Devotion and Dedication
By Linda and Richard Eyre
Note: Each week this column provides a short essay on one particular aspect or facet of the Lord’s personality and character. It is intended that the reader focus on this facet while partaking of the sacrament this Sunday. (Click here to read full introductory column.)
It has been said that the difference between great and mediocre men is a cause. A cause lights the way, propels the mind, and gives color and scope to the otherwise selfish flatness of life.
The Savior’s cause, of course, defies comparison with that of any mere mortal, because his cause was the cause, the Father’s cause of bringing to pass “the immortality and eternal life of man.” His devotion to this cause began in the pre-earth life and is total, complete, and perfect ? and will be so for the rest of eternity.
Ponder the magnitude of that cause ? mankind’s eternal life. Try to realize that giving of life is woven around and through all that we know of Jesus Christ. He created this earth, and helped to create the physical bodies we now inhabit, thus giving us mortal life, and sharing with us all the joyous forms of life that occupy His earth. He ransomed his perfect life for our imperfect ones, thus giving us immortal life through a universal resurrection. He gave us His gospel and He leads His church, thus giving us the path and the opportunity for eternal life. He gave us covenants, ordinances and commandments, and to those who come to know him more and more, his commands seem less and less like arbitrary restrictors and more and more like wise counsel from a loving father.
Examples of the Savior’s singular dedication to his Father’s cause (and his own cause) are everywhere in the scriptures: at age twelve he was already concerned with is cause (see Luke 2:49). He reiterated timelessly his personal subservience to his cause and to his Father (see John 4:34, 12:26, 13:16) and the question of not fulfilling his commitment to the cause never occurred to him (John 18:11).
Next week we will contemplate the deeper meaning of the magnificent (and essentially powerful) phrase “Thy will be done.”
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