I had a great time preparing this lesson this week and studying the topic—the Shepherds of Israel. As I read through the lesson material, as I read what church leaders had said about this topic, and as I interviewed Bishop Shepherd about his role as the shepherd of this ward, I felt time and time again, the love my Heavenly Father has for me. The impressions of this love were deep; they were real, and they were frequent. I already knew God loved me—but these reminders were a welcomed strengthening of my faith and self-worth. I was reminded that I am His child, and He is on my side—every-ready to help me rise to my best. I was reminded that He is aware of me and my needs—and that no matter where I go or what I do, His love for me will never cease—and He will always stand, arms outstretched, ready to encircle me in His love. Of course, this great love He has for me does not make me unique, for it is the same love He has for each of you and for all of His children. But His love is personal—and I am grateful for the personal ways in which He has expressed His love to me. My hope today is that the Spirit will be here, and you too will feel God’s love—and you will be reminded, as I have been so often this week—that our God is, indeed, our Father—a very involved Father who is aware of each of us and loves us so very much. I hope you will be reminded that ours is not a distant God; He is an involved God who personalizes His interactions with us.
I hope you feel that love this day and every day. I want you to know that I know that God is real. And so is His love. I have felt that love so often in my life—particularly when I didn’t feel worthy of His love, God has loved me. That love has become a source of strength for me. More than anything else in this world, I am convinced of God’s love. And as we study the role of a shepherd—and, in particular, the Good Shepherd, we find that at the center of what a shepherd is—and what Christ is—is love.
Let me start with a story by Elder John R. Lassater: “Some years ago, it was my privilege to visit the country of Morocco as part of an official United States government delegation. As part of that visit, we were invited to travel some distance into the desert to visit some ruins. Five large black limousines moved across the beautiful Moroccan countryside at considerable speed. I was riding in the third limousine, which had lagged some distance behind the second. As we topped the brow of a hill, we noticed that the limousine in front of us had pulled off to the side of the road.
“As we drew nearer, I sensed that an accident had occurred and suggested to my driver that we stop. The scene before us has remained with me for these many years.
“An old shepherd, in the long, flowing robes of the Savior’s day, was standing near the limousine in conversation with the driver. Nearby, I noted a small flock of sheep numbering not more than fifteen or twenty. An accident had occurred. The king’s vehicle had struck and injured one of the sheep belonging to the old shepherd. The driver of the vehicle was explaining to him the law of the land. Because the king’s vehicle had injured one of the sheep belonging to the old shepherd, he was now entitled to one hundred times its value at maturity. However, under the same law, the injured sheep must be slain and the meat divided among the people. My interpreter hastily added, ‘But the old shepherd will not accept the money. They never do.’
“Startled, I asked him why. And he added, ‘Because of the love he has for each of his sheep.’ It was then that I noticed the old shepherd reach down, lift the injured lamb in his arms, and place it in a large pouch on the front of his robe. He kept stroking its head, repeating the same word over and over again. When I asked the meaning of the word, I was informed, ‘Oh, he is calling it by name. All of his sheep have a name, for he is their shepherd, and the good shepherds know each one of their sheep by name.’
“It was as my driver predicted. The money was refused, and the old shepherd with his small flock of sheep, with the injured one tucked safely in the pouch on his robe, disappeared into the beautiful deserts of Morocco.”
There are some clear parallels between the way this Moroccan shepherd treated his lambs and the way we know the Good Shepherd treats each of us. Like the shepherd in this story, Christ knows our name, our situation, our needs.
We know He will pay any price to keep us—because He has already paid that most horrible of prices for us. And just as the Moroccan picked up, cradled and comforted the wounded sheep, our Savior binds our wounds, comforts us and heals us in the loving way that only He can. President Hinckley has said, “When [every] other love fades, there will be that shining, transcendent, everlasting love of God for each of us and the love of His Son, who gave His life for us.”
In between Gethsemane and the Cross, Christ stood before Pilate, a Roman Leader who would decide whether to crucify Jesus. Jesus begged not for his life.
Rather, he simply said, “To this end was I born and for this cause came I into the world” (John 18:37). He came to redeem, and no Roman leader or any man would interfere with Christ fulfilling the awful requirements of being our Redeemer. Think about that some more. Instead of a reprieve, Christ states his desire to give His life. “To this end was I born and for this cause came I into the world” (John 18:37).
Think about that next month when we celebrate His birth. When we celebrate Christmas, we aren’t just celebrating a birth—We are celebrating the life, ministry, and Great Sacrifice of our Savior. We are celebrating His acceptance of His role in the plan of salvation. We are celebrating His great unmatched, unparalleled love that proved to be the catalyst of His Atoning Sacrifice. The rest of us came to Earth to prove ourselves; He came to redeem.
The more you study and learn of Christ, the more you will want to celebrate Christ. President Ezra Taft Benson once said: “Without Christ there would be no Christmas, and without Christ there can be no fulness of joy.” President Hinckley elaborated on that, when he said, “We honor His birth. But without His death that birth would have been but one more birth. It was the redemption which He worked out in the Garden of Gethsemane and upon the cross of Calvary which made His gift immortal, universal, and everlasting.”
President Hinckley said: “This is the wondrous and true story of Christmas. The birth of Jesus in Bethlehem of Judea is preface. The three-year ministry of the Master is prologue. The magnificent substance of the story is His sacrifice, the totally selfless act of dying in pain on the cross of Calvary to atone for the sins of all of us. The epilogue is the miracle of the Resurrection, bringing the assurance that ‘as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive’.”
After volunteering in the Grand Council in Heaven to be our Savior, Christ came and organized our Earth. And then, in a stable, He came to fulfill his greatest responsibility that of Atoner. And, in that way, Christmas is a promise kept.
For 33 years, the Creator of this Earth dwelt on this Earth. For 33 years, he lived a spotless life, keeping Himself qualified to be our Savior. 33 years of sinless living. That’s incredible. I doubt I could live a spotless life for 33 minutes, if my life depended on it. And he lived a virtuous life for 33 years, and my life did depend on it.
For three years, He ministered. In those three years, He gave us the wonderful teachings found in the Gospels, and set his life as an example to all those would follow. He established His church and organized its priesthood.
But his greatest work came in Gethsemane and on the Cross.
One LDS scholar put it this way:
“Human nature makes us want to quantify, to measure the atonement of Christ, but his ordeal is off any scale; it is beyond our comprehension. Jesus bore not just the sins of the world, but the sorrow, pains, and sicknesses of the world.
“All the negative aspects of human existence brought about by the Fall, Jesus Christ absorbed into himself. He experienced vicariously in Gethsemane all the private griefs and heartaches, all the physical pains and handicaps, all the emotional burdens and depressions of the human family. He knows the loneliness of those who don’t fit in or who aren’t handsome or pretty. He knows what it’s like to choose up teams and be the last one chosen. He knows the anguish of parents who children go wrong … He knows all these things personally and intimately because He lived them in the Gethsemane experience. Having personally lived a perfect life, he then chose to experience our imperfect lives. In that infinite Gethsemane experience, the meridian of time, the center of eternity, he lived a billion billion lifetimes of pain, disease and sorrow.
“God uses no magic wand to simply wave bad things into nonexistence. The sins that he remits, he remits by making them his own and suffering them. The pain and heartaches that he relieves, he relieves by suffering them himself. Those things can be shared and absorbed, but they cannot be simply washed or wished away. They must be suffered. Thus we owe him not only for our spiritual cleansing from sin, but for our physical, mental and emotional healings as well, for he has borne these infirmities for us also. All that the Fall put wrong, the Savior in his atonement puts right. It is all part of his infinite sacrifice—of his infinite gift” (Stephen E. Robinson).
All of that was experienced by Christ for you. For me. For all of us. Indeed, the Son of Man hath descended below them all. Can we hear such a description of Christ’s Atonement and doubt that He loves us? We know he does. He has proven it. “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).
No description can come close to quantifying the awfulness of that night—the dreadful sufferings Christ had to make on our behalf. But we can see that in order to make an infinite atonement, Christ’s love for us also had to be infinite.
Can you read about Christ, can you study his life, can you study Gethsemane and the Cross and not come away with the knowledge that He loves you? And can you not also see that those experiences did indeed qualify him to be both your Redeemer and your Friend? Can you heed the call Christ made to each of his through his prophet Alma: “And now I say unto you, all you that are desirous to follow the voice of the good shepherd, come ye out from the wicked, and be ye separate, and touch not their unclean things ... And now I say unto you that the good shepherd doth call after you; and if you will hearken unto his voice he will bring you into his fold, and ye are his sheep” (Alma 5:57, 60)? I declare that He is our Savior, and that He loves us and that invites all to come unto Him. This is the truth testified of by Nephi: “[Christ] inviteth them all to come unto him and partake of his goodness; and he denieth none that come unto him” (2 Nephi 26:33).
The Good Shepherd is calling unto all of us to follow Him, for He is the way, the truth and the life. It is by Him that we will be resurrected. It is only through Him that we can return to live with our Heavenly Father. It is only through Him that we can attain forgiveness and a renewal of the Soul. It is only through Him that the families are eternal. And it is only through Him that the love that exists between couples and families is made eternal. It is only through Him that we will have our happily ever after. I pray that you will give room to Him in your heart and turn your life over to Him.
Said President Benson: “Christ’s great gift to us was His life and sacrifice. Should that not then be our small gift to Him—our lives and sacrifices, not only now but in the future? … Yes, men and women who turn their lives over to God will discover that He can make a lot more out of their lives than they can. He will deepen their joys, expand their vision, quicken their minds, strengthen their muscles, lift their spirits, multiply their blessings, increase their opportunities, comfort their souls, raise up friends, and pour out peace. Whoever will lose his life in the service of God will find eternal life.”
I want to repeat one of those lines by President Benson: “Men and women who turn their lives over to God will discover that He can make a lot more out of their lives than they can.”
I told you earlier this week I interviewed Bishop Shepherd, and I want to share a portion of that interview with you because you will see in it how Bishop Shepherd has benefited from turning his life over to Christ. This is what Bishop Shepherd told me: “I can tell you that all the good things that have happened in my life have happened because I've tried to do the right thing: going on a mission, where to go to school, who to marry, where to live. Most of my opportunities in life have come because I tried to be faithful. The biggest thing that has helped me is my wife; she has kept me on the strait-and-narrow path. The Lord has been very, very good to me, and part of the reason I enjoy being a bishop is that I've been given a lot, and I get to give back.”
Then Bishop Shepherd described what happens to people when they follow Christ: “They maintain a perspective and hope, and they can deal with life's ups and downs a lot better than someone who doesn't have that inner compass. If you're grounded in Christ, you're going to be better able to weather the storms and be much happier.”
The call of the Good Shepherd has gone forth; today is the day to come unto Christ. Again, I remind you of the words of Alma: “And now I say unto you, all you that are desirous to follow the voice of the good shepherd, come ye out from the wicked, and be ye separate, and touch not their unclean things” (Alma 5:57). Come unto Christ.
Resolve to be better. Get away from those habits, those people and those sins that seek to take you away from Him. Separate yourself from those who drag you down. Separate yourself from those who chase the Spirit from your life by their words or actions. Separate yourself from your own thoughts or deeds that drive out the Spirit and put distance between you and Christ. I don’t know your individual circumstance, but you do, and Christ does. And I’ll bet if you listen He will tell you how to come unto Him—what sins you need to repent of, what habits you need to shed, what friends you need to replace. But this much I do know: You will never find happiness when you are apart from Christ; you will only find true, real lasting happiness when you draw near unto Him. This is my testimony and promise because it has been my experience—if you want to be happy, come unto Christ.
