Reverence for the
Cross
The cross of Christ
is a powerful symbol and image for us as Latter-day Saints. Through the image
of the cross, the Savior himself bids us to follow him in every way and in
every thing. The image of the cross ought to evoke in us the deepest feelings
of gratitude for what the Savior did—and did for all of us—individually as well
as collectively.
Several years ago,
President Gordon B. Hinckley told a story that helps us understand and
appreciate just what the Savior did for all of us. That story was retold by
President James E. Faust in a magnificent address entitled "The Atonement:
Our Greatest Hope." The setting for the story was a one-room schoolhouse
in the mountains of Virginia where the boys were so rough no teacher had been
able to handle them.
Then one day an
inexperienced young teacher applied. He was told that every teacher had
received an awful beating, but the teacher accepted the risk. The first day of
school the teacher asked the boys to establish their own rules and the penalty
for breaking the rules. The class came up with 10 rules, which were written on
the blackboard. Then the teacher asked, "What shall we do with one who
breaks the rules?"
"Beat him across
the back ten times without his coat on," came the response.
A day or so later, .
. . the lunch of a big student, named Tom, was stolen. The thief was located—a
little hungry fellow, about ten years old.
As Little Jim came up
to take his licking, he pleaded to keep his coat on."Take your coat
off," the teacher said."You helped make the rules!"
The boy took off the
coat. He had no shirt and revealed a bony little crippled body. As the teacher
hesitated with the rod, Big Tom jumped to his feet and volunteered to take the
boy's licking.
"Very well,
there is a certain law that one can become a substitute for another. Are you
all agreed?" the teacher asked.
After five strokes
across Tom's back, the rod broke. The class was sobbing. Little Jim had reached
up and caught Tom with both arms around his neck. "Tom, I'm sorry that I
stole your lunch, but I was awful hungry. Tom, I will love you till I die for
taking my licking for me! Yes, I will love you forever!"
President Faust then
said that after telling the story, President Hinckley quoted
Isaiah:"Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows. . . . He
was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the
chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are
healed" (Isaiah 53:4–5).
Continuing, President
Faust declared:
No man knows the full
weight of what our Savior bore, but by the power of the Holy Ghost we can know
something of the supernal gift He gave us. In the words of our sacrament hymn:
We may not know, we
cannot tell,
What pains he had to bear,
But we believe it was for us
He hung and suffered there.
[Hymns, no.
194,"There Is a Green Hill Far Away" ](Ensign, November
2001, 18–19)
Our freedom, our
relief, our redemption from the crushing pain we deserve on account of our sins
came at a dear price, not to us but to the One Perfect Being who ever walked
the earth. Because of him, we don't get what we deserve! He alone took our
punishment. Like Big Tom in our story, he took what would have come to us
without his intervention.
Jesus said that he
trod the winepress alone. None were with him when he"took our
licking," not even his own Father, who withdrew his Spirit from his Son
while the Son was on the cross. There, on the cross, the Savior of his own free
will took to himself our stains and our sins, as well as the blood and sins of
all generations (Jacob 1:19; 2 Nephi 9:44). Alma reminds us that without the
Atonement operating in our lives, we would have to"stand before the bar of
God, having [our] garments stained with blood and all manner of filthiness"
(Alma 5:22). In the garden and on the cross Jesus initiated the great exchange:
He cleansed our garments and imputed our stains and blood to his garments. That
is why when he comes again, at the great and terrible second coming, he will be
wearing red garments:
And it shall be said:
Who is this that cometh down from God in heaven with dyed garments; yea, from
the regions which are not known, clothed in his glorious apparel, traveling in
the greatness of his strength?
And he shall say: I
am he who spake in righteousness, mighty to save.
And the Lord shall be
red in his apparel, and his garments like him that treadeth in the wine-vat.
(D&C 133:46–48)
Red is the color of
stains that accrue to a person's garments when working in a winepress. Red is
also symbolic of the Savior's spilled blood in Gethsemane and on the cross. Red
becomes symbolic of victory—victory over the devil, hell, and endless torment.
At the Second Coming, Jesus Christ will be recognized as the ultimate victor by
his wearing red garments. Also at the Second Coming, all shall recognize the
Savior by the wounds he has chosen to retain in his hands and feet, which
wounds he received on the cross. Even those who have been unable to know the
Lord because of what certain leaders of their people did long ago will receive
the blessing of knowing their Redeemer:
And then shall the
Jews look upon me and say: What are these wounds in thine hands and in thy
feet?
Then shall they know
that I am the Lord; for I will say unto them: These wounds are the wounds with
which I was wounded in the house of my friends. I am he who was lifted up. I am
Jesus that was crucified. I am the Son of God.
And then shall they
weep because of their iniquities; then shall they lament because they
persecuted their king.
And then shall the
heathen nations be redeemed, and they that knew no law shall have part in the
first resurrection; and it shall be tolerable for them. (D&C 45:51–54)
Truly, the cross is a
powerful and lasting symbol of the Savior's all-encompassing atonement.
Last but not least,
the marks of the cross are at the center of the most profound expressions of
our worship of the Savior. These expressions are reserved for our most sacred
places of worship. We renew our commitment to remember the cross of Christ,
and, in a sense, we renew our commitment to take up our crosses when we worship
in the house of the Lord. Temples are one more evidence of how serious
Latter-day Saints are about remembering the cross. Almost twenty-eight
centuries ago, Jehovah promised Israel that he would never forget his people: "Behold,
I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands" (Isaiah 49:16; 1 Nephi
21:16). In turn, this prophetic reference to the marks of the crucifixion bids
us, the Lord's people—latter-day Israel—never to forget him. (Andrew C. Skinner,
Golgotha [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2004], 188-93)
