The Savior's Suffering in Gethsemane

When we think of Jesus Christ and his sacrifice, the world recognizes his death on the cross. As a former Catholic I too only recognized his execution as the only sacrifice he made. It wasn't until I was 18 years old and in my first Sunday School class that I learned that Jesus Christ did something much more for us; something so painful that only someone who had an unmatched eternal brotherly love for the world would undergo. This sacrifice happened in the Garden of Gethsemane. The Savior bled from every pore and took on every sin, every pain, and every sorrow or disappointment that anyone in the world would ever receive. Do you remember those moments when you felt like you would break from the pain? Something so horrible, so traumatic, so heartbreaking, happened to you that you didn't know how you would get through the next few seconds? Well, everyone does. You are not alone in your sufferings. Jesus took on that pain, and every other pain that you ever had to endure. This was the ultimate sacrifice. Not many things could drive the Savior to his knees, but this did. He begged Heavenly Father to pass the bitter cup over to someone else, but agreed to continue if it was his will. His will was perfectly aligned with the Father's and because of this and his sacrifice, we are saved.

A New Commandment

Before Christ made his ultimate sacrifice for us, he gave his disciples a parting commandment. He said, "love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another." This simple commandment is what shows the world that you are a disciple of Christ. The whole point is to emulate Jesus. The main lesson he wanted to teach us through his perfect example is that we need to love each other as much as he loved all of us. Obviously this doesn't mean  that we need to be sacrificing our lives to show people our love, but there are ways that we can show our love to man.
1. We can reach out to those that need friends.
2. We can provide service to those who need it.
3. We can compliment and smile people who need it.
4. We can be generous with our belongings and help those who need it.
5. We can be examples and share the gospel to anyone who will listen.

By understanding the concept of loving our fellow man we can show the world we are disciples of Christ.

Preparing for the Second Coming

Something that we all have to be prepared for is Jesus coming down to earth for the Second Coming. This is easily one of the hardest people to conceptualize in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, because it hasn't happened yet. Everything else we learn is history. This is the one prophecy we have to look forward to. We have no idea when or where or how it's going to happen, but we do have signs given to us from earlier prophets so that we can be on our toes, and we have a list of things we can do to prepare. The two lists I'm going to give you are the signs and the To-Do List.
Signs:
1. "Nations shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. (Basically war.)
2. "...and great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences, and fearful sights.
3. The Saints will be persecuted..
4. We will be betrayed both by parents brethren kinsfolk and friends. Some of us will be put to death.
5. We will be hated of all men because of God.

BUT not a hair on our heads shall perish. IF we do this one thing.

To Do List
"Pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass and to stand before the Son of Man."

The Second Coming will come. The best thing we can do to prepare is pray, follow the commandments and strive to be like God.

The Jews and Jesus: The Last Week

It's no secret that Christ's preferred method of teaching is through parables. Throughout his ministry on earth he teaches his disciples many important principles through parables. Each parable has a rhyme and a reason to why Jesus is telling it, but towards the end of his ministry we start to see a glaring pattern. His parables are all referring somehow to the Jewish leaders and their people. He gives four significant parables at the end of his ministry that demonstrate this. The first being the cursing of the fig tree, then the two working sons, the parable of the husbandmen in the vineyard, and finally the king's wedding.
1. In the curse of the fig tree, Jesus is hungry and finds a fig tree in his way with leaves that make it appear fruitful but it is producing no fruit. He curses the tree to never produce fruit and it withers away instantly.The Jewish leaders compare to this fig tree in the way that they are professing righteousness and appear on paper to be living the words of God, but are not acting in a righteous manner. They are hypocrites and await the same fate as the fig tree that Jesus destroyed.
2. In the parable of the two sons, a father is asking his two sons to go to work. The first denies him and then repents and does his work. The second says he will and then does not do his work. The first son represents the Gentiles who at first rejected the gospel and were not blessed and then changed their hearts, repented and are counted with the blessed. The second child is the Jewish leaders who are again all talk and no action.
3. In the parable of the evil husbandmen, no surprise the Jewish leaders are the evil husbandmen. Essentially the Lord is compared to the owner of a vineyard who opens his gates to husbandmen who are supposed to yield fruit. The Lord sends his servants to collect the fruits, yet the husbandmen immediately kill them. He continues to send servants and they kill those as well. He then sends his own son (three guesses who that is) and they kill him as well for his inheritance. Well it's no surprise that at the end of the parable these husbandmen are smited by the mighty hand of God and are promptly destroyed. This is the fate of  the Jewish leaders who allowed the son of the Lord to be sacrificed.
4.Finally, easily the most complicated of the parables, is the parable of the King's Wedding. The Lord's kingdom is compared to a wedding held by the king. He sends his servants to invite all the people who the king has invited to the wedding. These initial guests represent the Jewish population. They all exhibit one of three characteristics. They ignore the invitation, they find what they're doing more important, or they kill the servants. All three of these actions are really offensive to the Lord and so he destroyed them. He then had his servants collect everyone, (the Gentiles) these people came in good and bad and somewhere in between. One man comes without his wedding garments, which in this case represent his purity and righteousness. Bad choice, because he is immediately send to outer darkness, where we will all promptly be sent if we try to enter the kingdom unworthily.

All in all, Jesus is leaving us some real gems in his last few sermons. He is giving us direct instruction of what not to do if we want to successfully enter the kingdom of Heaven. All we must do is follow it and we will be blessed.