The Bowels of Mercy and the Body of Christ

I recently gave a talk in church, at my request, on a topic of my choosing.  I am sharing it here as a tribute to those who are mourning the loss of loved ones to violence, and who are striving to create a just and peaceful society.  I pray that I can publish peace.  

My favorite scripture is Alma 7:11-12 and speaks of Christ.  “And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.  And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.” 

It’s difficult to describe my feelings about this scripture.  It fills me with awe that a perfect, sinless man with power over death and pain would choose to experience pain, affliction, temptation, sickness, and death.  It also fills me with hope and gratitude.  I have reflected on this scripture after the unexpected death of my younger sister, during childbirth, while struggling with temptation to return to sins from my past, and when severely depressed and suicidal.  What a beautiful mystery that Christ truly knows and understands me, that somehow he felt the pains of all humanity, and specifically of women. 

Recently as I studied the account of Christ’s experience in Gethsemane I noticed some interesting details.  I will read from the Mark 14 version. 

32 And they came to a place which was named Gethsemane: and he saith to his disciples, Sit ye here, while I shall pray.

 33 And he taketh with him Peter and James and John, and began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy;

 34 And saith unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death: tarry ye here, and watch.

Let’s pause here to consider for a moment.  Jesus took all the apostles to the garden, but brought only Peter, James, and John, those closest to him and the future leadership of the church, into the garden with him.  Then he begins the work of the atonement, and notice the phrasing, he “began to be sore amazed.”  Experiencing the sensations of fallen man took him by surprise.  He felt fear for the first time.  He then asks Peter, James and John to stay with him and watch.  Why?  Is it because he wants companionship in his suffering?  I believe that’s true, but only a part of the reason.  Continuing in Mark:

 35 “And he went forward a little, and fell on the ground, and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him.

 36 And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt.

 37 And he cometh, and findeth them sleeping, and saith unto Peter, Simon, sleepest thou? Couldest not thou watch one hour?

 38 Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak.”

What temptation would they enter into by not watching and praying?  I believe it is the temptation to turn away from other’s suffering.

 39 And again he went away, and prayed, and spake the same words.

 40 And when he returned, he found them asleep again, (for their eyes were heavy,) neither wist they what to answer him.

His most beloved and committed friends were unable to stay awake and watch with him, and they didn’t know what to say to him.  After this he prays one more time.  Only the Father can succor him in this.  

Lorin K. Hansen describes this part of the atonement.  

“It is not Jesus suffering per se that redeems men and women.  Suffering has an effect on him, and it is that effect or change that makes possible human redemption. The power of redemption comes through his expanded knowledge and sensitivity, which he then expresses through his role as mediator…the atonement not only reconciled humanity to God but God to humanity.”

           In an article in BYU studies quarterly entitled “Bowels of Mercy” John Durham Peters expounds on this concept of following Christ in his willingness to suffer with others.

To feel the pain of others is physically impossible but morally imperative.  How can humans break out of the shell of private sorrow?  …  The problem of mortal life, for Amulek, is that all are hardened and thus destined to perish (Alma 34:9). “Hardening” suggests many things – to harden in pride, in sin, in will—but all of these suggest the hardening of the self.  Hardening might be precisely the quality of individuality that makes every person solely responsible for his or her own sins and immune to the sufferings of others.  If we persist in our hardness, according to Amulek, our pain is destined to be absolutely incommunicable.  If not, then we have the opportunity to encounter a being, Christ, who can bridge the gap…Christ died, then, in part, to save us from ourselves.  One purpose of the Atonement is to soften us, to make us able to feel viscerally each other’s sorrows.

By suffering infinitely, Christ brought about the bowels of mercy in many respects.  Consider the climactic verse of Amulek’s great discourse in Alma 34:15; “This being the intent of this last sacrifice, to bring about the bowels of mercy, which overpowereth justice, and bringeth about means unto men [and women] that they may have faith unto repentance.”  Attention has been focused on the marvelously suggestive notion of providing “means for faith unto repentance,” but perhaps the even more important phrase in this passage is “the bowels of mercy.”  Whose bowels these are is wonderfully unclear.  These bowels of mercy are “brought about” on many levels—for God the Father surveying the sinful human family, for God the Son pleading for them, and for penitent people, who recognizing the mercy they have received, are able to break through the self-enclosure of pain and succor others.

This, I think, is one of the meanings of Christ’s injunction given to the Nephites – “And ye shall offer a sacrifice unto me a broken heart and a contrite spirit” (3 Nephi 9:20).  Until this week I have thought that broken heart referred to sorrow for my sins, and for my contribution through my sins to the suffering of Christ.  Yet that experience is covered through the phrase “contrite spirit.”  I believe a more powerful kind of broken heart is the heart that is broken with the pain and suffering of others, the one that has truly and wholly, through the mysterious and glorious atonement of Christ, mourned with those that mourn (Mosiah 18:9). 

            In a devotional in February 2015 entitled “Ye Are the Body of Christ,” Professor Greg Klingler, a Physician’s Assistant and professor in the BYU-I Department of Health, described an experience which helped him better understand the call to go to the rescue.  A young woman named Emily had suffered for years with severe abdominal pain despite medical tests and treatment.  After prayerful consideration and medical examination Brother Klinger ordered tests and Emily received surgery which restored her to completely normal function.  After describing this experience, he goes on to say:

When one part of the body is afflicted, the whole body feels it, and we are not whole until all members of the body are whole.

In Corinthians chapter 12, the Apostle Paul uses the body as an analogy to refer the church of Christ.

“For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free. For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? And if they were all one member, where were the body? But now are they many members, but one body.”

When we are baptized we become a member of the body of Christ. Each member of the body is given important gifts, and talents. Some taste, some hear. Some are eyes, and some are hands. God set the members, “every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.”

Going back to Corinthians: “And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.”

When Emily had gallbladder disease, her hands were fine. Her eyes, ears, mouth, and her cognitive functions were perfect… Could I have said, ‘because your gallbladder is afflicted, but your eyes are fine, I am going to forget about the gallbladder and all of its problems and care for the eyes? Of course not!

In fact we learn it is upon those members of the body that are in need that we give more care.

“And those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness.

For our comely parts have no need: but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked.”

Do you see the vision? When one of us suffer, we all suffer. We are not whole until every member is whole.

Many times I have gone to those that are wounded and approached these individuals with the attitude of ‘I love you. And because I love you, I want you to feel of the blessings I feel through obedience.’ Although that may be the case, that is not the doctrine that will lead to significant change in that person’s life. The doctrine is this: when you were baptized you became a member of the body of Christ. You are part of His body and I am part of the body. We need the gifts and talents, only you bring. We need you like our own bodies need the hands, feet, eyes, and ears. And we, the body, are not whole without you.

To those able and willing to go to the rescue, this will be our message, ‘We love you, the Lord loves you, and we need you.’ 

Elder Robert C. Gay, of the first quorum of the seventy, spoke at BYU graduation last year about embracing the marginalized. 

Today we have great divisions before us. Within and without the Church there exist real stumbling blocks. Outside we are pressed daily by violence, invasion of individual liberty, discrimination, poverty, immorality, disease and so much more. Inside the Church many struggle to reconcile and understand same-gender attraction, the role of women, or certain Church doctrines or history. Many struggle with doubt, lack of confidence or resources, zealousness, commitment, meeting schedules, leaders who offend, friends or children who stray, prayers that seem unanswered, and broken trusts through emotional, physical or sexual abuse.

Some would like to ignore or diminish these issues by contending with those that challenge our orthodoxy; or by delivering dismissive sermons; or by saying to those that struggle temporally or spiritually with doubt or depression to “just be patient, things will work out.” The Lord, however, expects much more of us than words. He expects our personal ministry despite discomfort or any personal rejection. He expects an outreach of charity. He expects us to go into the “highways and byways” of people’s lives and to bring them to the Sacred Grove and to Gethsemane and Calvary.

The scriptures teach us that Jesus showed forth “an increase of love” to those He rebuked and to those that denied Him. Against norms, he dined with sinners and ministered to the outcast, the grieved, and unbeliever. There is nothing that has more power to affect our lives than the pure love of Christ, which is charity. Charity, looks beyond self, choosing to “bear” and “endure all things.” If we live without charity, if we live indifferently, our Heavenly Father says “[we] are nothing.” That is, we live a life of vanity. 

As described in John, the night of the Atonement began with the Savior commanding the disciples to make and renew a covenant to always remember and honor His sacrifice. He then knelt down and washed the feet of those who would in a few short hours betray Him, deny Him or fall asleep in His most needed hour. He never condemned for this but exhorted them to be one with Him; to forgive; to wash the feet of others; and to love their neighbors as He loved them. He asked that we raise our vision to His vision.

Can you see that the great charge of the Atonement is to love as He loved?

To love those who betray, who offend, who fall asleep, who deny, who doubt, who are zealous and cut off an ear with a sword or a heart with a harsh deed; to be longsuffering with those who will not hear and who will not love back.

I keep in a frame on the wall in my home office these words of Elbert Hubbard: “God will not look you over for medals, degrees or diplomas but for scars.”

This is the pattern that Jesus places before us as we work to do His work to lift others: we will be called upon to suffer innocently, if we are to achieve what He needs us to achieve as His light before men.

I would like to close by further quoting Elder Gay.  I add my testimony and prayer to his and pray that I may be led to comfort those who stand in need of comfort.

As you leave this [meeting today], may you do so with the resolve to live as a witness for Christ by letting your light “shine before [humankind].” May you know that this will require you to “hear Him” and to bear with love the outcast, the enemy, the marginalized. May you understand that this is not a journey into the known but the unknown—it is a path of faith and integrity to the voice of the Holy Ghost that ultimately demands your sacrifice to be more than just good or less sinful, but to become holy and consecrated.

I say these things in the name of our Savior, even Jesus Christ, Amen.