That He May Know According to the Flesh How to Succor His People in Their Infirmities
By G.G. Vandagriff

Alma 7:11-12 has become a beacon in my understanding and use of the atonement in my life.  I will quote it here:  “And he shall go forth suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.

“And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.”

How our Savior physically lived through this experience in Gethsemane, I do not know.  The pain and the suffering of the crucifixion must have been nothing compared to it.  I know through the experience of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder what it is to suffer my own pain all at once after a lifetime of suppressing it.  The experience was so terrible, I begged for death to end it.  I cannot possibly conceive of a person so completely innocent of sin and so full of love that he would willingly suffer what I suffered, magnified billions of times. 

This scripture in Alma throws a slightly different light on that suffering.  We know that he offered himself to suffer in our place for the sins we have committed so that he could satisfy the demands of justice.  But, according to Alma, his suffering served another purpose.  It was so that he could understand from his own experience not only our sins, but our weaknesses and trials.  There is nothing we have passed through that he did not pass through.  As the Lord told Joseph Smith in D & C 122:8  “The Son of Man hath descended below them all.” As a result of this descent and suffering, he is wise and full of compassion so he can offer his succor to us in our times of greatest need.

We recently suffered a great crisis in our family.  It was so great that I did not know how I was going to bear it.  In fact, I acknowledged to the Lord that I could not.  Because of this passage in Alma, I knew that my Savior understood and had shoulders broad enough to bear this burden for me.  I knelt in prayer and saw myself physically hand over the trial to him.  It lifted from my shoulders in a way I cannot explain.  Intellectually, I know that the trial is still there.  I deal daily with its fallout.  And yet, in some inexplicable way, the Lord has taken the pain upon himself.  I am able to function.  I am able to take one day at a time, sometimes one hour at a time, and see it through.  The clinical depression that is my constant companion has not deepened because of this trial.  My anxiety is manageable.  I am learning to wait upon the Lord.

My favorite hymn and one that brings me to tears each time I hear it is “Be Still My Soul.”  All I have to hear are the words  “the Lord is on thy side” for me to be filled with an overwhelming sweetness and comfort. 

Though this life is full of tribulation, we have been promised peace.  I testify that that peace can come when we allow ourselves to be succored by the Lord in our infirmities.  He has indeed passed below them all and does know how our pain feels and affects us.  He has already suffered it. When we have gone as far as we can with our burden, we must realize that he is there to help us shoulder it the rest of the way.

We cannot let the Savior’s suffering for our sake be in vain.  Let us take what is offered by our Elder Brother.  And let us rejoice in the gift.