Imagery,
Vitality, Power
By Linda and Richard Eyre
Note:
Each week this column provides a short essay on one particular aspect
or facet of the Lord’s personality and character. It is intended
that the reader focus on this facet while partaking of the sacrament
this Sunday. (Click here to
read full introductory column.). Review previous columns by going
to the What Manner of
Man Archives.
“Never
man spake like this man” (John 7:46) reported the Jewish officers
to the Pharisees. Indeed, never before or since has a man spoken
or taught as the Lord did. His audiences, whether a silent multitude
or a single man, he held, alert and spellbound, by the power
of his parables, the penetration of his points.
He
took the common things that all of His listener’s hands and eyes
had touched (the leavened bread, the lilies of the field, the vineyard
workers, the mustard seed) and wove them into brilliant shafts of light
that pierced the hearts of blind-minded men.
It
is clearly a miracle that Christ, knowing all, could communicate
perfectly with those knowing relatively little, and it is even more
of a miracle that he could communicate equally and simultaneously
to both the simple and the learned even when he found them side
by side in the same audience.
His
parables, perfectly crafted, conveyed knowledge to the listener
in exact proportion to the listener’s faith and intelligence; thus
those around him were always warmed and filled to their capacity
(whatever their capacity. For a period, Christ spoke only in parables
(see Mark 4:34), a technique which served as a filter and which sifted out
the true hearers who became the disciple-extensions of his
word.
Along
with its singular sensitivity and intricate imagery, Christ’s teaching
carried explosive power. His hearers were lifted, carried away,
even moved to the point of willingness to die for him (see John
11:16). When he was ready to cease, Christ’s compassion moved him
to keep speaking, to keep helping, and then the response and reaction
of the people recharged him so that his power and work and spirit
continued drawing the people higher and closer to himself (see 3
Nephi 17).
It
would appear that the Savior had a powerful, resonant voice. Anyone
who has tried to talk above the constant sound of any lake or body
of water would know the power required of a voice to speak from
a floating boat to a multitude on the shore (see Matthew 13:1-3).
Yet Christ’s voice is often described as soft — perhaps soft like
the low volume of a high-voltage amplifier — with such power behind
the softness that it penetrated the heart and seemed to come from
inside rather than outside the listener’s mind.
We
must simply try to feel the power of His teaching, because
even those who were eyewitnesses could not describe it:
The eye hath never seen, neither the ear heard, before, so
great and marvelous things …
And no tongue can speak, neither can there be written by any
man, neither can the hearts of men conceive
so great and marvelous things…and no on can conceive of the joy
that filled our souls.
Underlying
all that the Lord taught were two underpinnings: truth and
love. We will look closer at these two surpassing qualities
next week.
© 2005 Meridian
Magazine. All Rights Reserved.
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