As I prepare for Sunday’s classes, I try to break each lesson down into smaller parts and study it throughout the week. This helps me to ponder the various parts of each lesson more fully, and to do more in-depth study of each section. It also makes the larger parts easier to handle.
The first two scriptures I found in the first Sunday School lesson of the new year gives me an overview of Christ’s life and mission. What a way to start the new year and a new way to study!
Isaiah 61:1-3 was a quote that Christ actually applied in Luke 4:18-19. In the synagogue, Christ highlights that He has fulfilled this scripture. It is amazing on pondering these few short verses just how much Christ has done for us. We read that He has come to:
- Preach good tidings unto the meek
- Bind up the brokenhearted
- Proclaim liberty to the captives
- Open the prison to them that are bound
- Proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord
- Comfort all that mourn
- Appoint to them that mourn in Zion
- Give those mourners beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness
Most of these have to do with bringing light and hope to those who so desperately need it – and in a world without Christ, we all have need of that hope, as none of us can come home to our Father in Heaven.
When I compared the JST of Luke (verses 4-19 of chapter 3) to the KJV, I was amazed by how much had been omitted. Nearly all of the eight verses had been lost in translation. I didn’t compare them until after reading the JST, when I went back to search for footnotes, but the missing verses all brought such hope and comfort to me.
Luke also quotes from Isaiah, describing the many roles that Christ fulfills. Among other things He does, He came to:
- Take away the sins of the world
- Bring salvation to the heathen nations
- Gather those who are lost
- Prepare the way and make possible the preaching of the gospel unto the Gentiles
- Be a light to all those who sit in darkness
- Bring to pass the resurrection from the dead
- Ascend up on high
- Administer justice unto all
- Come down in judgment upon all
- Convince the ungodly of their ungodly deeds
Again, Christ brings light and hope to those who dwell in darkness. This time, we are told just how He does that – He “take(s) away the sins of the world” (JST Luke 3:5).
As I read through these verses, I was touched by the hope that Christ brought into the world. Without our Savior, we would be mired in our wrongdoings, constantly dragged down by sin, with no way to untangle ourselves. I remember the despair that came with feeling that change was impossible for me, before I knew the love and opportunity Christ offered to me. Such despair must exist to some degree in every soul that does not know of the possibilities to repent and reshape our lives and ourselves that Christ brings.
We, too, can become like Christ, fulfilling His command to be “even as I am” (3 Nephi 27:27). By sharing the gospel with others, by spreading a message of peace, we can “gather together those who are lost” (JST Luke 3:5). By working in the temple, we can “become as saviors to those on the other side who have no means of advancing unless something is done on their behalf by those on earth” (Discourses of President Gordon B. Hinckley, Volume 2: 2000–2004 (2005), 265). By living a worthy life in which the Spirit shines from our very faces, we can “be a light unto all who sit in darkness” (JST 3:7).
As you read through these two short verses, ponder the impact Christ has brought into your life. Then try to figure out how you can better model your life so that it is patterned after His. As He has brought so much hope and joy to you, how can you bring such hope and joy to others?
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