Sunday’s Gospel Doctrine lesson was about the twelve falling asleep during the atonement. Our teacher asked why they couldn’t do something as simple as stay awake, especially since they were supposed to be the cream of the crop, Jesus’ chosen.
Matthew 26: 40: “And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with me one hour?”
The original twelve apostles are portrayed as very flawed humans throughout the New Testament. This provides a decided contrast to Jesus’ divinity. The twelve fall asleep and miss the atonement, they bicker over who among them is the greatest, they deny Christ at the crucial moment, they consistently misunderstand Jesus’ teachings and parables and instead of asking him, even when he is right there, they reason among themselves, not wanting to show their ignorance. They confuse the politics of their day with the gospel messages Christ is teaching.
Maybe that’s the point. They are supposed to be flawed and human to remind us not to rely on the arm of flesh but instead to turn to the source, the one who can save. They are first and foremost disciples, just like every Christian since then, each working out his own salvation with fear and trembling, aware of something great beyond himself, but not fully comprehending the depth and complexity of the teachings nor the personal sacrifice required to apply them, settling for consensus and peer approval rather than real light and knowledge from the source of truth.
I’ve been semi-indifferently watching the mini-series A.D. which provides a glimpse into the original twelve and shows how they come together to create a church in the wake of Christ’s death. Only after the crucifixion do they start to step up to the plate and become willing to die for the cause. Only after much trial and error does anything resembling a church emerge. It’s not a world class mini-series[1], and admittedly I am about six episodes behind, but it’s an interesting enactment of what is hiding in plain sight in the New Testament. tl;dr, the original church didn’t emerge fully fledged out of the head of Zeus, clutching a copy of the CHI.
Maybe not much has changed in 2000 years. If we recognize modern-day apostles as fully human, working out their salvation with fear and trembling just as we must, perhaps we will have the patience Paul described so well. I described the idea E. Oaks focused on in his address in Singapore, that the mantle is always bigger than the man. Although E. Oaks has been criticized for statements that church leaders should not be criticized [2], this acknowledgement seems important to comprehending the role of the twelve. They are made of clay like the rest of us.
Because we are human, we are participants in the stuff of life. We get caught up in the every day matters of survival: shelter, politics, food, parenting, approval-seeking, and other needs and responsibilities. Just like the original twelve, we all fall short. Our lives are full of seasons. Our faith ebbs and flows. Try as we might, we deny Christ some of the time. We misunderstand gospel teachings. We don’t grasp what is required of us. We judge others. We see the mote in our neighbor’s eye, but not the beam in our own. We mistake the approval of peers for what’s right. We ask people around us rather than seeking personal knowledge from the source of truth. We confuse conventional wisdom and personal biases with timeless truth. We conflate current political issues with the everlasting gospel. We sleep through the atonement.
Perhaps not much has changed in 2000 years.
Matthew 26:45: “Then cometh he to his disciples, and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take your rest: behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.”
Discuss.
[1] On the downside, some of the supernatural scenes are, as expected, cheesy as all get out.
[2] Is that ironic?
Wheat & Tares 
Hawkgrrrl – a very interesting and introspective treatment of the subject.
There seems to me to be – at least at this stage of the game – an irreconcilable dilemma. We – the church – hold apostles to be perhaps more than they are. We revere them as full of truth, revelators and always speaking the truth. And yet, they are nothing more than you and I – in an ultimate sense. But we elevate everything they say to “God said…”
I appreciate their life long sacrifice and I do not envy their position. I work for an organisation of 16,000 employees and I am regularly asked to speak domestically and internationally on behalf of the organisation. It is a daunting responsibility and one in which I am keenly aware of what I say and do. I would hate to have to speak for millions.
It is my hope that we we our apostles more for what they actually are – ordinary, imperfect and sinners who need the atonement every bit the same as me.
Ps – I really did enjoy this lesson – to speak so freely of his love, compassion and atonement is a nice change from bashing Supreme Court decisions. Sigh….
Hawk, EXCELLENT point about not trusting in the ‘arm of the flesh’ (i.e., contrasting the well-documented foibles of the original Apostles versus the perfection shown by the Savior even in His mortality). This might be a reason why He did the 40-day fast (which, unless some superhuman force was in effect to counter the effects of dehydration which otherwise would fell even the hardiest of souls, especially in a desert climate, did include at least water and perhaps other liquids), to demonstrate mastery over His own sinless and yet still mortal body and appetites (Matt 4:2). And THEN He did the temptation thing. But prior experience as Jehovah shows that the Lord can punctuate His argument with a jolly good show (I Kings 18:30-38).
It’s normal when we’re young to have ‘heroes’ (and heroines), whether in sports or recent history, or, HOPEFULLY, our own parents. I would dare say that at least in sense of living the Gospel, GAs have well-demonstrated their own ‘heroism’, and I’m fairly certain that they wouldn’t have been considered for said position unless they had a bona fide ‘heroine’ at their respective sides. But as we GROW UP, we see the ‘tarnish’ on our heroes, parents included, and for some, it can lead to disillusion. Where we come to mature resolution is when we realize that our ‘heroes’ do their ‘heroic’ deeds not only IN SPITE of their flaws, they do the deeds BECAUSE of them. Ergo, their ‘greatness’ is in how they deal with their not-so-noble qualities, which everyone save the Savior himself has been saddled with (Romans 3:23).
For sake of brevity (not my strong suit) I’ve attached a link to a page of quotes from a MASH episode where Hawkeye tells Radar off after Radar expresses misgivings about the good doctor’s all-to-frequent bouts with the bottle. An excellent work on the role of hero worship, especially of a man who doesn’t always live up to ‘heroic’ expectations:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0638304/quotes
Baseball fans know well of the greatest player of all time, the Bambino…the Sultan of Swat…the Colossus of Clout…Babe Ruth! Today, the media would eat him alive for his indiscipline, partying, and womanizing. Was the Babe a “God, walking among we mere mortals, IN SPITE of his flaws, or BECAUSE of them?”. Opinions vary.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyFaLT-L2uk
Methinks the Apostles of old and today deserve no less consideration in any discussion of their foibles.
I am also watching AD with my family and have really loved the humanized version (and the diversity of the people) of the story. I love how it shows them not trusting each other, supporting each other, loving and saving each other…..as men and women.
When we can humanize and de-mythologize our prophets and leaders, it strengthens my testimony because I *know* I can do great things to. Ordinary me.
It reminds me of walking around Monticello and seeing Thomas Jefferson’s boots and his home and realizing that all of us can be great (wo)men. He was only a human, just like you and me. We just need to continue acting on the inspiration we receive….and we can do great things amidst our failing and faults, just like T Jefferson, et al and everyone else we’ve mythologized.
hawkgrrrl-
Good review of the apostles before they received fire and Holy Ghost. What about after the day of pentecost? They were very different men.
When the Savior was with them they didn’t have the degree of Spirit they had later on.
The scripture also teach that Christ trod the wine-press alone. D&C 76:107
To me, this means the apostles couldn’t help him. He had to do it alone. Yes, an angel came and comforted him, but he didn’t have the Spirit to sustain him, he was alone. Prior to that, he always had the Spirit with him, as our sacrament prayers teaches.
Jared – they certainly improved when they no longer had him there. Was that maturity? The spirit? The inability to rely on his leadership? All of these? Probably.
A couple of possibilities for why PJ&J fell asleep in Gethsemane:
1. They were totally bored and fell asleep.
2. The experience was so intense that it wiped them out, they couldn’t take it, and they passed out.
#6 – or reason THREE – maybe we use water or at times Welch’s grape juice for the Sacrament, but what if the liquid that Jesus used in the first Sacrament was (as Dr. Hasslein explained to Zira in “Escape from the Planet of the Apes”) grape juice ‘plus’…and that ‘plus’ gave it a wallop! I would think no less of the Savior if He could ‘maintain’ a lot better than His Apostles!
Jared, a lot of the bickering and arguing happened after the day of pentecost as well – are you suggesting the HG made them a unified body acting as one in thought and deed?
Methinks everyone is leaving out a couple of factors as to the Apostles “taking up the mantle” after the Savior ascended into Heaven. IDK if the ascension noted in Acts 1:9-11 was the first, keeping in mind that he’d admonished Mary not to touch Him, not having YET ascended to His Father (John 20:17), but soon thereafter He lets the Apostles touch Him, feeling the nail prints and other wounds He’d suffered on the Cross (Luke 24:36-39). They had a sure witness, though it took a bit of persuasion on the Savior’s part to remove the ‘doubt’ from Thomas (John 20:24-29). Yes, I’d think that their witness, being THAT ‘special’, would reinforce their faith and fortitude!
Alas, even with all that, men are still men (note that I leave the ladies out of though likely they’d do better, that’s just my supposition) and STILL can say and do foolish things. Note that in III Nephi 27 the newly-minted Nephite Apostles couldn’t even come up with a name, for there were ‘disputations’ among the people (holy buck-passing, Batman!), WHY this would leave them in a quandary as to naming the Church, IDK, but they were new at this thing, so if the Savior cut them some slack and took it as a teaching opportunity, then I’ve no right to get on their case.
#8 Kristine A
We know some things about the bickering and arguing, but just how pervasive it was isn’t clear.
I think the leaders today have many disagreements, but they have established order. The HG doesn’t strip men and women of their fallen natures, but it certainly goes a long ways in helping mortals keep the peace.
We humans really, really want to follow directions – so much so that we’ll take opinions as directions when they’re not meant to be such (viz. the one-earring “policy”).
In the early sections of the D&C, Joseph and his followers were so impressed and awed by the idea of direct revelation that they asked about everything. Sometimes the Lord got a little testy with them – read D&C 15 and 16 and see if you don’t sense a little divine impatience at being asked everything from what to have for dinner to which cravat goes with these pantaloons. As time passes, Joseph becomes more capable of answering some of the inquiries himself, and his prophetic voice changes.
The downside to this is that it begins to be harder to draw the line between “Thus saith the Lord” and “Brother Joseph thinks . . .”, a problem that plagues us to this day.
Every person in the world is an arm of flesh as mentioned in the scriptures.You trust in God only.