliefs reviled or to strive against much in society that
sometimes ridicules a life of religious devotion. Yes, it is worth it.”
Throughout His life, as we can see,
Jesus Christ took a stand for the Father. Are we ready—and willing—to take a
stand for the Savior? Are we living as He did, willing to submit to the Father
as He has done, and ready to share with the world what we have learned because
of His example?
I know that the Savior lives. I
know that, by studying His life and His gospel, we can become better people and
prepare ourselves to meet our Heavenly Father someday. They both love us, and
They want us to return to Their presence. Let us all live as the Savior did,
worthy to meet our Father face-to-face once again.
