A Prophet Without Honor
The belief in Prophets is a core belief of the LDS faith. In fact, the role of prophet has served an important purpose across many faiths across many millennia. They can be a divisive figure for people though. When it comes to people who claim to be a prophet, it’s kind of hard to sit on the fence about them–you will have some level of opinion about them.
Personally, I am deeply convinced that there is a living prophet on the earth today, but I want to understand why it can be difficult to believe in one. In particular, I’m intrigued as to why Christ (a prophet himself) said the following:
But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honor, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house.
Basically, Christ said a prophet doesn’t have honor from the people closest to him. But why?
We fictionalize what we don’t know because it’s the only way we can make sense of the world around us. We create stories and tell them to ourselves. The people Christ told this to had no need to fictionalize. Christ, essentially, was non-fiction to them. He was giving them the narrative in person, whether they believed it or not was up to them. But this, I think, is where the point is to be made.
Jesus was too relatable.
I imagine it was hard for many to believe that this man, Jesus of Nazareth, who claimed to be Messianic prophecy literally fulfilled was indeed that–the savior of mankind. After all, they had watched him grow from baby to boy, to teenager, to adulthood. No doubt, He went about doing good continually, but there was so much of Him that we, as humans, could relate to. He was familiar. He walked, he talked, he worked for a living, he ate, he got tired, he ached, he bruised, he bled. You and I do all those things. And that…just seems uncanny coming from deity incarnate.
Not only do we get tired, ache, bruise and bleed but we have the ability to become depraved. We think bad thoughts, we make mistakes, we sin, we choose bad over good sometimes. How can someone seemingly so much like me be my savior? And not only my savior, but yours and everyone else's? There’s no shame in admitting this is difficult to believe. To further drive the point home, Isaiah prophesied that Jesus was not going to be what you might imagine the Messiah to be.
“…he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. (Isaiah 53:2)
He probably wasn’t a runway model nor showcased any typical rockstar behavior. Among the persecuted Jews in that time of the Roman Empire lived the notion that the Messiah would come in great power and redemptive glory to save them from tyrannical rule. That was not the case though.
In other words, it has been Heavenly Father’s plan from the absolute beginning that we would walk on this earth by faith–meaning God expects us to work for a testimony of the truth. He’s not going to spoon-feed us the answers to eternity. If he did, our convictions would be short-lived and wouldn’t produce the type of life that would qualify us to live in His presence.
God does not pander to our mortal expectations of how to gain faith. And quite honestly, mortals are not able to dictate the path to immortality; only God from an immortal perspective can reveal that. And who does he reveal that path through? You guessed it–prophets.
This means other prophets are too relatable.
Jesus said a prophet is without honor by those around him which inherently means this same phenomenon happens not only to him but to any prophet.
Let’s clarify what honor means here. Christ does not need praise to continue to be Christ. Truth lives independently of who believes it or not. And if Christ is the truth, then Christ will remain Christ independently of who believes in Him.
There are many definitions for the word honor, but in this case, I believe it means to listen to, fulfill or comply with–kinda like how you “honor” your word. You follow your word by doing what you say.
In this case, a prophet reveals the mind, will, and literal word of God. To honor it means to follow it, to obey it. This type of faith is not blind. It is firmly based in the knowledge that God loves His children, yet does not walk the earth as we do. Instead, He calls messengers who represent Him and calls us to listen to them and understand their words.
This is the pattern He has established since the beginning of time. What would make today any different?
If God hasn’t called a prophet today then we can assume a few things–God has ceased loving His children. No…that can’t true.
Then it must mean He ran out of things to tell us. No, that can’t be right either. He explicitly said, “My works are without end…My words never cease” (Moses 1:4).
Okay, maybe we just don’t need a prophet? Maybe we don’t need to hear the word of god pertaining to our day in age? Have you guys seen the Jumanji game playing out before our eyes right now? Yes, we need His word more than ever right now.
If that’s not the case, then it must be that He’s has lost the power to speak to us. No, that simply hasn’t happened either.
There is a prophet on the earth today.
I want to share my personal convictions that God, our Heavenly Father, has not stopped loving His children. He has not run out of things to tell us. He is the same omnipotent being today as He always has been. And we need a prophet today no less than anybody ever did in all of history.
I strongly believe we do have a prophet on the earth today, following the same pattern of revelation that God has established since Adam and Eve. He is a man, an imperfect one, called to carry out the work of the Lord in 2020. As Elder Jeffrey R. Holland once said, “Imperfect people are the only people God has to work with.” This prophet walks, talks, has worked for a living (as a heart surgeon actually), he eats, he gets tired, he aches, he bruises, he bleeds. He makes mistakes like all humans are susceptible to making. He’s like you and me. He also has lived His life in harmony with the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can see it in his eyes. You can hear it in his words. You can feel it when you follow his words, which I have come to understand are truly the words that Christ would tell us if He were here in the flesh.
We call him Russell M. Nelson, because that was the name his mom and dad gave him. Moses was probably a pretty normal name for a man in his day. Russell seems like a pretty normal name for a man in his 90's today. I know him to be a prophet of God.
He might seem too relatable because he’s one of us in so many ways. But this is how God works. This is how Heavenly Father helps us come to know Him and develop faith sufficient to lead us home.
In a world where geographical boundaries cease to exist through the advancement of technology, I would consider all of us to belong to a prophet's own country, kin, and house. With the advent of the internet and social media, all lives are made public and available for scrutiny. You can become familiar with the man from wherever you live. That familiarity draws people in while it mystically pushes people away for the reasons I’ve described.
So is a prophet without honor in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house? Yes. Yet truth will stand independently whether anyone believes in it or not. That means that you and I have a responsibility to learn for ourselves if this person is indeed called of God and you can start by hearing what he is saying. And in the end, if God reveals to you that he is His spokesperson on earth today, then we have a responsibility to follow his words.
Here is what President Russel M. Nelson is saying in our day.
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/2020/04/the-future-of-the-church-preparing-the-world-for-the-saviors-second-coming?lang=eng
