Sabbathought : "It's a matter of impersonation."

The Savior asked, "What manner of men ought ye to be?"

He answered, "Verily I say unto you, even as I am" (see 3 Nephi 27:27).

So, what kind of a man was He and is He? The answer is to be found in the Five Gospels---Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Third Nephi.

To start with, note this story told at BYU in 1984 by President Ezra Taft Benson:

There was a little crippled boy who ran a small newsstand in a crowded railroad station. He must have been about twelve years old. Every day he would sell papers, candy, gum, and magazines to the thousands of commuters passing through the terminal.

One night two men were rushing through the crowded station to catch a train. One was fifteen or twenty yards in front of the other. It was Christmas eve. Their train was scheduled to depart in a matter of minutes.

The first man turned a corner and in his haste to get home to a Christmas cocktail party plowed right into the young crippled boy. He knocked him off his stool, and candy, newspapers, and gum were scattered everywhere. Without so much as stopping, he cursed the little fellow for being there and rushed on to catch the train that would take him to celebrate Christmas in the way he had chosen for himself.

It was only a matter of seconds before the second commuter arrived on the scene. He stopped, knelt, and gently picked up the boy. After making sure the child was unhurt, the man gathered up the scattered newspapers, sweets, and magazines. Then he took his wallet and gave the boy a five-dollar bill. "Son," he said, "I think this will take care of what was lost or soiled. Merry Christmas!"

Without waiting for a reply the commuter now picked up his briefcase and started to hurry away. As he did, the little crippled boy cupped his hands together and called out: "Mister, Mister!"

The man stopped as the boy asked, "Are you Jesus Christ?"

By the look on his face, it was obvious the commuter was embarrassed by the question. But he smiled and said, "No, son. I am not Jesus Christ, but I am trying hard to do what He would do if He were here."

And that, my friend, is what it means to be a Christian, even on Christmas eve. It's a matter of impersonation.

Now---wait on a minute---our story goes deeper.

We want the story to end there, satisfied and happy at the point and the punchline. But it goes further . . . . It has to.

Our job as Christians and as Latter-day Saints is to find out what manner of man Jesus was and is, and then to imitate Him. Elder McConkie taught, "True worship is emulation."

The story of the kind man and the crippled boy is wonderful and rightly claims our attention. But is it enough? Is it the full picture? Does it bring us to "the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ," as Paul taught (see Ephesians 4:13)?

For many Christians there is no need of anything beyond the loving kindness and compassion shown by the second man in the story. Certainly we would all agree his actions were kind and signaled his discipleship in Christ. This is a good man, a true disciple of Christ, we all affirm, for he "went about doing good" (see Acts 10:38).

Our own President Thomas S. Monson is known, by those who know him best, as just such a man. It is common for him on the way to a meeting or appointment to instruct his driver to "take this exit, I just need to visit someone," and he delays his journey to call upon a widow or someone in need. He always goes about doing good, and urges us to do the same.

Let us ask a key question at this point: Who is the greatest man upon the earth today?

The correct answer has to be this: By virtue of the keys which he holds, President Thomas S. Monson is the greatest man on the earth today.

The issue has little to do with his goodness and kindness (Jesus Himself corrected a man who called Him "good"---see Matthew 19:16--17), but has to do with an eternal perspective.

If we Latter-day Saints aim only at being good, decent, kind and loving, honorable men and women---and ignore or neglect the weightier matters restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith, we shall end up in the terrestrial kingdom.

Now it is not a matter of choosing one path or the other---of charity and goodness or ordinances and covenants---"these [things] ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone", but we cannot afford to settle below the Restoration, short of the things that "cost the best blood of the nineteenth century to bring them forth for the salvation of a ruined world."

It goes way beyond love and kindness. Joseph Smith was raised in a loving home filled with goodness taught by kind and wonderful parents; he did not restore love and kindness to the earth. He restored root things of bigger import and greater consequence for the human family and its eternal well being.

What a wonderful story with which to introduce this Sabbathought! What a fine Christian gentleman it was who helped the little crippled boy in his distress! How great it is to have these things in our character and deep in our soul!

You may wonder why we chose a story set at Christmas time. Because every Sabbath day is a Christmas day---or should be. And as we approach the middle of the year (how time flies!) it is worth while to remind ourselves that the Sabbath is the Lord's day and so is Christmas. They go together; in a real sense they are interchangeable.

[On a personal note, if I may, and if you'll permit me: I can only write a Sabbathought when I feel the inspiration to do so, when I am impressed with an important idea that points to the true Christ. When I feel it, I can't hold back, I can't stop.

Please . . . pray for me and my family . . . as I pray for you and yours.]

Elder Packer said nearly twenty years ago, "No one of us can survive in the world of today, much less in what it soon will become, without personal inspiration." This was a generation ago.

He went on to plead for a Spirit of reverence in all of our meetings on the Sabbath and in the lives of every member of the Church, so that the inspiration may flow unhindered. Reverence invites revelation, he said. Elder Packer is a seer and a prophet.

Salvation is to learn of Christ, and to become like Him, to emulate Him. What was He like? The stereotype we have in mind of Him is not the true Christ; it is a false Christ. The real Christ is a deeper, finer, greater soul than the shallow idea we carry of Him. The true Christ can be found in the Five Gospels, and as Elder David Bednar promised, He is a different Christ than the one we think we know unless we really seek to find Him in a serious sustained way, and then having found Him, to emulate Him . . . for it is all a matter of impersonation.

More on this later. . . .

God bless.

Steve

Elder F. Enzio Busche, 27 January 2001, BYU Studies Academy meeting

Elder Busche began by relating the key to making the gospel powerful in our lives: Humility. He spoke of having lived in humiliating circumstances---forced humility. He was drafted into the German Army at the age of fourteen, had very little education or access to academic things, and grew up with a poor vocabulary as a result.

Now that he is an emeritus General Authority he has some free time, so he is currently studying European History. He says he hears a lot of words but has trouble understanding the meaning behind them, so it is an in-depth study of European History. He is convinced there is a broad lack of understanding of true history today.

His calling into the First Quorum of Seventy was out of ignominy; his conversion to the Church was only possible because of the Spirit of the Lord. It is vital to learn how to ensure the Spirit in our lives.

There are marked similarities in the thinking and pronouncements by the leading intellectual philosophers of Europe at the time of the Restoration of the gospel. They were searching for the gospel, but did not know it. Socialism is not dead; there are socialist governments today [2001] in Germany, France, and Great Britain. They dream still today of a Utopia, of a "United Order," of wiping away human tears, but they don't know how to do it. They have given up on established religion. It is amazing to Elder Busche to see our missionaries knocking on doors in Europe and there is no interest in their message at all, to speak of. (Examples of European scholars whose thinking reflects gospel interest.)

When Joseph Smith speaks of knowledge he is speaking of it in a totally different way than the world speaks of it: his is not just brain knowledge, but revelation knowledge. Elder Busche spoke of being involved in the translation of the Church handbook into German, which later went into Russian. "I worry. I worry that we give a thick handbook to a new Russian branch president. They have been through bureaucracy and rules and procedures. I worry."

"Preach nothing but repentance" (see D&C 19:21; see also 5:19). Are we blind to the threat posed by psychiatry and psychology? Phrases like "biogenetic disposition" and "chemical imbalance" are common among our people, and are used as reasons---excuses really---for people's behavior. "Compulsive", "obsessive", "stop blaming yourself", "don't feed the guilt monster" all stop our members from repenting. We might be surprised to learn that no less a notable than Carl Jung said, "Ultimately every psychological problem comes down to a matter of religion."

The gospel of Jesus Christ is the only power to save and heal people of their psychological problems. Elder Busche emphasized that he is not saying psychology is wrong, but it goes unchecked, unchallenged by us. Elder Busche's son started to study psychology with a view to a career. He had to drop it; he found it incompatible with his core beliefs, found himself arguing with his professors. Is it possible for BYU to replace Freudian psychology with gospel understanding? Twenty percent of the U.S. population today is being treated for psychotic illness, mainly with drugs.

The future of the gospel in Germany: When we bring the true gospel message there---repent, repent, repent---we will have success in Germany. The present condition of society there is one of prosperity and social success, but the people are not happy. They need repentance desperately. (Account of Elder Busche's being in hospital in Germany recently: patient in next bed, grouchy, negative, asked why Elder Busche was so happy in his illness and pain. Elder Busche answered, "Because I have the gospel of Jesus Christ!" Elder Busche could see the effects of an unrepented life in that man, with his hidden pornographic magazines, and his negative attitude to everything. He told the man, "You need to repent. You need to change." But it is hard for them. We must show them how.)

There are some outstanding Latter-day Saints in Europe---mostly second-generation---but not enough of them. President Hinckley's contribution to bringing the Church out of obscurity---with his book and interviews with the New York Press Club, and so forth---is remarkable, but we are not yet good at presenting our message of repentance to the world. There are many great bookstores in the great cities of the world, with miles and miles of shelves full of books, and NONE on the Restoration of the gospel! Not even the Book of Mormon is there.

His testimony.