Healing
One of Jesus' special talents was the gift of healing. Through that gift, He ended pain and suffering in many individuals, and certainly seeing the joy in the faces of those who were healed and their loved ones was a great source of joy to Jesus.
Teaching
Jesus spent the majority of His adult life teaching the gospel, sharing parables and principles in quotes that are now memorized and repeated all over the world. Through His teachings, many millions of people have been spiritually healed. If a knowledge of the eventual results of His labors, knowing that millions would be brought into the light of the gospel through His words, weren't enough to bring some joy to His heart, I don't know what would have been.
Being with Children
Perhaps my favorite answer to last night's question was this one. In many videos that show scenes from Jesus' life, there is almost always at least one scene where Jesus spends some personal time with a child, and as far as I've noticed, in those scenes, the actors portraying Jesus have always been smiling. Children have a special spirit about them, a certain purity and innocence and inherent goodness that leaves us with no doubt at all that when a young child is called home early, taken before their time, they are bound to go back to heaven, and will fit in perfectly up there. I would guess that Jesus, being as pure and good as any child, would feel a little less homesick for heaven when He was in the presence of children.
Being Merciful
As we discussed Jesus' favorite part about being Jesus, I was eventually reminded of something that I was sure one of the modern Apostles had said at one point or another, something about being merciful to those who don't deserve it or expect it. After a lot of searching, I finally found the quote. Speaking of the parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland said:
This parable—like all parables—is not really about laborers or wages any more than the others are about sheep and goats. This is a story about God’s goodness, His patience and forgiveness, and the Atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a story about generosity and compassion. It is a story about grace. It underscores the thought I heard many years ago that surely the thing God enjoys most about being God is the thrill of being merciful, especially to those who don’t expect it and often feel they don’t deserve it.
I was a little disappointed to be reminded that the quote wasn't a sharing of doctrinal knowledge, or even of Elder Holland's personal opinion, but rather of a thought he had heard many years ago, originally shared by who-knows-whom, but then I figured that if this thought was worth sharing over the pulpit in General Conference (in April 2012), it's certainly worth sharing on my blog.
The Least-Favorite Parts
There were and are probably lots of good parts about being Jesus Christ, our Savior. Unfortunately, there were lots of bad parts, too. Mortal life isn't a picnic for anyone, and it certainly wasn't all pleasant for Him. Being mocked and constantly challenged by the scribes and pharisees must have put Him on edge, and maybe even annoyed Him. The crucifixion, as noted above, couldn't have been a whole lot of fun, and we practically have canonical, scriptural evidence that not only was the Atonement in Gethsemane not something that Jesus was anxiously looking forward to, He all but said that He'd rather not go through with it. But He did go through with it. Jesus did what He needed to do to become what we needed Him to become, and we all owe Him everything for that.
Conclusion
Every life has both good parts and bad parts - things that we get to do and things that we have to do. The trick is to look for the positive. What are the good things in our lives that we can look forward to and/or remember, and enjoy? If Jesus had focussed on the Atonement and the Crucifixion, He probably wouldn't have enjoyed life at all, but as He was able to look forward to the Resurrection, the conversion of millions, and the opportunity He'd have to show mercy to them, it probably made the least-favorite parts of His life a little less difficult to endure.
In the words of Maria from The Sound of Music: "When the dog bites, when the bee stings, when I'm feeling sad, I simply remember my favorite things, and the I don't feel so bad."
1 comment:
When we look at how Jesus might have felt about these things, I think we feel closer to Him as our elder brother. It doesn't diminish Him in our eyes. In fact, in a way. remembering that He had feelings, but did all this for us despite some of them, makes me love and revere Him more. It was real sacrifice and He did it out of love. Being our Redeemer was/is no easy task even though He is God. He does the hard thing because of His great love. When we do come to Him with gratitude for His sacrifice and try to follow Him in service, that must be one of the really good parts for Him and hopefully makes it worth all He went through.
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