As I sat at the monster truck rally last night, I thought to my self, "how can I tie this in to my talk?" I was looking for some deep gospel parrallel, buuuuuuuut I couldn’t find one. The monster truck rally sure was good though!
Bishop asked me to speak on an aspect of Christ’s life and ministry, as it is Easter this coming week. I have always been interested by how little we know about the Youth of Christ, so I’ve decided to speak on what we do know of his childhood, and how we can apply it to us. But before we do that, I want to briefly talk about why its so important the we study the life of the savior and apply it to our lives.
Jesus Christ is our exemplar. To give you a little bit of background before I read this scripture, 3 Nephi 27:21-22 is Christ speaking to the Nephites at the time he came to them following his resurrection. In this chapter, Christ teaches first teaches them about his Gospel, then commands them to obey it, and then tells them how they will be blessed for so doing. Again, this is verses 21 and 22. "Verily, verily I say unto you, this is my gospel and ye know the things which ye must do in my church; for the works which you have seen me do that shall ye also do; for that which ye have seen me do even that shall ye do."
"Therefore if ye do these things blessed are ye, for ye shall be lifted up at the last day."
Christ, as our savior set a perfect example for us to follow. We as members of the church have made covenants through baptism that we will take his name upon us and always do his will. We have covenanted to follow his perfect example. We need to heed his teachings, follow his example, and try to be like him.
I’d like to change gears now and talk about what kind of commandments he’s given us and what we can learn from the few words we have of his childhood. One of the greatest commandments Christ gave was given to us in the Sermon on the Mount. This commandment might seem impossible at times. "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your father which is in heaven is perfect." How many times have we been discouraged by our imperfections, by our sins and our shortcomings. I know I have nearly every day! Life isn’t easy. We come here with the purpose of learning and growing through our trials and tribulations. That is the key though. We DO learn and grow through each and every trial we face. Here’s a little story to better illustrate this point.
Just as we go through trials that teach and test and build us up, Christ, our perfect example, had to go through trials. I’d like to read a little bit out of Jesus The Christ, by James E. Talmage. "He came among men to experience all the natural conditions of mortality; he was born as truly a dependent, helpless babe as is any other child; his infancy was in all common features as the infancy of others; his boyhood was actual boyhood, his development was as necessary and as real as that of all children. The child grew, and with growth there came to him expansion of mind, development of faculties, and progression in power and understanding. His advancement was from one grace to another, not from gracelessness to grace; from good to greater, not from evil to good, from favor with God to greater favor, not from estrangement because of sin to reconciliation through repentance and propitiation."
One of the few scriptures we have on his childhood is also one of my favorite. In Luke 2:52, we have the scriptures that are made famous every Christmas time. The very last verse of the chapter is this. "And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man." A short verse, but it meshes so well with what Talmage said of Christ. As he learned and grew, Christ was able to increase his wisdom, his stature and his standing before God and man just as we are supposed to. Christ truly was a perfect example for us in all aspects of his life. A few more scriptures that deal with Christ and his progression in his youth are found in Hebrews 5:8-9, Doctrine and Covenants 93:13, and Luke 2:40. I’m not going to take the time to read them now, but I’d like to use what we’ve learned so far to relate back to the reference I made earlier to the sermon on the mount. Christ made it possible for us to return to live with our father in heaven. Through his Great and atoning sacrifice, we can become clean form our sins and return to live with him and our father again. The master showed us how to live by leading a sin free life, filled with teachings that if we follow, will lead us back to him. In Matthew 5:48, we have the commandment to be perfect. This seems impossible at times, but again, Christ’s perfect example taught us the only way that we can do this. In 3 Nephi 12:48, Christ had this to say, and I want you to look for the difference between this and the Matthew account. "I would that ye should be perfect even as I or your father who art in heaven is perfect."
The only difference in the wording is that Christ added himself into this verse. He said that we should be perfect even as he is perfect. That leads us to ask the question, what changed from the time of his ministry among the Jews to his ministry among the Nephites? What changed is that Christ was resurrected. We CAN become perfect, but perfection is a process we need to go through just as Christ did. We learn and grow, just as Christ did, and then, after all of our trials and tribulations, we can become cleansed from sin and overcome death and at that point, we will be perfect. The church is true and the book is blue brothers and sisters.
