Of the Passover and the Knowledge of God

On the night before He was crucified, Jesus gathered His Apostles together to celebrate the Passover, that most sacred of Hebrew festivals, rich in symbolism of Christ and His atonement. The firstborn of every family would die, except for the sacrifice of a lamb, whose blood brought life and safety to Israel.

What were Jesus’ thoughts as He celebrated that Passover with those He loved best, on the very doorstep of when He was to fulfill the Passover ordinance and the prophecy embedded in its symbolism. What were Jesus’ thoughts when He Himself was about to be the Passover Lamb?

Many sacred things happened at that Passover. The Savior introduced the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, the broken bread symbolic of His body, soon to be broken and soon thereafter to be resurrected; the wine symbolic of his blood, in a few hours to be shed at Gethsemane and the next day under the whip and on the cross.

Jesus washed the feet of the Apostles, teaching them that priesthood is entirely about loving service to one another.

And Jesus prayed. What would it mean to you to hear the Savior pray to the Father for you?

Some of the words of that prayer are preserved in John 17, one of the most sacred chapters of all the scriptures. This is how it begins:

These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come;

Indeed it had, the hour pointed to by all eternity, the very meridian of time.

glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee:

It is curious to me that there are still some, who must not have read this and other passages of scripture, who say that Jesus Christ never claimed that He was the Son of God, the Messiah. Here is Jesus very plainly declaring His Sonship in prayer to the Father in the presence of His disciples.

And then bearing His solemn witness to the Father and to the Apostles around Him, the Savior declared in His holy prayer, announcing Himself, again, to be the Christ, the Messiah—

And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. (John 17:1, 3)

Before 1820, where was that knowledge of Jesus Christ to be found? How were people to know the Savior, the knowing by which they could obtain eternal life? The Prophet Amos foretold—

Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord: And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it. (Amos 8:11, 12)

For centuries the famine had prevailed. What the churches of the day taught about Jesus Christ was all confusion and contradiction.

• Some said He was the Son of a God who had no body, parts or passions;


• or that He was the physical manifestation of a God who could never be seen;


• or that He was a Savior who only saved some and damned others, all regardless of what they did or believed;


• or that He saved everyone who believed no matter what they did;


• or that He saved some because of what they did no matter what they believed;


• or that He had done His work, gone to Heaven, and left men afterward to fend for themselves.

Yet there were many who sought to know the Christ, generations of people seeking the Lord and His saving power, and who could not find Him. Some of their names were Augustine, Thomas, Tyndale, Luther, Casiodoro de Reina, Charles Wesley, and others. Surely there were many more whose names we do not know. There were old and young, neither age nor youth an obstacle to wanting to know the Father and Jesus Christ, and gain the eternal life that They promised. One of these in 1820 was a young teenage boy with an ordinary name, Joseph Smith.

In 1820, the hour had come. In answer to one prayer, added to millions of prayers offered by other seekers over thousands of years, our Heavenly Father appeared to the young Joseph Smith, spoke his name and revealed to him Jesus Christ, His Son. To Joseph Smith the Father said, “This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!” (JS-H 1:17) With those words, the first drops fell ending the spiritual drought of 1700 years.

What did the Savior say to Joseph? Jesus quoted scripture, a prophecy that He had given to the Prophet Isaiah:

they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, they teach for doctrines the commandments of men (JS-H 1:19).

We call that the First Vision, because many others followed, in which Jesus Christ revealed Himself to the Prophet Joseph Smith, and then to others, and by which others who knew Jesus in their mortal lives passed on to Joseph what the Savior had given to them. Joseph Smith passed on that knowledge and power to us, to all who will today receive Jesus Christ, and come to know Him and the Father, and obtain eternal life, in the way that those did, who observed the Passover with Jesus, in the way that many others have throughout history. The Savior’s Church was on the earth once again to bring hearts near to the Savior through the power of the doctrines of God.