Follow Him: A Come, Follow Me Podcast - Luke 12-17; John 11 Part 2 • Dr. S. Michael Wilcox • May 1 - May 7

Episode Date: April 26, 2023

Dr. S. Michael Wilcox continues to explore the power and promise of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ as he examines love and loss.00:00 Part II– Dr. S. Michael Wilcox00:10 Parable of the lost coin01:27 Parable of the Prodigal Son01:54 There are many far countries04:56 What is the real self?06:05 Parables are meant to elicit emotions08:45 There are no hired servants in heaven. Only sons & daughters.15:50 Elder Holland “The Other Prodigal”18:31 God’s kind of forgiveness20:03 John Bytheway shares an experience about serving at the prison22:35 The 10 lepers24:12 Expectations, entitlement vs. gratitude for unexpected blessings24:54 Dr. Wilcox shares experiences on deciding to be grateful37:19 Looking at prayers to see through Jesus’ eyes in the New Testament38:48 Jesus lifted people40:25 Raising Lazarus from the dead, if thou hadst been here51:47 Renascence by Edna St. Vincent Mallay1:02:47 End of Part II–Dr. S. Michael WilcoxPlease rate and review the podcast.Show Notes (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese): https://followhim.coFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/followhimpodcastInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/followhimpodcastYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/FollowHimOfficialChannelThanks to the followHIM team:Shannon Sorensen: Executive Producer, SponsorDavid & Verla Sorensen: SponsorsDr. Hank Smith: Co-hostJohn Bytheway: Co-hostDavid Perry: ProducerKyle Nelson: Marketing, SponsorLisa Spice: Client Relations, Editor, Show NotesJamie Neilson: Social Media, Graphic DesignWill Stoughton: Video EditorKrystal Roberts: Translation Team, English & French Transcripts, WebsiteAriel Cuadra: Spanish Transcripts"Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise" by Marshall McDonaldhttps://www.marshallmcdonaldmusic.com/products/let-zion-in-her-beauty-rise-piano

Welcome to part two with Dr. S Michael Wilcox Luke chapters 12 through 17 and John chapter 11 Now that was a parable for men and so now we got to have one for women Okay, we want everybody to relate to this thing So now we go to the woman verse 8 what woman having 10 pieces of silver if she lose one piece If not light a candle if she lose one piece, don't light a candle, sweep the house and seek diligently, till she find it. Again, you don't ever give up. And when she had found it, she called it their friends and her neighbors together saying, again, he's inviting the critics. I say, this is a world of a lot of critics, who even when people repent sometimes is,

yeah, well, but he made this mistake. I think you've heard me say it, when I look at people in history, wherever, celebrate all the good and forgive everything else. That's just the way we all, we all ought to live. So rejoice with me. I found the peace which I lost. Likewise, I sand you, there is joy in the presence of the angels

over one center of that repents. Now he's set up the story. The proper response is joy and the prodigal needs to know there's going to be joy, not an interrogation, not a trial period. Let's see if you learned anything out there eating with the pigs. Rejoicing. We get that little financial thing here, right? The two sons and the younger of them said to his father, father, give me the portion of goods that fall off to me. And you divide into them, he's living. I don't like to criticize anything, but if I'm gonna try and pull a financial point out of it once again, it may not always be wise to give a lot of money to somebody who can't handle it. That's not the purpose of the parable. So we'll just leave it at that.

Not many days after the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country. a far country. And their waste is substance with riotous living. There's a lot of different far countries. I love the phrase, a far country, far from home. There's a lot of people who are in different kinds of far countries. They're not all wasting their substance, and all doing riotous living. But there's a lot of parents who have children for one reason or another. Don't feel welcome or don't feel at home or want to go out and see something else. You know, my mother went to a far country and she was young 20s. That seems to be a time people want to leave and she left the church. She went to San Francisco. That was her far country. And there she checked out what was in the great and spacious building for a while. And eventually came home. Thank God she came home or where would I be? So there's lots of far countries. Everybody knows what

far country they're in and every parent knows what far country. Now what happens to you in the far countries? I was going to say from verse 13, it sounds like he has no intention of coming back. If you take everything, he gathered all together. So I'll like he left a box saying, oh, of course, I'll come back for this someday. Yeah. He has no intention of coming back. I think you're correct in that. Yeah. Well, what happens in the far country? Well, you spend everything. Good satanic style, good worldly style, good far country style is often to take everything

and give nothing in return. Mike, it reminds me of when you talk book of Revelation and everything's for sale. Everything's for sale. Everything's for sale. Even the soul. That's right. And when he had spent all their arosa mighty famine in that land, and he began to be in want, and there's different kinds of wants in far countries. You can want love, companionship,

health, faith, testimony, things that you're used to believe in, and don't anymore. There's lots of wants. We could spend hours just talking about some of these verses. He began to be in one and he joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into the fields to feed swine, which would have been horrible for you. And he would feign a field as belly with the husks that the swine did eat. And no man gave unto him. That's the last part of the style. You spend all and give nothing in richer because sometimes the world wants a lot from you. And once they've got it, they don't give anything back. The right is living sounds like he had people around him. Yet he's left with no friends, nowhere to go. He's got the pigs. And sometimes people need to spend a little time

with the pigs. Alma the Younger had to have an angel shake the earth. So there's something sometimes, tough things have to happen. But I love the first line of verse 17. When he came to himself, that's a beautiful phrase. His real self, his real self wasn't the inhabitant of the far country. His real self was not the product. His real

self is the son of the father. Your real self is you at your best. I truly believe that. We're going to see that dramatically in John 11, if we ever get there. We'll get there. We'll see that. Just remember that when he came to himself. We're going to see two people in John 11, the real self that sometimes aren't seen. When he came to himself, his best point, I like to say the power of this parable, and of all parable, but certainly this one is that you feel repentance. So, you can do it. You feel forgiveness.

Very few people feel like repenting when somebody gives a lesson on the five steps of repentance. I'm being a little sarcastic. I don't mean to be too sarcastic. The Jesus is teaching in to elicit an emotion. So he's trying to say, rejoice, feel it, feel repentance, feel forgiveness, and then you'll be able to do it. Because you feel it vicariously through this story which is what great literature does. So how many hired servants of my fathers have bred enough

and despair and I perish with hunger? Even his employees have enough, right? Yeah. I will arise and go to my father. I will say unto, these are poignant words that people who've been to far countries and want to come home often feel. Yeah, I've done too much. Father, I have sinned against heaven and before the NM no more worthy to be called by Son. Make me as one of the hired servants. I'm not a son. I'm not worthy. I've done too much.

I think a lot of the work in the spirit world, and we talk about missionary work in the spirit world, is to convince a lot of people that they still have hope, even though they blew life, that they are still sons. You know, this parable asks the question, when you return, do you return as a servant or a son? And sometimes people say, I'm not worthy to be a son anymore, because I didn't sin like my older brother. I am no more worthy to be called a son. Make me as one of our high servants." And then one of the most beautiful verses in all literature. And he arose.

I'm sorry. And came to his father. Now who is that father? That is our father in heaven, father. He arose and came to his father. And when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. He doesn't wait for him to come. He runs to good using even though he's coming, maybe he's coming back for more money. And his son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven

in my sight and I'm no more worthy to be called by son. Notice what phrase is he dropped. He dropped that because he's obviously being greeted as a son. Notice what phrase is he dropped. He drops that because he's obviously being greeted as a son. There are no hired servants in God's kingdom. Only sons, only daughters. It's almost as if the father interrupts him. He's got this speech repaired and he's like, I am not. And then he says, get that thought out of your mind. But the father said to his servants, bring forth the best robe and put it on Him and put a ring on His hand and shoes on His feet and bring hither the fatty calf and kill it and let us eat and be merry.

And then these, again, beautiful words, they're so beautiful they're going to be repeated. For this, my son was dead and his alive again. He was lost and is found and began to be married. This my son. Now you could end it right there. Yeah. Yeah. Because it's just so powerful. All people, and we're all prodigals in our own way. There aren't very many older brothers. There are some.

All need to know. There is at least with your father in heaven. Now maybe earthly parents, you're not going to be able to do it quite as well, but at least with their father in heaven, the robe, the ring and the shoes, the kiss and the embrace are waiting. And he'll run to give it to you. That's our father in heaven. I've often wondered if he says a ring robe and shoes because these are all fitted blessings. ring robe and shoes because these are all fitted blessings. Rob is not one size fit all ring is not one size fit all shoes are not one size fit all I wonder if he's saying I planned on you coming home and I have your size. Right? I've already got it ready. And they may have been his own. Yeah.

That he left behind. Now his elder son was in the field and as he came and drew night of the house, he heard music and dancing and he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said unto him, thy brother is come, and thy father hath killed the fat of calf, because he hath received him safe and sound. And he was angry and would not go in. Therefore came his father out and it treated him. The father goes to both sons.

He goes to both. The prodigal has his problem. The older brother has his problem. The father goes to both. He goes out to them. Mike, it seems this parable could be misnamed, right? It's called the parable of the prodigal son. The only character that's in both sides of this is the Father, the good Father. Yeah. Or the Prodigal Son. Yeah. He entreated him. He answered and said, it was Father low these many years, do I serve thee? Neither transgressed I at any time, my command. I take that at face value. Now, this is a good person, this is a Nephi person, at least in his life. And yet thou never gave us me a kid that I might make Mary with my friends. But as soon as this thy son, not my brother, thy son was come, your child, which hath

devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatacate. And then these beautiful words again, and he said unto him, Son, Thou art ever with me. You are always in my heart. You have your problems, but I love you. I like Tyndall's 1526 translation of it. He changes the verb tense. He wrote, Son, Thou wast ever with me. You have always been here. You didn't eat with the swine. Either way, don't be threatened. You are in my heart. And all that I have is thine. And then

tendle who translates this, the rhythm of verse 32 is really good rhythm. It was meat that we should make, Mary. Look at the eliteration there. Meat, make, Mary. That's why it's such a magical phrase and has such power. It was meat. We had to. It was meat that we should make, Mary, and be glad for this thy brother was dead and his alive again and was lost and is found. As a rhythm even in the celibals, I don't want to teach an English lesson here, but it was meat that we should make Mary and be glad is 12 celibals. If you make for the ful crumb that balances the phrase, that this thy brother was dead and his alive again is 12, 12, 12,

and then three-three, and was lost and is found. The rhythm of it is what makes the magic of it. I remember a friend of mine telling me about their son had run off. I had problems and drugs and different things. He went off to his far country. I mean, he didn't know where he was for the longest time. I don't know if maybe I've shared this on another time before. They didn't know where he was for the longest time. And one day he was up in the canyon over an open fire. He was homeless and he heating a can of beans on an open fire. It was a Sunday. And he knew that every Every Sunday, his mother would fix a big special meal and all the family, brother would all be there.

And he's sitting there in his own pigsty there. And he knows what's at home. And he knows his mother and his family. And just the memory of Sunday dinner with the family is enough. And he stamps out the fire and walks home, opens the door. There's the seat that he used to sit out of the table. He sat down at the table, welcome back with love, given the rope, the ring, the shoes, the embrace, the kiss. You just don't get truth more velvet, softer, more beautiful, more hopeful for parents who have children in a far country, or for people who are in a far country and feel they're not worthy to come, or for even older

brothers who may be a little bit threatened and also have to be reassured, though art ever with me, you are always in my heart. I don't love him more than I love you. My love for you is a constancy of love and they are different qualities. Beautiful. There's a talk from Elder Jeffrey Arhaland, way back in 2002 called the other prodigal. I encourage all of our listeners to go and read and listen to the whole thing, but he does talk about this older brother. He says, this son is not so much angry that the other has come home, as he is angry that his parents are so happy about it. Feeling unappreciated and perhaps more than a little self-pity, this beautiful son, and he is wonderfully beautiful, forgets for a moment that he has never had to know filth or despair, fear or self-loathing.

He forgets for a moment that every calf on the ranch is already his, and so are all the robes in the closet never ring in the drawer. He forgets for a moment that his faithfulness has been and always will be rewarded. No, he who has virtually everything and who as in his hardworking, wonderful way earned it lacks the one thing that might make him the complete man of the Lord he nearly is. He has yet to come to the compassion and mercy, the charitable breadth of vision. To see this is not a rival returning. It is his brother. As his father pled with him to see, it is one who was dead and now is alive.

It is one who was lost and now is alive, it is one who was lost and now is found. That's exactly it. You can add just a little post script, a little exclamation point on that. If we go to chapter 17, these are beautiful verses. These are two brothers. So now I go to verse 3 of chapter 17. Take heed to yourselves. If they brother trespass against the Rebuke and correct him. Rebuke gives too much permission, and I think correct might be a good one. If you repent, forgive him. Then, verse 4, if he trespass against the seven times in a day, and seven times in a day, turn again to the saying, I repent. I shall forgive him."

I don't think God expects a higher standard of us than He Himself will give. I could say it humorously. I guess I get seven sins a day. I get seven sins a day. I get seven mistakes. I get to show my humanity and weakness seven times a day, and as long as I sincerely and truly, some would say, well, repentance is not doing it again. And I would say, yes, that's the technical description of it. But maybe the seven times 70 sins is the same sin done over and over again that somebody's fighting all his life to try and overcome.

And I sincerely sorry every time we forgive seven times a day we worship a God who is so merciful, so forgiving. He's a seven times a day. so forgiving. He's a seven times a day. He's a 10,000 talent for giver, a 500 pence for giver. He's a scarlet to snow white for giver. He's as far as the east is to the west, for giver. Sometimes I need seven times a day in my life. I across referenced our prodigal son and what you've mentioned here in 17 to Genesis 50, when Jacob dies, the brothers don't believe they're truly forgiven. So they say to Joseph, again, forgive us, please. And Joseph weeps when they speak unto him. And his brother and said,

we will be thy servants. Right. And Joseph said, fear not, am I in the place of God? As for you, you thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good to bring to pass, as it is this day to save much people alive. Fear ye not, I will nourish you. Be comforted them. Just a beautiful moment of it. Am I really forgiven? No servants in the kingdom, only brothers, no servants in the kingdom, only sons. This is the way it is.

And if I need it seven times a day, I get it. And if I need the 10,000, I get it. Even if I feel unworthy. And often people do. People often feel unworthy. I have in my ward a man who is at the prison every week. That's his calling and I've been out there with him before and I'll tell you I learned something that the prison could be called a fire country and I got up to speak and I saw the countenance of, I don't know, 40, 50 guys was, give me everything you've got. One of them said, this is the best day every week.

I look forward to this. I didn't see that same kind of fill up my cup as a bishop and it just taught me it's not about distance, it's about direction. And you're in prison, but are you coming or going? They were coming. You're in church, but are you coming or going? It's not distance. There are lots of far countries. It's about direction. And which way you're trying to come. I'll tell you that was life changing to see how much they wanted everything that they could get each time they came to a family home in prison. Trying to come back. And I love what you said. It reminds me of section 64, the doctrine of covenant, just five words I underlined. I the Lord forgive sins.

That's what I do. John, that is actually the section of the doctrine of covenant that Mike was with us. So we would encourage everybody to go back and listen to that episode. And I brought up Joseph of Egypt, Mike was with us for that episode as well on Joseph of Egypt.

Mike, all of your episodes with us are kind of have a beautiful thread running through them. I say Eastern religions, the great problem in Eastern religions is suffering. No, not sin. Not sin. And the answer that the Buddha gives and others is selflessness and compassion. The great problem in Western religions is sin and the answer that Jesus gives and others is mercy

and forgiveness. It's a theme that comes up a lot because we need it. We need it for ourselves. We need to bestow it. As Shakespeare said, your twice blessed forgiveness mercy is twice blessed. It blesses the one who gives it and the one who receives it. Yeah. Well, we have one wonderful little story. Again, I love the 10 lepers. That's in chapter 17. We start in verse 12, as he entered into a certain village, they're met him 10 men that were lepers, which stood afar off. And they lifted up their voices and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.

And when he saw them, he said to them, go show yourselves under the priests. And he came to pass as they went, they were cleansed. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks, and he was a Samaritan. And Jesus answering said, where they're not ten cleansed, but where are the nine? They're not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger. And he said, and him arrives, go thy way, thy faith, that made the

whole. So that's the simple little story about gratitude. I sometimes wonder if the one who came back came back because he was the least one to expect mercy from the Jewish Rabbi And we think about the woman at the Wells is Samaritan. She surprised Jesus even talks to her Think of some of the things that James and John ready to call fire down on the Samaritan village There's some pretty deep prejudices between these people there are some pretty deep prejudices between these people. And maybe of all the people who least expected mercy from Jesus was this one.

We learn a little bit of a lesson in life when you expect a lot, which we do in this nation and a lot of our lives. When we expect a lot and don't get it, we can get better and disappointed and angry because we feel someone entitled. If we expect a lot and get it, it can create pride. We want to build our better barns because we earned it and we deserved it and we were it.

It's when you don't expect something and get it that the gratitude goes deep. And one of the great solutions to the problem we talked about earlier, the wealth and thing is gratitude. You can't feel pride and gratitude at the same time in your heart. You want to kill pride, you kill it with gratitude. You know, when I was young, I didn't feel very good at anything. You know, it's junior high school, which I know you've heard me say, I mean, junior high was invented in hell by Lucifer. It's just a bad idea really.

Yeah, I just didn't feel good in anything and I had a, my mother, I wasn't good at sports, I could get good grades, that was a good student. But that didn't count in the social, sporty, action of, you know, teenage life. In fact, it could go against you that you were the smart guy getting aes. I told my mother, I didn't think I was very good at anything. And she told me a story about another boy in the stake who went to his mother and said to her,

I'm not good at anything. And I knew this boy, it's a little younger than me. And his mother said, I want you to think. And you come back to me, I want you to think and come back and tell me one thing you are good at. And so we thought and he came back later and he said to his mother two words, I'm honest.

And she said, don't you think it's better to be good at being honest than hitting a baseball, which was the big sport of the time we all wanted to be good at. My mother's telling me this story, so I'm thinking in my life, I mean, what do I want to be good at? I decided I wanted to be good at gratitude. And maybe I chose an easier one. I just never wanted to be one of the nine. That was it. I always wanted to be the one,

not only to God to be grateful, but to people, if I could gain perfection in something on earth, maybe I could do that one, that I could learn to be grateful. And every now and then, you know, God takes me on a little journey to remind me of that commitment. When I was a missionary in the Mission Field, France, maybe the check didn't come and I sat down and for dinner at a bowl of yogurt, playing yogurt, no fruit in the bottom, just playing

French yogurt. And I remember saying the prayer on it, to Father in heaven bottom, just plain French yogurt. And I remember saying the prayer on it to Father in heaven, thank you for this yogurt. Please bless it. Namages Christ they met. You know, sometimes the ending of a prayer can be one word, but I didn't feel really grateful. And so the Lord took me on a little visual journey in my imagination. And from time to time in my life, he does this with me. And the first stop that we went to was, it's different stops, different times. The first stop on the journey is always some beautiful place in nature, different places. But on this particular time, he took me to the beach off to the Southern California where I grew up. And the sun is setting all those beautiful colors, reds and corals and pinks and orange. And you can hear the goals cry, feel the sea breezes,

smell the salt air, that wonderful feeling of bare feet on sand. And the Lord says, with your bowl of yogurt, Mike, I give you all the beauty of the world. Then we go to a place of poverty. I guess I've seen a lot of them. place of poverty. I guess I've seen a lot of them. First one, one of the first ones I ever saw was a man sleeping in a street when I was a little boy, covered by newspapers and asking my mother what was the matter with that man and her telling me that he had no place to live. with that man and her telling me to add no place to live. Man, I've seen a lot of poverty again. The Lord says, I've never known a day of hunger, have you? I've never known a day of insecurity.

And the Lord says, with your bowl of yogurt, I give you security and freedom from want. And then we always in France, then we, again, different places, different journeys, go to Normandy, and you walk on that beach and you go to those crosses that cemetery where young men gave their lives, and when we say young men give their lives for their country and young women, it doesn't mean their breath and heartbeat. It means their life. They gave their life.

They're never gonna hold a wife in their arms or hear a child say daddy or a child say grandpa. They're, you give a whole life. And the Lord says, with your bowl of yogurt, I give you freedom and independence paid for by the sacrifice of thousands. And then we go to Carthage to that stone building. I look up the window where Joseph Smith fell out. The Lord says, with your bowl of yogurt, I give you goodness and truths to give you stability in life and a frame. And then I go to South Pass, Wyoming, I watch those handcart pineters pulling up that pass in the snow.

And the Lord says, with your bowl of yogurt, I give you a heritage built on the sacrifices of thousands who came to give you your BYU's and your churches and temples and institutes and houses and warm valleys. I start to get pretty humble about this time. Next we go to my grandfather's house or my mother. I hear that grandfather tell me a story, or my mother. And the Lord says, with your bowl of yogurt, I give you wisdom of the ages of the finest men and women who ever lived to guide your life through their experiences. Then we go to a temple and altar.

And I look across that young woman, Lara. I hear those wonderful words. And the Lord says, with your bowl of yogurt, I give you eternal love and all its promises. Now you can imagine the last spot we go, I go to other places, but the last spot is always guessemony, always, and the garden tomb. And I see Jesus kneeling off of that prayer, and I see the hope and the new beginning of life that we'll talk about in chapter 11 because it's a pray-lude to it. And the Lord says, with your bowl of yogurt, I give you beauty and mercy and forgiveness, and holiness and sanctity and devotion.

I give you my son. What more can I give you to make you happy? And I say Father in heaven, if you don't mind, I'd like to bless the bowl of yogurt again. And I've been on that journey a lot. Sometimes it's not when I'm ungrateful and I need it. It's just good to go on it sometimes. It's especially good to go on at Wemnas. We looked at earlier. We aren't discerning the spirit of our age. We just need a little gratitude to help us with the spirit of our age and understand what this gospel of this church is really all about and the goal and where we're trying to take him. We never want to be one of the nine. We always want

to be that one who turns back maybe because he got more in life than you ever expected. I can't think of anybody on earth more blessed than me. Just can't think of it. It doesn't maybe you don't have troubles and problems, but I just can't think of anybody who's been given more with his bowl of yogurt than I've been given. And that's what I think Luke 17 is all about, that gratitude. I'm sure you both remember Elder David Behate. Whenever I mention that native of my students, they just, they do know who that is and I feel

bad for them because that was a bright spot in general conference was having Elder Hate get up and talk about he and his wife Ruby. He gave a talk in October of 2002. I called, were there not ten cleanse? In which he says, it's so easy in life for us to receive blessings, many of them almost uncounted, and have things happen in our lives that can help change our lives, improve our lives, and bring the spirit into our lives, but we sometimes take them for granted. How grateful we should be for the blessings that the Gospel of Jesus Christ brings into our hearts and souls.

I would remind you all, if we're ever going to show gratitude properly to our Heavenly Father, we should do it with all of our heart, might, mind and strength, because it was He who gave us life and breath. As that gratitude is magnified and developed and expanded, which is what I think you've shown us here, Mike, you can magnify, develop and expand your gratitude. It can bless our hearts and our minds and our souls to where we'd like to continue to carry on and do those things that we are asked to do. Just an excellent talk from a great soul.

Elder Merrill J. Bateman, who's president of B.O.U.F.R.W. he made an observation. I'd never noticed about this. He said, nine were cleansed, but only one was made whole. The difference there being the gratitude in. Gratitude expressed. Yeah, what was the thing that you said

a cure for pride is gratitude? Because the voice kind of felt like gratitude and humility kind of go together because you realize I have a lot of undeserved blessings and they kind of fit together. But I like to what you said that and that the one who turned and gave thanks was made whole, not just cleansed but made whole. I think it's important to notice too that I bet the other nine felt grateful. I'm sure they did, but this one came back and expressed it. And another just kind of sequence thing

that I love about this is it, and it came to pass that as they just stood there, no, as they went, they started making tracks. You don't show yourself to the priest until you are healed, and they weren't healed yet, but as they went, they started making tracks. You don't show yourself to the priest until you are healed. And they weren't healed yet, but as they went, they were cleansed. And I think Elder Bednar talks about, yeah, the feet getting wet before the water parted

in the Jordan, that as they went aspect. Some of the most beloved stories in my heart in the New Testament, You gave me a look. Prodigal Son and the Ten Leppers, if we'd gone on another chapter who I had a God Zakias and the tree, and then I'd have my top three. Well, let's go to chapter 11. They're unique to Luke, aren't they? They're not in the other gospels. I think that's interesting. Yeah. Prodigal Son, Ten Leppers, and Zikias. Luke is my favorite gospel. If we can, if we can have one, maybe we shouldn't. I love Gile of Amal. They all have things, but Luke is great. You know,

if we go to John 11, I just show you, since we're on gratitude, sometimes you learn a lot just by listening to Jesus pray. I go through the New Testament in different ways. Sometimes I go through saying, give me Jesus's eyes and let me see as he sees. And then I look at all the behold how he looked at people to try and learn how he looked at people, how he listened to people. How did he pray and just

read all his prayers. Look at his prayer in verse 41 and 42, just before he raises Lazarus from the dead. It's a beautiful little prayer. I'm just going to do the two first phrases. Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always. That's a magnificent prayer. Sometimes the answer to our prayers is simply the acknowledgment and understanding that God has heard us. That's all I need. I just need to know that he heard me and I know that he hears me always. Well, there's a couple of points that I love in this. This is the raising of Lazarus. This is the miracle that is going to set the stage for the resurrection.

This is where, again, he says, what I've done for one, I will do for all. I heal all blindesses, I make all people whole. I will bring you all. I heal all blindesses, make all people whole. I will bring you back to life. Remember in the Prod. son, we looked at when he came to himself, his real self. So now I like to ask people this, Jesus was what I call a lifter. He lifted people. He was just a lifter. One of the ways he lifted people was by giving them nickname. Peter

is a nickname, the rock, sons of thunder, our nicknames, James and John. John was the beloved. He was just a lifter. He lifts Zacchaeus in the tree. He's always lifting. He's trying to help people feel good about themselves. We're not a lifter society. That's part of discerning the times where a put down society, a critique society, we're not a lifter society always. But he was a lifter. There is an apostle who does have a nickname that Jesus didn't give him. We gave it to him. What apostle is that? Doubting Thomas. That's doubting Thomas. Paul Thomas, we remember him at his worst moment. And there's a woman that we usually think about at one of, I think it's because we misinterpret her story, the dinner at Bethany, who gets the

kind of short end of the PR relationship in the dinner of Bethany's story between Mary and Martha. Martha. Yeah. Poor old Peavish Martha complaining to Jesus. Now I think the paintings all have that wrong. I think there were probably a lot of people there. That's not an intimate little chat, chat Jesus in the two sisters. There's a lot of somebody's going to find a paint that story correctly. So let's look at Thomas and Martha here in chapter 11. So as Jesus in chapter 11 has gone across the Jordan River into what was another jurisdiction in the Roman Empire at the time, the Jordan River becomes a barrier, he's safer over there. And the last time you've been in Jerusalem, they had tried to stone him. So he would let things cool off from time to time, not that he's

ever afraid of anything. But he leaves. And he's over across the Jordan River in present-day Jordan, and Mary and Martha Sandin word that their brother Lazarus is sick. That's the setting of this story. And they give him a pretty strong hint in the letter, or the messenger, verse 3, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. That's a pretty strong hint. Okay. Now we're told in verse 5, Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. They are the center of calm in a very hostile environment. Bethan, he's right off the side of the Mount of Olives, you guys know that you've been there. You can walk over the Mount of Olives on a temple mountain of 15-20 minutes. So he loves them, but we're told in verse 6 he stays two more days in the same place,

liberately. Now he knows what he's going to do. He needs the visual of resurrection to tell what I did for Lazarus, called him out of the grave, brought him back to life. I'm going to do for everybody. I'm going to show you what I'm going to do myself. Okay. So he wants him dead and buried and that happens. And he has a little conversation with the disciples for a while. And they don't understand. He says, he sleeps, but I go to wake him and they say, well, if he's sleeping, it'll be well. Then in Jesus, because the disciples always took him to literally, we always do that. We take Jesus way too literally sometimes. Verse 14, let's pick it up there. Then said Jesus unto them,

plainly, Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there to the intent that she may believe, believe what believe that I will bring the resurrection. Nevertheless, let us go under him. Now, sometimes when I teach this, ask people, they all know down in Thomas, and then I'll ask them, do any of you know any other story about Thomas in the New Testament? And I never get a hand. Maybe once or twice, and usually from somebody who's heard me already teach this. They don't know another story about Thomas. But here's the story, verse 16. Now, before we do verse 16, let's go to verse 8, his disciples say on the mastur, the Jews of late sought to stone the endos without further again. Don't go, it's dangerous." So with that in the background, look at Thomas now in verse 16. Then said Thomas, which is called Didymus unto his fellow disciples,

let us also go, that we may die with him. Now why don't we know that story? Why don't we call him devoted Thomas, sacrificing Thomas, courageous Thomas? This is Thomas at his best, and this is the way I think Jesus saw him. He had his moment. I understand Thomas wanting to see someone he loved and as alive again literally, I understand Thomas is hard only too well. But somehow it's in the human nature and again it's part of the spirit of our times to remember people at their, maybe not their so best moments or to assess them out there not so best moments. But I don't think Jesus did that. I think Thomas was devoted to him. I want to remember this Thomas devoted Thomas.

And then we see Martha, poor Martha, who gets the bad PR at the dinner of Bethany, you know. He comes into town and Martha goes out to meet him. And verse 21, Martha said unto Jesus, Lord, if thou had spin here, my brother had not died. Now Mary's going to say the same thing in verse 32, when she comes, Lord, if thou had spin here, my brother had not died. There's something really pointing and moving about those words. Often we have

the phrase, I don't want to just credit the phrase or challenge the phrase or say the phrase isn't true. I just want to think about it a little bit. People say, God is always there for me. I don't ever question that, but sometimes we like Mary and Martha say, if you'd been her, something bad wouldn't have happened to me, or something would have happened. Sometimes he's not here, and life comes. Now, he's going to fix it. He's going to fix it for Mary and Martha, and he's going to fix it for all of us and Lazarus.

He's going to make it good. That's his promise. No matter what happens, I'm going to make it good. And he's going to make it good sooner than Mary and Martha. I think he's going to make it good. He's going to raise him from the dead. But there is something very human about all of us occasionally in our lives, may find ourselves sane. Lord, if thou had spent here, something wouldn't have happened.

Where were you? You could have fixed it. You delayed. You waited two days. A Shakespeare says it beautifully. I felt it at the killing fields. I was at Hiroshima. That's a moving place to be

one second it's a bright August day and Three seconds later 80 to 100,000 people are dead just like that I don't Judge the drop in over to the non-drips a controversial thing It's not something I want to get into, but it's just things happen. And Shakespeare writes, when Duff's family are killed by Macbeth, he's right, and did heaven look on and would not take their part? And sometimes we feel that way. He writes, Elizabeth of York says, when her two sons are killed by Richard III, she says,

when did heaven sleep when such a deed was done? Even poor Julia, when everybody abandons her, is there no pity sitting in the clouds that looks into the bottom of my grief. So there are times that we might say, if you'd been here, but you weren't here, and something why weren't you here? Now his promise is, I make all things good. I'm going to make it all good. I just understand Mary and Martha's words really well. I hope people can relate and understand those words really, really well. That God's job isn't always to stop unpleasant things from happening in her suffering. God's job is to get us through it and to make it good eventually in the end, some way.

And He always does. And now we see Martha. Here's Martha saying, if you'd been here, she didn't get what she want, what she hoped for. But then she gives this magnificent testimony as good as Peters. But I know that even now whatsoever that will ask of God, God will give it thee. And Jesus, say, I thundered her thy, shall rise again, and Martha sayeth unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection

at the last day. And in those beautiful words we quote all the time, I am the resurrection in the life. You that believeeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeeth in me shall never die. Believeeth thou this. And she said unto him, ye Lord, I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which

should come into the world. Even though he was not there, and something that she didn't want happened, that she felt he could have prevented, happened. Her faith is as strong. So why don't we call her faithful Martha, testifying Martha, see? It's that dinner at Bethany. This is Martha at her most magnificent. This is Thomas at his most magnificent. These are the way I think we want to remember them. And we want to do with everybody what we are invited to do in the New Testament with Thomas and Martha. What was that phrase again you used, Mike? Is celebrate the good and celebrate the good and forgive all the rest. I forgive all the rest. Yeah. Now we get the beautiful Jesus comes in, Mary goes out to see him, they know it's dangerous

from him being there. So that's why they go out of Bethany to see him. And verse 33, when Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews also weeping which came whether he groaned in the Spirit and was troubled. It's nice to know that we worship a weeping, groaning, troubled God, who weeps and groans in his trouble by our sorrows. Now, he knows he's going to bring Lazarus back to life in just a moment or two. He knows what he's going to do. He knows this sorrow is going to be healed, but he still shortest first in Scripture, verse 35, Jesus' web.

He still feels it. He feels their sorrow was thought were his own sorrow, even when he knows it's not going to last. That's the Savior we all love and believe in. The groaning, weeping, troubled God who feels our pain, even when he knows that pain is going to last much longer. So he raises Lazarus from the dead and brings him back. The last thing that I would do, you know, you've got an English major, unfortunately. I've fought a lot about Lazarus. He's kind of the one that we don't know a lot about in this story. There's pictures of him coming all bound. There are stories of people who may call back from the dead and

thinking, I was so good on the other side. Why'd you call me back? I've heard people say, poor Lazarus, he had four days in the spirit world and I's got to come back to this world. And maybe that's true. Maybe life is just so good over there, but there's something wonderful about just being alive. We're taught in LDS theology that the dead long for their bodies, that it's seen as a bondage. So I came across a poem I wild used to a little bit of it by Edna St. Vincent Malay. She's a 20-year-old entering this in a contest. It's just amazing that a 20-year-old can write something this deep and this beautiful, called

Renaissance. And in a sense, every time I read Renaissance, she takes me right to guess Seminy and right to the resurrection morning. She just takes me there every time, even though she's not writing about guess Seminy or resurrection. It's really a profound, profound 20-year-old. I've been on the mountain where I sometimes think this had to be in a piphany, something that really happened to her. It's just so profound. She's on a mountain in Maine, and it's a very easy case to understand. She says, at the beginning, I'll give you this.

All I could see from where I stood was three long mountains and a wood. I turned and looked another way and saw three islands in a bay. So with my eyes, I traced the line of the horizon thin and fine straight round until I was come back to where I'd started from. And all I saw from where I stood was three long mountains and a wood. Over these things I could not see, these were the things that bounded me, and I could touch them with my hand almost, I thought, from where I stand, and all at once, things seemed so small, my breath came short and scarce at all. But sure, the sky is big, I said, miles and miles above my head, so here upon my back I'll lie and look my fail into the sky.

And so I looked. And after all, the sky was not so very tall. The sky said, my sum were stopped, and sure enough, I see the top. The sky thought is not so grand. I most could touch it with my hand, and reaching out my hand to try, and she reaches up her hand to touch the sky, and she cry, cry to feel it, touch the sky.

Because now this little bounded world, you know, sometimes we live in these little bounded worlds, and we don't see beyond our own little horizons. And so God is going to say, let me give you my view. Infinity came down and settled over me. First of all, she hears the whorel of the universe and the planets and the stars and the clockwork motion that God controls in them. And then she feels all the sins of all the world. And she feels all the pains. For my omniscience paid, I toll in infinite remorse of soul. All sin was of my sinning,

all the toning mine, and mine the gall of all regret. Mine was the weight of every brooded wrong, the hate that stood behind each envious thrust. Mine every greed, mine every lust, and all the while for every grief each suffering I crave relief with individual design, not feeling this as a body, I'm feeling every individual's grief and sorrow and sin. Then she feels people burning in a fire. She feels people starving. She sees a ship wreck at sea and watches people drowning. She said, no hurt I did not feel. No death, that was not mine. Mine each last breath that crying met an answering cry from the compassion that was I all suffering mine and mine it's Rod mine pity like the pity of God

awful weight infinity pressed down upon the finite me so from this little tiny perspective which sometimes we have our little bounded lives. Suddenly, she sees from God's perspective. Feels the weight, the pain, the sorrow, the suffering, the sin, the grief, to me that's Gassamini in a sense. And it crushes her. She wants to die. The weight is so great that she can't get the last breath out.

You know, maybe you've been with somebody when they died. I've been with my father and my wife and there's that last breath. The giving up of the soul that last, it's always seems to be relaxed and just that last emptying of the lungs slowly. But the way it is so great, she can't. and just that last emptying of the lungs slowly. But the weight is so great she can't. And the weight pushes her down into the grave. And now down into the grave, she's dead. Finally, the weight rolls off her of all this pain

and all this sorrow. The final breath goes out. And she's buried. So can you picture under the grave now? So there she is, deep in the earth I rested now. Cool is its hand upon the brow and soft, it's breast beneath the head of one who is so gladly dead. And then she hears it raining. Now, Edna St. Vincent Malay, who wrote this, loved New England Springs. She loved the smell of the orchards and the freshness of the rain and the sunshine

and the blue sky. And she loved the beauty of nature. And sure she is down in the grave and she can hear it raining. And she says, I lay and heard each pattern hoof upon my loathe thatchered roof, and seemed to love the sound far more than ever I had done before. For rain had hath a friendly sound to one who's six feet underground, and scarce the friendly voice or face, a grave is such a quiet place. The rain I said is kind to come and speak to me in my new home.

And now we begin to understand maybe Lazarus, and maybe all of us. I would, I would, I would, I would, I would, I would, I would, I would, I would, I would, I would, I would, I would, I would, I would, I would, I would, I would, I would, I would, I would, I would, I would, I would,

I would, I would, I would, I would, I would, I would, I would, I would, I would, I would, I would, I would, I would, I would, I would, I would, I would, I would, I would, I would, I would, I would, I would, I would, I would, I would, I would, I would, I would, I would, I would, I would,

I would, I would, I would, I would, would, I would, I would, I would, I would, would, I would, I would, I would, I would, would, I would, I would, I would, I would, would, I would, I would, I would, I would, would, I would, I would, I would, I would, I would, drenched and dripping apple trees. For soon the shower will be done, and then the broad face of the sun will laugh above the rain-soaked earth, until the world with answering mirrored shakes joyously, and each round drop rolls twinkling from its grass-blade top. How can I bear it? Buried here. While overhead the sky grows clear and blue again, after the storm. O multi-colored, multi-formed beloved beauty over me that I shall never, never see again. Spring, silver autumn gold that I shall never more behold.

Sleeping your married magics through, close, sepulchered away from you. Oh, God, I cried. Give me new birth. And put me back upon the earth. Obset each clouds, gigantic gourd, and let the heavy rain down poured in one big torrent, set me free, washing my grave away from me. Just the joy of a spring day in New England is enough. I'll pay the price of all that weight. I just want to be alive again. Easter asks us a question, is the joy of Sunday

worth the pain of Friday? That's what Easter is all about. It's that question. Is the joy of Sunday at the Garden Tomb worth the pain of Friday in Gethsemane and on the cross? of Friday in Gessemony and on the cross. And the Saint Vincent Malay is going to say, yes, it's worth it. The joys of life is worth it. So she prays, put me back on earth, And a rainstorm develops and the lightning flashes and the thunder comes and New England can have really heavy rains and a rainstorm comes washing down and hits her grave. Notice as we go through how her senses awaken one by one. The big rain in one black wave fell from the sky and struck my grave. I know not how such things can be.

I only know there came to me a fragrant such as never clings, to not save happy living things. A sound is of some joyous elf singing sweet songs to please himself, and through and over everything a sense of glad awakening. The grass a tiptoe at my ear, whispering to me, I could hear. I felt the rain's cool fingertips brushing tenderly across my lips, lay gently on my sealant's site, and all at once the heavy night fell from my eyes, and I could see a drenched and dripping apple tree. A last long lion of silver rain, a sky-grown clear and blue again. And as I looked, a quickening gust of wind blew up to me and thrust into my face, a miracle of orchard breath. And with a smell, I know not how such things can be. I breathed my soul back into me.

You see that moment, you know, the moment when the breath left. And because the weight was so great, the Friday so great pressing. Now, just the joy of a new England rainstorm. And she breathes in that beautiful smell of the orchard. We've probably all been in an orchard, especially after rain and the fragrance. I used to like to walk in the orange grows in Southern California. Up then from the ground, spring, I, and hailed the earth with such a cry as is not heard, say say from a man who has been dead and lives again. About the trees, my arms I wound, like one God, mad, I hugged the ground.

I raised my quivering arms on high, I laughed and laughed into the sky. And then she remembers who gave it all to her. I can see Lazarus coming out of the grave and looking at the faces of his sisters and the joys of the green of the fig trees and the gray green of the olives and the fresh breezes that flow over the Mount of Olives and the sheep feeding on the grasses and the wildfire, whatever was for him, certainly the faces of those two sisters. And she remembers who gave it all to her. I laughed and laughed until the sky, until at my throat a strangling sobbed, caught fiercely,

and a great heart throb sent instant tears into my eyes. O God, I cry, no dark disguise can air hereafter hide from me thy radiant identity. Now can'ts not move across the grass, but my quick eyes will see the pass, nor speak however silently, but my hushed voice will answer thee. I know the path that tells thy way through the cool eve of every day. God, I can push the grass apart and lay my finger on my heart. She sees him everywhere and all the joys, all the beauty of life. What a wonderful grand thing life is with all of its smells and senses and touch and sights, its people.

So I don't think Lazarus came back thinking, oh my gosh, the spirit role was so wonderful. Maybe he did, but life is a pretty wonderful thing. And this is a reminder, the resurrection. Like I say, I can't think of any description of the resurrection better than Edna St. Vincent Millais. And whatever those moments in your life where it was just a wonderful day to be alive, you were just clad for senses and the beauty around you, for the people around you. Sunday's joy is worth the pain of Friday. And sometimes in our life we understand

that I'll just give you one example when I was engaged to Laurie. And she's always in my brain. She's always in my mind. I just, she's just always there. Anyway, when we went back to Southern California, she went back to Canada. We were gonna be married in Canada.

We were gone six, seven weeks, and I was beginning to forget what she looked like and what her voice sounded like. I had her picture. Long distance was too expensive in those days for us to afford it as students. So I drove up. The week we were going to be married, I drove all day to Salt Lake, picked my father up, and I was going to spend the night in the drive the next day, but I was just too eager. I just couldn't sleep. I had to go. I had to, so I told my dad, I'm going to drive on my,

I'm not tired. I'll be fine. I'll just make the drive. I'm going to just drive. And I call Larry on my dad's phone. He could pay for it, right? And I told her I'd be there in the drive. I'm going to just drive and I call Larry. On my dad's phone he could pay for it, right? And I told her I'd be there in the morning. So in the morning she was getting ready and I got there a little before she expected me. She was in the bedroom and in front of the mirror, getting her hair down. And her mother tried to keep me out of the room, but I just was, she was drash, she was fine. She was almost finished. Just needed to get that hair down a little bit more and combed.

And I burst into the room. And I can remember sitting on that bench next to her. I can feel her warmth still. on that bench next to her, I can feel her warmth still. And Laurie's hair was long and fell almost to her back. Laurie's hair was like a fresh mountain stream flowing down from high places. And you could bury your hands in the brown flow of it. And I could smell the perfume and the shampoo. And I kissed that little silk spot on her temple and looked in her eyes and saw, you know,

there's a look, especially when we're young, that says, I love and I am loved. It's a look of joy. And herder say, I missed you. And Lauren, I used to do a little, I just said, can I just have one, just one? And then she would kiss me. And I said, can I just have one, just one? And then she would kiss me. And I said, can I just have one?

That was a good day to be alive. And the God who can give all that back to me. The God who can return the sights and the smells and the touch and the warmth and the voice who can restore all that is a God worth all my love and all my devotion. And that is what the resurrection is all about. That is what he's trying to teach the disciples in John 11 with Lazarus, what I'm doing with Lazarus and Mary and Martha, restoring all the joys of his life, and restoring the loves of his life. I'm going to do to everyone. I'm going to do that for all of you. And I thank my father

that he lets me do it. Malay ends her little poem. She doesn't end it there. She goes back to standing on the hill with the mountains on one side in the islands and the other, the little small world she started in. Sometimes our little selfie worlds, right? There's a big broad world out there with a lot of joy and a lot of goodness and a lot of people and a lot of love, a lot of truth. And she's felt a lot of pain of her fellow men and she's understood how good life is, just in the simple spring rain of a new England orchard. And so now she says, the world stands out on either side, no wider than the heart is wide. Above the world is stretched the sky. No higher than the soul is high. The heart can push the sea and land farther away on either hand. The soul can split the sky

and too, and let the face of God shine through. But East and West will pinch the heart, shine through. But East and West will pinch the heart that cannot keep them pushed apart, and he who saw is flat, the sky will cave in on him, by and by. The world is as wide and wonderful and beautiful as we want it to be, as we allow it to be. We just push it further and further apart to include more and more. The joys and the pains, the heart aches and the triumphs. The soul can reach as high as God Himself and commune with Him and let Him into our lives or we can let the world pinch us and live in a very flat world if we want. and live in a very flat world if we want. But the Savior came to open us up to all things and all people and help us see the world and feel the world as He did.

And one day we will all know deep, deep, bone deep, soul deep, heart deep, mind and memory deep. deep heart deep, mind and memory deep, that Sunday morning is worth Friday. Whatever your Friday is, and if your Sunday morning hasn't come yet, it'll be worth it. And I think that's what raising of Lazarus is all about. I think Lazarus would tell us that it was just good to be alive again. Thank you for Elinemy. Talk about some of my most favorite scriptures and stories about Jesus and one of the poems I love very much and very few people understand the resurrection or guess how many but at an estate in Somalia was one who did. Anyway, thank you very much or guess how many, but at Miss St. Pinsamela, it was one who did.

Anyway, thank you very much. That was absolutely wonderful. Mike, I loved it. John, it's been a great day. Yeah, and I was so excited to see the chapters we had just knowing this is going to be great, but it was better than I imagined, so thank you. Yeah, absolutely wonderful. Happy to be sure. Mike, thank you for being here.

Thank you for taking time with us. Nice to be in town occasionally. It's nice to see the world. It is. Okay, just like to come back to Utah every once in a while. Come see us. We want to thank Dr. Michael Cox for being with us today. And we want to thank our executive producer, Shannon Swanson. We want to thank our sponsors David and Verla Swanson. And we always want to remember our founder, Steve Swanson. We hope you'll join us next week.

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