Betrayal

The following principle(s) will be more thoroughly gone through within this week's blog post.

1.Be prepared for Christ’s coming. (Matthew 25:1-13; Mark 14: 37-41)
2.Love one another (John 13: 13-17, 34)
3.Christ was alone in His trials so that we won’t have to be alone in our own. (Mark 14: 10-11, 17-18, 20-21, 67-72; Luke 22: 31-34, 57-62; John 13: 36-38)

The obvious choice of my favorite principle from this week's directed study had to be the message of being prepared. Time after time, the Lord has warned us about our need to prepare diligently for the time of judgment. In today's gospel, that seems to be the focus of our faith. What can we do to further prepare ourselves for when Christ comes? The 10 virgins were an interesting bunch. Half of them prepared properly by always keeping their vessels full of oil. The other half neglected it, thinking that they would have time to do it when they saw that it was time. In the end, the unprepared virgins didn't get to attend the wedding party because they didn't take the time to get to know Christ. The same message rings true when Christ goes up to pray right before Judas' betrayal. He told his disciples to watch out for Him, and they kept falling asleep. Each and every time Christ came back to meet with them, they were unprepared to greet him. Though unintentional, the most faithful of Christ's followers happened to be the ones who fell asleep. Just like if we are unprepared, and we don't keep polishing and refining our knowledge and testimony of Christ, we could fall asleep by the time Christ comes. (Matthew 25:1-13, Mark 14: 37-41)

Loving one another is such a wonderful thought. The world would be so much better if we all just loved everybody around us. There would be no more war, no more major conflict, no divorce, and ultimately, no sin. With an infinite amount of love, we would need to keep God's commandments fully, and love our neighbor fully, and need to keep spreading the love to everyone until everyone feels truly loved in their heart. This perfect love can't happen because this isn't a perfect world, but it still feels good to imagine it. However, we have a Savior with an infinite love for us and an infinite atonement. He loved us, he suffered for us, and he is willing to help us to love others the way that they want to be loved, and the way that God wants them to be loved. (John 13: 13-17, 34)

This week I found myself learning a lot about Christ’s emotional suffering. Even knowing the things he knew he would have to endure, Christ wasn’t finished with just that. After the emotional pain, the suffering of total betrayal, he needed to go and endure through the Atonement. Christ was alone in his trials so that we wouldn’t need to be alone in ours. He suffered through Judas’ betrayal (Mark 14: 10-11, 17-18, 20-21) and he suffered through Peter’s (Mark 14: 67-72; Luke 22: 31-34, 67-62; John 13:36-38). His disciples even fell asleep during it all, almost as if they didn’t really care enough to stay awake for him (Mark 14:37-41). Though Christ knew that this wasn’t the case and that his disciples still loved him enough to let him suffer through the Atonement, I'm sure that it still hurt him infinitely

Having found myself alone in many trials throughout life, I found this to be an intriguing account. Christ was completely alone so that we would never need to be alone. He loved us so much that he suffered complete betrayal preceding the utmost physical pain. God loved us so much that he sent his son to do all of this for us. If God and Christ did both of these things to show us their love for mankind, then it should be undeniable that they love us infinitely and want us back home with them.