The following is a transcript of a live presentation given at Brigham Young University on October 23, 2002 by Dr. Daniel Judd.

            I’d like to begin with you in the book of Luke.  In chapter four verse eighteen of the book of Luke, we find what may very well have been the Savior’s first mortal discourse that he gave.  In fact, he gave this in his hometown when he first began his formal ministry as the Messiah.  He said this, quoting from Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.  He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised.”  And so, in addition to acknowledging his divine call as the Savior of all mankind, he gave an invitation to each of us to indeed come unto him and to be healed.  For, in one way or another, all of us are poor or brokenhearted.  We are captive in some way to some addiction or some sin or some weakness or some event.  We’re blind, we’re bruised, and yet here is the Savior’s invitation for all of us that he indeed is he who can heal us of our many afflictions.

            Our dear president, President Gordon B. Hinckley, has said this about our duty as members of the Church to those around us: “As members of the Church of Jesus Christ, ours is a ministry of healing with a duty to bind the wounds and ease the pain of those who suffer.  Upon a world afflicted with greed and contention, upon families distressed by argument and selfishness, upon individuals burdened with sin and troubles and sorrows, I invoke the healing power of Christ, giving my witness of its efficacy and power.  I testify of him who is the great source of healing.  He is the Son of God, the Redeemer of the world, the Son of Righteousness who came with healing in his wings.”  I’ve always appreciated the fact that we indeed have a Savior to bless us in every aspect of our lives.  I sometimes fear that we dismiss the healing power of Christ too quickly, because the healing power that’s available to us isn’t always as quick as we sometimes desire.

            Many years ago, I worked for Valley View Medical Center in Cedar City, Utah, where I was going to school.  I worked at the emergency room and one night a terrible accident happened and they brought a family in.  In fact, it was a mother and a couple of daughters who had just moved to Parowan from southern California.  And as they came in, it was very obvious that one daughter had died because of the accident, and the mother and the other daughter were in very serious condition.  And so as I was assisting in my duties to help the physicians and the nurses and the other trauma room people to assist them, I said to the doctor, “Doctor, don’t you think we ought to call Salt Lake?  Don’t you think we ought to call LifeFlight and get them down here quickly?”  And he said, “Dan, we’re not running a first aid station here; now get busy and let’s save this lady.”  And I sometimes feel that’s how we oftentimes view the gospel: we think, “Well, it’s nice for minor arguments that arise, or petty differences that occur,” but when it comes to serious problems, we are sometimes reluctant to truly apply the healing power of the atonement of Christ.  I testify to you as one who is trained as a psychologist, in my ecclesiastical role as well, and as one who has indeed suffered the sins of the world, that Christ can indeed heal us if we come unto him.  There is indeed great power in the healing power of Christ.

            There’s a wonderful verse of scripture that you all know in the book of Matthew, chapter nine, verses ten through thirteen: “And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat [we’d say supper or some meal] in the house, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples.  And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your master with publicans and sinners?  But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.”  So again I would testify to you that the Savior of the world is indeed the great master physician of us all, and that he can indeed heal us of our ills.  The Savior’s using some degree of satire here with the publicans; of course, they thought that the Pharisees, that they were not guilty of any sins, the Pharisees, and the Savior’s kind of chiding them a bit, saying that even you too need to be healed.  No matter who we are or what troubles that we have, we are in need of his redemptive power.

            The title of my presentation, “That He May Succor His People,” is taken from the book of Alma, chapter eleven, verses eleven and twelve: “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, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people, according to their infirmities.”  And so in addition to the atonement of Christ being redemptive and restorative, it is also therapeutic.  The Savior’s atonement has tutored him, that he may indeed succor us as his brothers and sisters, even his sons and daughters.

            Our own president, Merrill J. Bateman, in a devotional given here at BYU a number of years ago, talked about how the Lord is very aware of our suffering.  In fact, sometimes those of us who have suffered abuse or other kinds of problems, we feel very alone.  It is important that we know that the Savior himself as suffered all that we have suffered and more.  Quoting from President Bateman: “Alma reveals to us the process by which the master learned perfect empathy in the flesh.  He experienced not only our sins but also our pains, sufferings, temptations of every kind, sicknesses, infirmities, and weaknesses.  He also experienced death in order to loose the bands of death for his people.  Consequently, if one of us has a special problem, it is not possible for him or her to say, “No one knows what I’m experiencing.  No one understands my pain or suffering.”  The Lord knows.  He not only knows the depth of your experience; he knows how to succor you because of his suffering.”

            Now sometimes I believe that it’s our belief that we see the Savior in the Garden of Gethsemane as simply being there anonymously, by himself, singly.  But notice this, also from that same talk by President Bateman: “For years I envisioned the Garden of Gethsemane and the cross as places where an infinite mass of sin and pain were heaped upon the Savior.  Thanks to Alma and Abinadi, it is no longer an infinite mass, but an infinite stream of people with whom the Savior became intimately acquainted as he suffered our sins, pains, and afflictions.  I testify that he knows each of us.  He is concerned about our progress and has the infinite capacity not only to heal our wounds but also to lift us up to the Father as sanctified sons and daughters.”  And so instead of watching from the heavens, as our beloved Savior and our God and our brother suffered for our sins and our sorrows, could it be that we were able to be there as well, that we were a part of that number, an infinite stream of people who were there to place our sins but also our sorrows at his feet, to request that he put them on his shoulders and bear them for us?  To me, that makes the atoning sacrifice of Christ much more personal, to know that we indeed were part of that.