Knowing Us By Name

I was deeply touched this week reading the account of when Mary Magdalene encounters the empty tomb. Of all the people we read of in the New Testament, she certainly knew and had a special bond with the Savior of the world.  She sensed his goodness and felt of his divinity.  She knew that he would redeem her soul for he already had.  Luke's first description of her as "Mary, called Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils" (Luke 8:2). Recall the words of the master to her sister Martha when Mary chose to sit at his feet rather than to perform her household tasks, "But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her" (Luke 10:42).  She was also rebuked by Judas Iscariot for anointing the Lord with copious amount of costly oil at the last supper.  Said, Jesus, "Why trouble ye the woman? for she hath wrought a good work upon me.  For ye have the poor always with you; but me ye have not always.  For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial" (Matthew 26:10-12).

I find it significant that the very first person that Jesus appeared to after his resurrection was this woman who loved him so much.  He had changed her life.  She feasted on his words, trusted in him and would do anything for him.  Indeed at that moment she had come to finish the embalming of his body.  How she must have suffered and sorrowed in those dark days.  To add to her grief, when she arrived at the tomb, the stone had been rolled away, the body was gone!  Horror stricken, she ran to tell the apostles.  They came and saw the empty tomb and then left.  She remained, weeping outside the tomb.  As she looked in she saw two angels who asked her why she was so distraught.  Replying that her Lord had been taken she turned and saw a man she took to be the gardener "and knew not that it was Jesus" (John 20:14).  He asked her, "Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou?" (vs 15).  In my minds eye, I can picture Mary, so full of grief and anxiety that she started just bursting forth, pleading and begging with the man to see if he knew what had happened to the body, telling him that she would care for it.  One word changed her entire outlook.  One word spoken by the Savior of the whole world ceased her babbling.  One word was enough for her to know him.  Jesus simply said, "Mary" (vs. 16).  Her tears turned to those of joy.  Her heart leaped for joy.  Her soul filled with the hope that was lost.  Answering, she simply replied, "master."

I firmly believe that it is possibly to personally know Jesus Christ, the creator of the world, the one who is the author of the salvation for all the human race.  It is possible because he knows us.  To a young boy seeking the truth in prayer he appeared with his Father.  The first word spoken to him was simply "Joseph."  He knows me and he knows you as well.  After showing Moses a vision of all the worlds that he created, of all the inhabitants thereof, and of the heavens above, he told him "Behold this is my work and my glory-- to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man" (Moses 1:39).  He did not say "men" but "man."  He atoned individually for all of our sins.  Through the ordinance of the sacrament he has asked us to take upon us his name.  We can do so because he has taken upon him ours.  That is why our burden is heavy and his is light.  He knows us by name because he has experienced and suffered all that we have and will ever go through.  If there were only one soul on the earth, you, he would still descend into the valley of death and go through the atonement  just for you.  I know he would do so because he already has, for each of us, one soul, one name at a time.

"Feed My Sheep"

If there was ever a person that could say they knew their Savior, it was Peter.  I have loved reading and pondering the life of this man.  I suspect that Peter may have known Jesus prior to his being called as an apostle. He was likely a person of considerable means as we know that he was an owner of several larger sized fishing boats and commanded their fleets.  He was an active owner, working along side his employees.  He was well aware of hard work and of the elements.  He would have known about the sea and the wind and the waves.  Jesus was familiar with his family as there is mention of him healing Peter's mother-in-law early on.

Peter's ministry, though, began on that morning when he returned with his crew from a fruitless night of fishing.  As they sat on the shore performing the dull chore of cleaning their nets, Jesus approached him and asked if he could use one of his boats to deliver a message to those on the shore.  When Jesus was done teaching, he returned the boat and admonished Peter to launch out again a little deeper and let out his nets.  Having just finished cleaning the nets and knowing that the best time for catching fish had just passed, Peter somewhat begrudgingly accepted the counsel from the carpenter's son.  The nets of course were filled beyond capacity.  Peter cried, "I am a sinful man," and Jesus told him that from henceforth he would be "fishers of men."  Peter then "straightway left his nets" and accepted the call of Jesus to "come follow me."

From that day on, Peter walked side by side with the master.  When others left, he responded, "to whom shall we go?  Thou has the words of eternal life" (John 6:68).  When asked by Jesus, "but whom say ye that I am" he resolutely responded, "thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God" (Matthew 16:16).  He was promised to receive the keys of the kingdom of heaven, receiving power to bind on heaven what he would bind on earth (Matthew 16:19).  He stood by the Savior as he was transfigured before the Father, witnessing the appearance also of Moses and Elijah.  In all this Peter was not yet what he would become.  He was allowed to have weaknesses and challenges to humble himself.  He was learning how to rely on the Lord.  He was admonished to let the children come unto Jesus, to forgive even to seven times seventy.  When unable to heal a man with an evil spirit he and his disciples were told to have faith as a mustard seed.  To the end of Jesus' mortal mission, Peter's spirit was willing but the flesh was weak.  He misunderstood the Lord's purpose for washing their feet.  At the last supper he boldly declared that he would never deny the Lord.  Jesus warned him that Satan desired to have him and that Jesus had prayed for him that his faith would not fail.  He then told him "when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethern" (Luke 22:32).

What followed was likely regarded by Peter as the worst night of his life.  Jesus took him with James and John to the garden of Gethsemane.  The were admonished to watch and pray lest they enter into temptation.  Three times the Lord came back to find them sleeping while he suffered alone.  In the savior's greatest hour of need, Peter was not there to support him.  Immediately thereafter came Judas' betrayal.  Quick to show his willingness to standby his master, Peter drew his sword, cutting off the ear of one of the men who came for Jesus.  He was tenderly restrained and Jesus miraculously cured the man.  The soldiers took Jesus away to the High Priest, Caiaphas and all the disciples fled, though Peter followed from afar. Caiaphas accused Jesus of blasphemy to which he was answered not a word.  He then asked Jesus, "Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?"  While Jesus answered in the affirmative, Peter's previous declaration of the same rang somewhat hollow as he once then twice and finally three times denied being an associate of the man from Galilee.  Immediately the cock crew.  "And the Lord turned and looked upon Peter.  And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said unto him, Before the cock crow that shalt deny me thrice.  And Peter went out and wept bitterly" (Luke 22:61-62).  The man he had left his nets for, the man he had devoted his life to, the man he knew to be his savior was then taken, condemned, scoured and hanged on a cross.  I cannot imagine the depths of Peter's remorse.  He must have thought that all was lost.  I would imagine he thought that he had failed.

News of his sighting by Mary Magdalene three days hence must have come as a great shock.  He ran to the empty tomb.  Later, with the disciples, the Lord appeared to them all while they conversed among themselves.  They felt the marks in his hands and in his feet from the nails.  He talked with them and ate with them.  Still, Peter was unsure of what he should do, what direction he should take.  Like most of us would, he went back to doing what he knew best.  He went back to his nets.  One night while on the lake, a man from the shore called, telling the men to throw the nets on the other side of the boat.  As they did so, the nets filled again as they had only filled once before.  Peter, knowing immediately that it was Jesus, leaped into the water to get to the shore as quickly as possible.  That night, Peter's life changed forever, this time for the good.

While eating the fish together, Jesus turned to Peter and queried, "lovest thou me more than these [the fish]?"  Peter answered, "Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee."  Jesus answered, "feed my lambs."  Again Jesus looked at Peter and asked, "lovest thou me?" Again the answer, "yea Lord, thou knowest that I love thee.  This time came the injunction, "feed my sheep."  Fresh with the memory of his failure in his mind, Peter was asked one more time, "Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?  Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee.   Jesus saith unto him, feed my sheep" (John 21:14-17).  Just as he had denied Jesus thrice, the Lord blessed him with the opportunity to affirm his conviction three times as well.  From then on, Peter never wavered.  From the converting of thousands on the day of Pentecost, to the establishing and running of the Lord's church, to the healing of the lame man outside the temple Peter was truly changed.  He devoted the rest of his life to feeding the Lord's sheep.  His path was not easy.  Walking with the Savior stretched him to the limit.  Through his trials, Peter grew to know the Lord.  As one of His most trusted companions, he became an instrument in the hands of the master.  His flesh became as strong as his spirit was willing.  Never again would his devotion to his savior be questioned.  Peter had become a man of God.

Receiving His Image

A well known story by an unknown author reads as follows:

A woman called a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She didn’t mention anything about the reason for her interest beyond her curiosity about the process of refining Silver.

 As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest as to burn away all the impurities.

The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot; then she thought again about the verse that says: ‘He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver.’

She asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined.

The man answered that Yes, he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed.

The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silversmith, ‘How do you know when the silver is fully refined?’

He smiled at her and answered, ‘Oh, that’s easy — when I see my image in it.’

In my quest to know the Savior, I have concluded that we know Jesus best when we put ourselves in his hands and allow Him to work with us.  It is never easy to be held to the refining fire of repentance and adversity but He will make of us more than we can ever make of ourselves.  It is only by wholly giving ourselves over to him that we can “receive his image in our countenances” (see Alma 5: 14).  He will guide us in the changes we need to make in our lives.  He will lead us to the people whom we can influence for good.  We will be changed, converted, even born again.  Our prayers will change from self centered seires of requests to that of earnestly seeking the will of the Lord in our life.  A modern day apostle of the Lord said the following:

“The object of our prayers should not be to present a wish list or a series of requests but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is eager to bestow, according to His will and timing” (Elder David A. Bednar).

When we seek God’s will above our own He is able to imbue us with more of his power.  To the prophet Nephi in the Book of Mormon he declared:

“Blessed art thou, Nephi, for those things which thou hast done; for I have beheld how thou has with unwearyingness declared the word, which I have given unto thee, unto this people.  And thou hast not feared them, and hast no sought thine own life, but has sought my will, and to keep my commandments.  And now, because thou has done this with such unwearyingness, behold, I will bless thee forever; and I will make thee might in word and in deed, in faith and in works; yea, even that all things shall be done unto thee according to thy word, for thou shalt not ask that which is contrary to my will” (Helaman 10:4-5).

Ultimately when we know the Lord so well that we can make his will our own and he knows and trusts us that we will do so, we will live our life on a higher, eternal plane.  It will never be easy but it will be filled with the joy of walking side by side with our friend, our companion, our redeemer.  Even Jesus Christ, the Son of God.