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A
little more than 2,000 years ago
the Redeemer of mankind was born in Bethlehem of
Judea (D&C
20:1) While yet an infant, He was
brought to the temple in Jerusalem. There Mary
and Joseph heard the wonderful prophecies spoken
by Simeon and Anna about the tiny babe who was
destined to become the Savior of the
world.
He spent
His boyhood in Nazareth of Galilee, and when 12
years of age He was brought to the temple again.
Mary and Joseph found Him conversing with
learned men, “and they were hearing him, and
asking him questions” (JST, Luke
2:46).
Later,
as the Master stood on the temple’s pinnacle,
Satan tempted Him as He began His ministry.
Still later, the Lord drove the money changers
from the temple, declaring, “My house shall be
called the house of prayer; but ye have made it
a den of thieves” Matt.21:13
Jesus was in very deed the great
Jehovah of the Old Testament, who left His
Father’s royal courts on high and condescended
to come to earth as a babe born in the most
humble of circumstances. His birth was foretold
centuries earlier by Isaiah, who declared
prophetically, “For 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” ( Isa.
9:6)
This Jesus Christ of whom we solemnly
testify is, as John the Revelator declared, “the
faithful witness, and the first begotten of the
dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth.”
He “loved us, and washed us from our sins in his
own blood, and hath made us kings and priests
unto God and his Father; to him be glory and
dominion for ever and ever”. (Rev.1:5-6)
He was and is the Son of the Almighty. He
was the only perfect man to walk the earth. He
healed the sick and caused the lame to walk, the
blind to see, the deaf to hear. He raised the
dead. Yet He suffered His own life to be taken
in an act of Atonement, the magnitude of which
is beyond our
comprehension.
Luke records that this anguish was so
great that “his sweat was as it were great drops
of blood falling down to the
ground”,
(Luke
22:44) a physical manifestation confirmed
in both the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and
Covenants. The suffering in Gethsemane and on
the cross of Calvary, just a few hundred meters
from Gethsemane, included both physical and
spiritual “temptations, … pain, … hunger,
thirst, and fatigue, even more than man can
suffer,” said King Benjamin, “except it be unto
death”.(Mosiah
3:7)
After the agony of Gethsemane came His
arrest, His trials, His condemnation, then the
unspeakable pain of His death on the cross,
followed by His burial in Joseph’s tomb and the
triumphant coming forth in the Resurrection. He,
the lowly babe of Bethlehem who two millennia
ago walked the dusty roads of Palestine, became
the Lord Omnipotent, the King of Kings, the
Giver of Salvation to all. None can fully
comprehend the splendor of His life, the majesty
of His death, the universality of His gift to
mankind. We unequivocally declare with the
centurion who said at His death, “Truly this man
was the Son of God” (Mark
15:39).
Such is
the witness of the testament of the Old World,
the Holy Bible. And there is another voice, that
of the testament of the New World, wherein the
Father introduced His resurrected Son,
declaring, “Behold my Beloved Son, in whom I am
well pleased, in whom I have glorified my
name”. (
3 Ne.
11:7)
Added to
all of this is the declaration of modern
prophets: “And now, after the many testimonies
which have been given of him, this is the
testimony, last of all, which we give of him:
That he lives!” (D&C
76:22)
No event of human history carries a more
compelling witness than does the reality of the
Resurrection. His followers on two continents
testified of it. Uncounted millions of men and
women through the ages have suffered, even unto
death, for the witness in their hearts that He
lives, the Savior and Redeemer of all mankind,
whose Atonement came as an act of grace for the
entire world. How long and how great is the
concourse of brave and humble people who have
kept alive the name of Jesus and a testimony of
His Redemption!
Now He has
come again, in the latter days, to bless us and
warm our hearts, to quicken our faith and bring
us sure and certain knowledge of His living
reality. We, of all people, can
sing:
Joy to the world, the Lord is
come;
Let earth receive her King!
Let
ev’ry heart prepare him room,
And Saints and
angels sing.
(“Joy to the
World,”)
We honor Him,
we worship Him, we love Him as our Redeemer, the
great Jehovah of the Old Testament, the Messiah
of the New Testament. The entire thrust of the
testimony of the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and
Covenants declares our living Lord before whom
we kneel in humility and
faith.
And so at this Christmas season, we sing
His praises and speak our words of faith and
gratitude and love. It is His influence in our
lives that stirs within us more kindness, more
respect, more love, more concern. It is because
of Him and His teachings that we reach out to
those in trouble, distress, and need wherever
they may be.
It is proper
during this season when we commemorate His birth
that we remember the Lord Jesus Christ in
reverence and with love. He has done for us what
we could not do for ourselves. He has brought
meaning to our mortal existence. He has given us
the gift of eternal life. He was and is the Son
of God, who was “made flesh, and dwelt among us,
(and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the
only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and
truth” (John
1:14.)
This story is about the
true meaning of Christmas. God
be thanked for the gift of His Son, the Redeemer
of the world, the Savior of mankind, the Prince
of Life and Peace, the Holy
One. |
