And They Sought to See Jesus Who He Was

If you love Jesus and want to follow Him then spend time with Him.

He talks about “the five gospels” and by that I think he means Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and 3 Nephi.

I like his descriptions of the attributes of the four friends.

In a talk titled “The Great Commandment,” Elder Wirthlin asked, “Do you love the Lord?” His counsel to those of us who would answer yes was simple and profound: “Spend time with Him. Meditate on His words. Take His yoke upon you. Seek to understand and obey.” Elder Wirthlin then promised transformative blessings to those willing to give time and place to Jesus Christ.

We took Elder Wirthlin’s counsel and promise to heart. Together with our missionaries, we spent extended time with Jesus, studying Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John from the New Testament and 3 Nephi from the Book of Mormon. At the end of every missionary meeting, we found ourselves back in what we referred to as the “Five Gospels,” reading, discussing, considering, and learning about Jesus.

For me, for Laurel, and for our missionaries, spending time with Jesus in the scriptures changed everything. We gained a deeper appreciation for who He was and what was important to Him. Together we considered how He taught, what He taught, the ways He showed love, what He did to bless and serve, His miracles, how He responded to betrayal, what He did with difficult human emotions, His titles and names, how He listened, how He resolved conflict, the world He lived in, His parables, how He encouraged unity and kindness, His capacity to forgive and to heal, His sermons, His prayers, His atoning sacrifice, His Resurrection, His gospel.

…we “sought to see Jesus who he was.” It was not Jesus as we wanted or wished Him to be, but rather Jesus as He really was and is.

This sounds like the perfect preparation for my Christmas talk in 11 days.

We often studied Mark 2:1–12. The story there is compelling.…

The story focuses on a man “sick of the palsy” and his four friends. Palsy is a form of paralysis, often accompanied by weakness and tremors. I imagine one of the four saying to the others, “Jesus is in our village. We all know about the miracles He has performed and those He has healed. If we can just get our friend to Jesus, perhaps he too can be made whole.”

So they each take a corner of their friend’s mat or bed and begin carrying him through the crooked, narrow, unpaved streets of Capernaum. Muscles aching, they turn the last corner only to find that the crowd or, as the scripture calls it, the “press” of people gathered to listen is so great that getting to Jesus is impossible. With love and faith, the four do not give up. Rather, they scramble up the steps onto the flat roof, carefully lift their friend and his bed up with them, break open the roof over the room where Jesus is teaching, and let their friend down.

Consider that in the middle of what must have been a serious teaching moment, Jesus hears a scratching noise, looks up, and sees a growing hole in the ceiling as dust and thatch fall into the room. A paralyzed man on a bed is then lowered to the floor. Remarkably, Jesus discerns that this is not an interruption but rather something that matters. He looks at the man on the bed, publicly forgives his sins, and physically heals him.

1. When we try to help someone we love come unto Christ, we can do so with confidence that He has the capacity to lift the burden of sin and to forgive.
   • He has the desire to lift the burdens, not just the capacity.
2. When we bring physical, emotional, or other illnesses to Christ, we can do so knowing He has the power to heal and comfort.
3. When we make effort like the four to bring others to Christ, we can do so with certainty that He sees our true intentions and will appropriately honor them.
4. We are all engaged as Latter-day Saint disciples in the work of bringing others to Christ. Thus, the qualities exhibited by the four friends are worth considering and emulating.
   • They are bold, adaptive, resilient, creative, versatile, hopeful, determined, faithful, optimistic, humble, and enduring.
5. The four emphasize the spiritual importance of community and fellowship. In order to bring their friend to Christ, each of the four must carry their corner. If one lets go, things get more difficult. If two give up, the task effectively becomes impossible. Each of us has a role to play in the kingdom of God. As we fill that role and do our part, we carry our corner.