Description
Take Me Instead
Not long ago I was reading the scriptures when a verse came to life for me. On that cold April night when Jesus suffered as part of an infinite and intimate Atonement, he watched over His sleeping apostles. At the end of His ordeal He graciously allowed them to sleep a little longer. After a time He awoke them saying, “Rise, let us go; lo he that betrayeth me is at hand.”
A great multitude of men approached. Judas came forward and kissed the Savior. Then John said that, “Jesus therefore, knowing all things that should come upon Him, went forth, and said unto them, whom seek ye.”
When they answered that it was Jesus whom they sought, Jesus said, “I have told you that I am He. If therefore, ye seek me, let these go their way.”
Torture, humiliation, and death awaited him. He knew that and yet there was no slinking back, no hiding in the shadows, no evidence whatsoever of fear or reluctance. Boldly, he stepped forward to die with the courage of a God.
I was still thinking about how Jesus “went forth” as I entered my night class. A young woman was telling a story for a devotional thought. She said, “My dad is my best friend. I can tell him anything.”
She went on to describe their wonderful relationship, and how much she loved him. “I never learned to cook,” she said, “Because I spent so much time outside helping my dad on the ranch.”
Then one day, her dad became critically ill and was life-flighted to Salt Lake City. She was shocked when she saw him attached to all those monitors, tubes, and wires that sustained his enfeebled body. She began to cry and instinctively to pray, saying the same things over and over again. “Heavenly Father, you can’t take my dad away. He’s my best friend, and so many depend on him. The ward needs him, the community needs him, I need him. Take me instead.”
Amber’s love for her dad touched me. Suddenly I saw the Savior in a different way. Had there been no Atonement, all of us would have died in the most complete sense of the word. All of us would have become angels to a devil forever, in abject misery, but Jesus “went forth”, stepped forward at a critical moment and said, in effect, “Heavenly Father, don’t let them die. Take me instead.”
Amber’s offering for her dad was not accepted, but for the Savior it was. He poured out His soul unto death for our life.
Sources:
John 18:18 “And the servants and officers stood there, who had made a fire of coals; for it was cold…”
Mark 14:42
John 18:4, 8
2 Nephi 9:8-9
