You say you want a revolution.

Old things are done away, and all things have become new.  -3 nephi 12:47

I was about to say here, “What Jesus preached was really revolutionary for the time he was saying it in,” or something dumb like that.  No.  What Jesus was saying is still totally nuts.  Maybe it’s even crazier now than ever.  I mean we need it.

And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.  Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn thou not away.  And behold it is written also, that thou shalt love they neighbor and hate thine enemy; But behold I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them who despitefully use you and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father who is in heaven; for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good.

In my mind, I see our jaded and self-absorbed postmodern world just kind of melting before the naked force and unadorned beauty of those words.  Like the Nazis in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

I was reading some Shakespeare lately.  The Merchant of Venice.  It has a lot to say about Jews and Christians, Old and New.  But I think a lot of what it’s saying is that even we who profess to be all modern and changed, these nominal adherents of Christ’s doctrine, sure have a hard time applying what he taught.

Therefore, whoso heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, who built his house upon a rock– 3 nephi 14:26.

It’s pretty easy for us to profess Christ’s name.  It’s really hard to do his sayings.  I mean, I guess I should just speak for myself, but it’s hard for me.  Is it worse for us to call ourselves Christians if we are just the same poster children for human nature we always were, than if we made no such pretensions?  Jesus is pretty hard on hypocrites.

Look, though.  Jesus also shows a lot of faith in us, even as he gives us these really hard attributes to try and graft into our souls.  Why do we love our enemies, and pray for those that use and persecute us?  So we can be our Father’s children– so we can be like our Father.  He makes his big great sun shine down on all.  Which is pretty remarkable, I guess, depending on how you conceptualize God.  He loves the “wicked” exactly as much as he loves the “righteous.”  And I mean it’s pretty hard for us to treat people who we separate into different categories with the same compassion and humanity.  But our Father does, and he expects it of us.

Then– this is great– after he tells us to do all this totally counterintuitive and crazy stuff, and to be like God, he tells us, Don’t Act So Surprised–

Marvel not that I said unto you that old things had passed away, and that all things had become new.  3 nephi 15:3

marvel not.  I love it.  How am I not going to marvel?  It’s crazy.  It’s gorgeous.  It’s marvellous.   How am I not going to marvel?

Repetition.

“And again I say unto you, ye must repent, and become as a little child, and be baptized in my name, or ye can in nowise receive these things.

“And again I say unto you, ye must repent, and be baptized in my name, and become as a ltitle child, or ye can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God.”             –3 Nephi 11:37-38.

Jesus was the master teacher– can we all agree upon that?  And a great teacher understands his or her students.  I guess it’s pretty intuitive that Jesus would probably have a better understanding of human nature than anyone, having suffered exactly what all humans have ever suffered.  But I still take pleasure in noting that he’s got us pegged.  

One thing I’ve noticed about human beings– or maybe just about myself, but, I extrapolate– is that it takes us quite a few times through a concept to start understanding it.  Anyway, Jeus, he was a master at repetition.  He used to teach the same concept multiple times, coming at it from different angles or using different metaphors.  But look, this passage from 3 Nephi 11 is almost a direct reiteration.  To me it implies this grave importance, this burning urgency. 

At my job I learn how to teach classes in Adobe Photoshop and things like that.  And I’ve started to pick up on the necessity of repetition in learning.  I mean if you tell them, “click on the Tools menu and scroll down to “photoshop effects” and select ‘blur,'” a lot of people, and I include myself, kind of just don’t register what you said.  I mean I understand that something was said; in my mind there is this placeholder for information; but I need it to be said again in order to put that information in its place.  

Maybe this is what Jesus was working at.  I mean, what he was saying was kind of revolutionary– You have to become like a little child?  Since when has that ever been the path to success?  Little children are the ones that are dependent, they’re the ones that need to be taken care of.  And maybe we’re resistant– no, we ARE resistant, at least I know I am– to the idea that we still depend on someone, because experience has taught us to depend only on ourselves.  If someone tells us to just let go of that and let s0meone else be the ultimate caregiver in our lives– even if that someone is God, who is entirely capable of it– our minds might well just fail to process that information.  So Jesus gives it to us again:  Guys, LISTEN.  You’ve got to repent, be baptized, and become like a little child.  I know that’s an alien concept in this world.   But that’s what the Kingdom of God is about.

Light. Life.

I was reading in the Book of Mormon.  It’s  a pretty great story.  It’s the history of this people who lived in the Americas for like a thousand years.  This week I was reading about the years immediately preceding the time of Christ.  Let me tell you, that civilization got pretty crazy in those years.  It was super polarized, the rich were way rich and the poor were way poor; the good were way good and the bad were way bad.  It is a society on the brink of collapse.  No, in fact, it’s a society in collapse.  Eventually all semblance of central authority breaks down and the country that once elected its leaders democratically becomes an angry pack of squabbling tribal fiefs, each loyal to their warlord.  Yeah, I know!  Some pretty interesting sociological stuff.

But guys, that’s not the main thing that interests me from what I read in the Book of Mormon recently.  I mean it’s talking about all these problems that the people have and that the society has and that the individuals in society have, and to me it seems almost like the proposition of peaceful coexistence has become untenable, it’s this idealistic fantasy.  And in fact the natural world seems to go a little crazy itself– there are all these earthquakes, and storms, and floods, and fires.  A lot of people die.  It’s hard for me to imagine a deeper rock bottom for this people.  There is no hope.  But then a miracle happens.  Christ shows up.

“Behold, I am Jesus Christ, whom the prophets testified shall come into the world.

“And behold, I am the light and the life of the world; and I have drunk out of that bitter cup which the Father hath given me, and have glorified the Father in taking upon me the sins of the world, in the which I have suffered the will of the Father in all things from the beginning.”

He just comes down out of the sky.  And these are the first words that escape his mouth.  And I am just a little bit awestruck at how succinct and powerful Christ is at describing himself.  There could be no more perfect, concise, complete introduction.   I don’t think anyone before or since has been able to explain in as full or as lovely a way what  Jesus Christ is all about.  The essence is right here.