(Isa. 53:3; Alma 36:27; refer in Latter-day Commentary on the Book of Mormon, Bassett, to Alma 7:11–12)
We will all have some adversity in our lives… . Some of it may even strain our faith in a loving God who has the power to administer relief in our behalf.
To those anxieties I think the Father of us all would say, “Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?” …
Jesus was not spared grief and pain and anguish and buffeting. No tongue can speak the unutterable burden he carried, nor have we the wisdom to understand the prophet Isaiah’s description of him as “a man of sorrows” (Isa. 53:3). His ship was tossed most of his life, and at least to mortal eyes, it crashed fatally on the rocky coast of Calvary… .
Peace was on the lips and in the heart of the Savior no matter how fiercely the tempest was raging. May it so be with us … We should not expect to get through life individually or collectively without some opposition.
(Howard W. Hunter, Ensign, Nov. 1984, 43.)
President Brigham Young spoke of what evoked the “why” from Jesus, saying that during the axis of agony which was Gethsemane and Calvary, the Father at some point withdrew both His presence and His Spirit from Jesus (see Journal of Discourses, 3:205–6). Thereby Jesus’ personal triumph was complete and His empathy perfected. Having “descended below all things,” He comprehends, perfectly and personally, the full range of human suffering! (see D&C 88:6; 122:8). A spiritual sung in yesteryear has an especially moving and insightful line: “Nobody knows the troubles I’ve seen; nobody knows but Jesus” (see also Alma 7:11–12). Truly, Jesus was exquisitely “acquainted with grief,” as no one else (Isa. 53:3).
(Neal A. Maxwell, Ensign, Nov. 1997, 23.)
There are those who feel that if we follow the Savior, our lives will be free from worry, pain, and fear. This is not so! The Savior Himself was described as a man of sorrows. Those early disciples who followed the Christ experienced great persecution and trials. The Prophet Joseph Smith was no exception. Nor were the other early Saints of this last dispensation. And it is no different today… .
I have had the opportunity to speak with a woman who heard the call of the Savior when she was 18. Her father, who was a high official in another church, became angry with her and forbade her from being baptized. He let her know that if she became a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, she would be ostracized from the family.
Even though the sacrifice was great, this young woman heeded the call of the Savior and entered the waters of baptism.
Her father could not accept her decision, however, and tried to force her into abandoning her new faith. He and his wife reviled her for her decision to become a member of the Church and demanded that she recant and forsake her new religion.
Even through the rage, the bitterness, and the indignity, her faith remained strong. She endured the verbal and emotional abuse, knowing she had heard the call of the Savior and she would follow Him, whatever the consequence.
Eventually this young woman managed to find a safe haven, a place of refuge with a kind member family far away from the threats and unkindness of her father.
She met a faithful young man, and the two of them were married in the temple, receiving the choice blessings that accompany a temple marriage.
Today she stands among the multitude of those who have sacrificed so much to follow the call of the Savior.
Yes, I do not suggest that the road will be easy. But I will give you my witness that those who, in faith, leave their nets and follow the Savior will experience happiness beyond their ability to comprehend.
(Joseph B. Wirthlin, Ensign, May 2002, 17.)
I know some of you do truly feel at sea, in the most frightening sense of that term… . I testify of God’s love and the Savior’s power to calm the storm … in that biblical story that He was out there on the water… . Only one who has fought against those ominous waves is justified in telling us—as well as the sea—to “be still” (Mark 4:39). Only one who has taken the full brunt of such adversity could ever be justified in telling us in such times to “be of good cheer” (John 16:33). Such counsel is not a jaunty pep talk about the power of positive thinking, though positive thinking is much needed in the world. No, Christ knows better than all others that the trials of life can be very deep, and we are not shallow people if we struggle with them… . Surely His ears heard every cry of distress, every sound of want and despair. To a degree far more than we will ever understand, He was “a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief” (Isa. 53:3).
(Jeffrey R. Holland, Ensign, Nov. 1999, 14.)
On some days we will have cause to remember the unkind treatment… . We can remember that Christ was also troubled on every side, but not distressed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed (see 2 Cor. 4:8–9).
When those difficult times come to us, we can remember that Jesus … suffered pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind that he might be filled with mercy and know how to succor His people in their infirmities (see D&C 88:6; Alma 7:11–12)… .
However dim our days may seem they have been darker for the Savior of the world.
In fact, in a resurrected, otherwise perfected body, our Lord of this sacrament table has chosen to retain for the benefit of his disciples the wounds in his hands and his feet and his side— … signs, if you will, that pain in this world is not evidence that God doesn’t love you. It is the wounded Christ who is the captain of our soul—he who yet bears the scars of sacrifice, the lesions of love and humility and forgiveness… .
All this we could remember when we are invited by a kneeling young priest to remember Christ always.
(Jeffrey R. Holland, Ensign, Nov. 1995, 69.)
With these words, Isaiah draws every human being into his account. We all are part of the eternal congregation who must choose to accept or reject this Savior. “He was despised, and we esteemed him not” (Mosiah 14:3; emphasis added). This rhetorical device is often used in Isaiah’s writing and in many Jewish texts. One can hear in the Passover seder this same self-inclusive notion: “Were we not strangers in the land of Egypt …?” Through this language we are participants, joined with those who were there. We are with them.
(Ann Madsen, “What Meaneth the Words That Are Written?”, Journal of Book of Mormon Studies, vol. 10, no. 1:9–10.)