Show notes for 3 Nephi 17-19 – 3 days of Jesus’ visits (although he periodically returns to them – see 3 Ne. 26.13)
3 Nephi 17 – Jesus heals the sick and the children are brought to him
(1-2) You are weak… go home (3)
Jesus is going back to the Father (4)
They want him to stay with them (5) and he is filled w/compassion (6)
Bring your sick (7) and so they do and he heals “every one” of them (9)
They bow at his feet and worship him – he is God and King (10)
The little children are brought to him (11)
I am troubled because of the wickedness of the House of Israel (14)
Boyd K. Packer on children:
Like my Brethren, I have traveled all over the world. Like my Brethren, I have held positions of trust in education, in business, in government, and in the Church. I have written books, and, like them, have received honors, degrees, certificates, plaques. Such honors come with the territory and are undeserved. Assessing the value of those things, the one thing I treasure more than any of them—more than all of them put together—the thing of most value to me is how our sons and daughters and their husbands and wives treat their children and how, in turn, our grandchildren treat their little ones.1
Jesus says things that cannot be written (15) – he is praying to his Father (15-19)
They arise (19), Jesus weeps (20-22) and the heavens open (24)
2,500 people in attendance for this event (25) [we are still on the first day]
3 Nephi 18 – Jesus’ Discourse on the Sacrament
Jesus commands that bread be brought to him (1), Jesus gives to his disciples (3)
Both bread and wine had symbolic associations with the Israelite Tree of Life. The tree produced not only an edible fruit but also a liquid – sometimes the fruit’s juice and sometimes a river that flowed from the tree’s base. Indeed, as Widengren states:
The king, generally considered the gardener, is the possessor of both the Plant of Life and the Water of Life… the enthroned king, holding in his hand a flower or plant and a cup, and sitting before a dressed table, is partaking of a ritual meal in the nether world… the god or king holding either a plant or a twig in his hand and on the other hand … he has a vase with the Water of Life in the shape of two flowing streams.2
The multitude receive bread (4-5), he teaches Nephites about the sacrament (5-10)
If you do this, ye are built upon my rock (12), he commands them to watch and pray (15-18)
Pray in your families (21), meet together oft (22), hold up your light (24) Jesus is the light (24)
Come unto me, feel and see (25)
Do not permit unworthy persons to eat the sacrament (28-29)
Jesus does not want the unworthy to “destroy my people” (31), but wants them associating with the Saints (30-32)
Avoid disputations (34), Jesus touches the Twelve (36-37)
Jesus departs – end of Day 1 of his visit (38-39)
3 Nephi 19 – Jesus offers 3 prayers – The Twelve are Jesus’ Representatives
Everyone goes home (1) and they go out and tell people of Jesus’ coming (2-3)
The disciples are listed, including Timothy (4) who was raised from the dead
The people are now separated into 12 bodies (5) and are taught by the Twelve (6)
The Twelve pray that they and the people might receive the Holy Ghost (9)
Nephi is baptized (11), and they he baptizes the Twelve (12-13) and they receive the Holy Ghost
The Twelve are encircled about by fire (14) [Ritually now the Twelve are in God’s presence in the Holy of Holies, very similar if not exactly the same as in Helaman 5.23-24, 43-44. This is a physical object lesson to all of us: These 12 men stand in God’s presence. We are to listen to them and they will take us into God’s presence where they are!
Jesus comes [second visitation] and stood in the midst of the Twelve (15) [His third visit starts in 3 Nephi 27.2]
The disciples pray to Jesus Christ (18), Jesus then goes a way off and prays (20-23)
Why do they pray to Jesus? We see something similar in the dedicatory prayer of the Kirtland temple, where Joseph Smith switches from speaking to the Father to the Son and back again. Joseph Fielding McConkie wrote:
The Savior had previously instructed the Nephites concerning the proper language of prayer (see 3 Nephi 13:9). They knew that they should pray “unto the Father, in my name” (see 3 Nephi 18:23), yet under the influence of the Spirit they prayed to Jesus “calling him their Lord and their God.” He was and is both Redeemer and God. In reverential worship they directed their prayers to the Savior, and he did not stop them nor correct them. It appears that, in this case, it was appropriate because a resurrected God stood in their very presence (see verse 22). Elder Bruce R. McConkie has written: “Jesus was present before them as the symbol of the Father. Seeing him, it was as though they saw the Father; praying to him, it was as though they prayed to the Father. It was a special and unique situation that as far as we know has taken place only once on earth during all the long ages of the Lord’s hand-dealings with his children.”3
Elder Bruce R. McConkie had this to say:
John 16:24. [Hitherto ye have asked nothing in my name] See John 14:13-14. Since the divine law in all ages called for men to pray to the Father in the name of Christ, why had Jesus awaited this hour to institute the age-old system among his disciples? Perhaps it is a situation similar to that which is involved in receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost; as long as Jesus was with the disciples they did not enjoy the full manifestations of the Holy Ghost. (John 16:7.) Perhaps as long as Jesus was personally with them many of their petitions were addressed directly to him rather than to the Father. Such was the course followed by the Nephites when the resurrected and glorified Lord ministered among them. They prayed directly to him and not to the Father. “When they had all knelt down upon the earth,” the record says, Jesus “commanded his disciples that they should pray. And behold, they began to pray; and they did pray unto Jesus, calling him their Lord and their God.” Then Jesus, in a prayer of his own to the Father, said, “They pray unto me because I am with them.” (3 Ne. 19:17-18, 22.) Perhaps, also, there was a matter of propriety which would keep prayers from being said in Jesus’ name as long as he was present and going “from grace to grace” (D. & C. 93:13) in working out his own salvation. In any event, prayers in his name were to commence “at that day” (v. 26), meaning after his resurrection.4
Donald Parry said this about the people praying to Jesus:
The command to pray to the Father in the name of Jesus Christ has been accepted without reservation by the Latter-day Saints in this dispensation. In 1916, Joseph F. Smith declared that “we . . . accept without any question the doctrines we have been taught by the Prophet Joseph Smith and by the Son of God Himself that we pray to God, the Eternal Father, in the name of His Only Begotten Son” (Conference Report [Oct 1916] 6). It is therefore not appropriate to pray to any other being than the Father.
If the instructions are crystal clear concerning to whom we must address our prayers, then why did the Nephites pray directly to Jesus, as recorded in 3 Nephi 19:18? The answer in part lies in the fact that Jesus is a resurrected deity. “And they did pray unto Jesus, calling him their Lord and their God.” A second explanation for the multitude’s praying to Jesus is found in his words to Heavenly Father, “they pray unto me because I am with them” (3 Nephi 19:22). It is also possible that the Saints began praying to Jesus as a natural reaction to and an acknowledgement of his glory.5
He prays that they might be one (23)
The Twelve continue praying to Jesus (24)
Jesus blesses the Twelve (25) and the Twelve are WHITE (25) [This is a spiritual purity, not a pigmentation issue… this is like unto Moses and Abinadi]…
Jesus offers up his second prayer (27-29) [similar to the Intercessory prayer in John 17]
The Twelve are white (30), even as Jesus
Jesus offers up his third prayer (31) which cannot be written
No one has seen such great things as you have seen! (34-36)
Notes
- President Boyd K. Packer, Children, Ensign, May 2002.
- Geo Widengren, The King and the Tree of Life in Ancient Near Eastern Religion, p. 35.
- Joseph Fielding McConkie and Robert Millet, Doctrinal Commentary on the Book of Mormon, 4:135; see also: Promised Messiah, p. 561.
- Bruce R. McConkie, Doctrinal New Testament Commentary, 1:758.
- Donald Parry, “Pray Always: Learning to Pray as Jesus Prayed,” in Third Nephi 9-30: This is My Gospel, BYU Religious Studies Center, 1993, p. 141.
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