The following is excerpted from the Church Newsroom. To read the full article, CLICK HERE.
One of the great lessons from the last week of Jesus Christ’s life is the power of expectations.
In a devotional address at Brigham Young University (BYU) in Provo on Tuesday, April 15, 2025, Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles asked students a question about the ancients who witnessed Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem: “They were filled with eager anticipation — but were they anticipating the right things?”
The fact that their deliverer ended up on a cross confused Christ’s followers. But hindsight helps us see what His real mission was.
“Descending from the cross and saving Himself would have been impressive, and it may have persuaded some that He was more than a human being, perhaps even the Son of God,” Elder Uchtdorf said. “But the fact that He chose to walk the winepress alone and bring the ultimate sacrifice to the divine altar to rescue all of God’s children, even though He had power to save Himself, has become the supernal witness that He is indeed the Son of God — submissive to His Father’s will and committed to fulfilling His Father’s plan of salvation to the last breath.”
Don’t judge too harshly those disciples “who were genuinely puzzled by this unexpected Messiah,” said Elder Uchtdorf, borrowing a phrase from Elizabeth Pool’s 1961 book, “The Unexpected Messiah.”
In fact, the Apostle taught us to consider this aspect of Christ’s life a model for our own when things don’t make sense.
To read the full article, CLICK HERE.
