CFM: Matt 2 & Luke 2 ~ The "Perfect" Child

January 14–20. Luke 2; Matthew 2: We Have Come to Worship Him

This week's study covered the story of the child Jesus teaching in the temple.  I've often felt a bit unsettled by this story, I've never really understood what we were supposed to learn from it.  That Jesus was fulfilling His mission from a very young age?  That He as a child was more learned than doctors and teachers in the temple?  That He led a perfect life even in His youth?  That He knew better than His worrisome parents?  Because that just doesn't sit very well with me.

In my opinion, no "perfect" child would have left the caravan and his family, without a word to his parents as to where he was going.  And then, after days of frantic searching the city, when his parents had finally located him in the temple, would he have looked into their tear-filled, anguished eyes and answered his mother's sorrowing plea with, "How is it that ye sought me? Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?"  Ouch.

The scriptures say they didn't understand his response (Luke 2:50).  Neither do I.  

No, no - a "perfect" child should have communicated his whereabouts to his parents before running off, and would have acknowledge the pain caused them by his not doing so.  But there was no apology given, and His response seems almost a censure - a slap in the face to the people tasked with the unfathomable task of raising the Son of God on earth.

But I noticed this time something I had not previously, it comes in the very next verse: "and he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them..." Luke 2:51

Wait. What?

From that point on - He went with them, and was subject to them?  Implying that in this instance Jesus had not been subject to His earthly parents??  And He perhaps changed His future behavior based on this experience??

We so often say that Christ led a perfect life, that He was the only perfect man who lived.  But is that true?  Did He always do everything in the most correct way possible?  Did He never make a mistake?  Did He never feel regret or remorse?  Did He never need to improve?  I'm not so sure about that kind of "perfect" thinking.  The next verse states "And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man." Luke 2:52 

Hmm, did He learn from His own experience, as we do, line upon line?

I have no doubt that Christ led a sin-free life, in that respect He was perfect.  But what is sin?  Are our innocent mistakes sin?

Joseph Smith said, "What many people call sin is not sin" TPJS, p.193

I would say that boiling it down to the essentials, sin = going against the will of God.  Christ never did that.  But the idea that He too might have had to learn through His own experience a better way to act, brings me a great deal of comfort.  

He learned that He had earthly parents who were also concerned with His well-being, and to stay with them, and be subject to them - perhaps until the time of His ministry, which had not yet come.

In our attempt to become like Christ, it helps to know He understands what it is to be like us.  

I'm reminded of this quote from Sheri L. Dew: "I fear that some people know just enough about the gospel to feel guilty that they are not measuring up to some undefinable standard but not enough about the Atonement to feel the peace and strength it affords us... It's quite the irony—that the gospel of Jesus Christ, which contains the power to save every human being and to strengthen every soul, is sometimes interpreted in such a way that feelings of inadequacy result." 

This is a Test. It is Only a Test 

I have pondered those words, and I agree with Sheri.  

I've seen the crippling effects of guilt in my own life, and in so many others.  Being down in the dumps, when we should be up in the peaks!  

I don't want to be held back by incorrect understandings and impossible standards.  So here's to letting go of paralyzing perfectionism, the falsity of never feeling good enough, and on to finding peace, strength, and power through the Atonement and gospel of Jesus Christ!  To recognizing that my perfection can only come through Him and His grace, and that my life (flaws and all), truly can be an acceptable offering unto Him - as I continuously seek to learn from my experiences a better way to be, and to follow in His footsteps.

CFM: Matt 1 & Luke 1 ~ Leaving the "How" to God

January 7–13. Matthew 1; Luke 1: ‘Be It unto Me according to Thy Word’

My great and wise friend Beckee, in multiple deep discussions about our lives, would say to me that we just need to leave the "how" up to God.  I've pondered that concept for years.  Can I have enough faith and confidence to trust God with the "how" in my life?  Frankly, not really.

When I see a magic trick, I immediately want to know how it was done, I try to figure it out.  And when I am promised a miracle in my own life, I start mentally running through the scenarios of how it might happen and where each road could lead, and then often will turn to despair when I can't picture a single possibility.

{Side note to self: definition of miracle = a seemingly impossible task, so give God some credit already}

Spending time this week thinking about the "how" in life wasn't anything new to me - but what was new was realizing that the virgin Mary and the priest Zacharais when presented with an angel and a promised miracle in their own lives, both asked the exact same question: HOW will this be done?

And the real shocker to me was, they each got a DIFFERENT ANSWER.

(Note: Some people have the opinion, or perhaps rationalization, that this is a matter of semantics - how can this be? & whereby shall I know this? - really weren't the same question, but for the purpose of my post I'm assuming they are.)

WHY?  Why would God give one how? the answer - the method by which the miracle would take place, and yet answer the other how? with a seeming punishment - struck dumb for disbelief.

I am a very logical, analytical thinker, and this does not make sense. God is no respecter of persons.

So what is the difference?

Which was the greater miracle? to conceive a child as a young virgin? or an old married post-menopausal woman?  The former, impossible, the latter, improbable.  Was is the degree of miraculous-ness that prompted the difference in response?

Or was it due to age and experience?  An optimistic, innocent, pure youth?  Or an old man with a long life of unfulfilled blessings, a man who had seen the ways of the world, yet was righteous and serving in the temple?

Was it the condition of the heart?  Did she have an open heart of wonder and awe?  Did he have a heart hardened with the hesitation to hope?

Or did it simply serve the Lord's purpose for Zacharias to be dumb - that all around him would also recognize the miracle, that otherwise the birth of John the Baptist may have been seen as simply improbable and forgettable?

I don't know the answers.  Perhaps it's simply a testament that we have a Heavenly Father who gives unique and personal responses to all His children, even when they ask Him the same question.

But I appreciate that I can relate to both scenarios, being young and full faith, believing immediately that the Lord would fulfill His promises, and then decades later when life and experience have worn me down, to be wary of believing, to react in anxiety, to not want to hurt again when the promise was postponed. 

And what I LOVE about this, is that Zacharias' skepticism did not prevent the miracle.  The angel didn't say, you didn't believe without proof, so it's not going to happen.  I love that God will keep his promises, even if I don't have the full capacity to believe Him in the moment, when I just have the desire: "Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief."

I think perhaps then that our doubts, and skepticism, and slow to believe moments, don't ever prevent the Lord's miracles in our lives - they perhaps just make things harder for us in the meantime.  And there is beauty in that, where God has shown He can turn even our hesitation and struggle into a witness and a blessing for others to recognize the miracles in our lives.

So by holding on to my human understanding, but desiring to believe, I don't forfeit the miracle or the promised blessing, sometimes I simply make things harder for myself in the short term.  I'm ok with that, sometimes doubting in faith is all I can muster.

And God somehow makes even that work together for my good.

I'll close with a quote I love, from President Uchtdorf, "Heavenly Father is constantly raining blessings upon us. It is our fear, doubt, and sin that, like an umbrella, block these blessings from reaching us."

So instead of constantly trying to figure out how God is going to fulfill His miracles and promises in my life, I'm trying to shift my focus to figuring out HOW to close my umbrella.  :)

Come Follow Me - New Testament Study 2019

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has issued a new scripture study curriculum for 2019, Come Follow Me.

Leaders have encouraged that we share the insights we receive from our study with others, so I plan on using my (rather underused) blog as a place to record for myself and for others the highlights of my studies: thoughts, ponderings, and new ways of understanding the gospel of Jesus Christ, that I find particularly insightful and personally applicable.  I hope you enjoy, and are blessed in your own personal journey to follow the Savior.

I'll label these future posts with CMF - and the weekly scripture references that plant the seeds.