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