Not only was Jesus fully and perfectly aware of the prophecies of the Old Testament that bore upon His earthly ministry—so, to a lesser degree were His apostles. When Paul wrote about how Jesus was to the Jews, a stumbling block, was He not merely echoing what another prophet, Isiah, had foretold so many centuries before? “And he shall be a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.” 41
No doubt someday we shall see that the gradations of disclosure had to be so, perhaps in part as an act of mercy, lessening the condemnation of those who would have rejected the more part had they received even more.
In pondering the fearlessness of the Master during His mortal ministry, it is altogether too easy to ascribe His courage to the fact that He would have been protected from any physical harm by angelic protectors if necessary. Jesus’ fearlessness rested upon His righteousness; therein lay His sole security. The powers of heaven were His only insofar as He remained as He did—righteous. It is the same with us.
But there are much more subtle forms of fear, as we all know. We sometimes fear what people will think of us more than what they will do to us. For instance, if Jesus had been less filled with integrity than He was, He could have shaded the truth just a bit, hoping to curry the favor (or at least the neutrality) of those in power.
If He was not truly meek, Jesus could have put on more convincing displays of His power, hoping to increase His following. If He were less than our Lord He could have basked in more adulation, had He merely issued less stinging criticism of things as they then were.
But there was divine determination in Him to do what He had been asked to do and to do it fearlessly. He was not afraid of being misunderstood. He was not afraid of being alone, though right. He was not afraid that all that He did, would then, in the centuries to come, go largely unrecognized. He was not afraid to ordain the Twelve, imperfect as they were, because He knew both them and the Source of their guidance. Though we cannot even approach His fearlessness, we can do likewise by subduing our fears of men.
Christ’s refusal to entertain these and other fears and His dispatching of them, permits us to view, in some small measure, His marvelous courage. Obviously, the eternal attributes are interactive, but courage calls the cadence for summoning these attributes into action.
Jesus’ fearlessness, however, was accompanied by gentleness. When He healed the ten lepers and only one returned to thank Him, He then asked, “But where are the nine?”42 There was no point in lecturing the one—as we so often do, giving the right lesson to the wrong audience—instead of the nine. After all, the one did return!
There for us to ponder is the often neglected but insightful second sermon of Jesus in the synagogue at Nazareth from which He earlier had been thrust out and threatened with death.43 We see His mercy in this provision of an added opportunity for those in the hometown of His youth; it was His own country.” This time, however, His listeners were astonished instead of enraged. What happened next, however, is both illuminating and discouraging: He was rejected not because of what he said or how he said it—rather, because of who He was perceived to be: “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary?” Then came Jesus’ well known lamentation: “A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house.”44
In short, “they were offended at him.” No spiritual work, save the healing of a few sick folk, could be done. Then it was recorded of Jesus, who had seen so much disbelief at Nazareth, that ” He marveled because of their unbelief.” Think upon it! They were His neighbors and had some awareness of at least some of His mighty works—yet all this was dismissed because He was a local individual. Often that which we, too, can do is so limited by the agency and the stereotypiing of others.
May it also be that a whole people can likewise be airily dismissed, even resented, by their contemporaries and fellow citizens for the same reasons? Yes!
One wonders if the reaction to Jesus’ first visit to Nazareth—rage—was not in some respects preferable to the deliberate disdain experienced in connection with His second visit. Satan’s stratagems are apparent: If one cannot face truth, then he can merely dismiss it by stereotyping the source. Dismiss the message because of the lowly messengers.
~ Neal A. Maxwell, Even as I Am (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1989) p.83-85
(Posts with a preamble asterisk * are for a more general audience, and not specific to teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.)
