The Rock of Our Salvation

As a young boy, I loved to look at and collect rocks. I remember being fascinated by all the different colors and patterns that nature could produce in the form of rocks and crystals. Perhaps the rock that impressed me most was the geode. I was amazed at how something with such an ordinary façade, could be hiding something so beautiful. My favorite geological activity, to the chagrin of my mother, was to go out by the side of our house where our landscaping rocks were with the hope of finding such a specimen. My tools were a hammer and a steady hand. Each rock that had the ill fate of being chosen was carefully broken and its insides examined. I knew that no matter what the rock looked like on the outside, it could not be identified as a geode unless I knew what the inside looked like.

We live in a world where appearance is everything. Often, the true worth of something is overlooked, undervalued, or ignored because of its packaging. Jesus warned the scribes and Pharisees about obsessing over outward appearances to the neglect of one’s inner refinement: "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also" (Matt 23:25-26). How can we avoid becoming distracted by outward ostentation and learn to appreciate inner beauty?

Jesus did not spend his mortality in the guise of a God, though he certainly was that. Instead of spending his mortal ministry as a glorified being, he donned an earthly tabernacle. Because of this, his intrinsic divinity and matchless virtue often went unrecognized. There were those who simply could not see the Master behind the man.

Isaiah said of Jesus: ". . . he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him" (Isa 53:2).

And so it seemed to those who looked on Jesus’ outward appearance. Many could not see the crystals behind the humble exterior. They likely saw an ordinary man who wore ordinary clothes, who lived in ordinary circumstances. But what Jesus taught and what Jesus did was hardly ordinary. We know who he really was.

If there remained any question as to whether Jesus was ordinary or not, certainly it was quelled as a result of the Atonement. In this sacred act, the man Jesus was broken, and his perfect Atonement shone through.

Just as when Moses was commanded to smite a rock, and water came out abundantly so that the Israelites and their animals could drink, so too was Jesus smitten, and living water flowed out of him.

The first verse of the beloved hymn "Rock of Ages" reads:

Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in thee;
Let the water and the blood,
From thy wounded side which flowed,
Be of sin the double cure,
Save from wrath and make me pure.

We too can develop an inner beauty as the savior did. To follow Christ’s teachings and to strive to live by his example is to nurture the good inherent in us. We can also recognize the essence of divinity in others by ignoring the ordinary and focusing on the praiseworthy, for that is how God looks upon us. “. . . for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7).

Jesus is called the Rock of Ages for good reason. Prophets in every dispensation have made a point of testifying of his power to save. Thousands of years ago, the Israelites in the Old Testament were taught: "He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he" (Deuteronomy 32:4).

Not many years before the coming of the Savior, Helaman, a prophet who lived on the American continent gave the following admonition to his sons: “. . . it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, . . . yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you . . . because of the rock upon which ye are built. . .” (Helaman 5:12).

Today, Gordon B. Hinckley says to the members of Christ’s church in the latter-days: "[Christ] is the chief cornerstone of the church which bears his name, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. There is no other name given among men whereby we can be saved. He is the author of our salvation, the giver of eternal life. There is none to equal him. There never has been. There never will be. Thanks be to God for the gift of his Beloved Son, who gave his life that we might live, and who is the chief, immovable cornerstone of our faith and his church."

In the Book of Mormon we find several instances in which rocks are used as symbols. For example, in his psalm, we find Nephi petitioning the Lord, “Wilt thou not place a stumbling block in my way—but that thou wouldst clear my way before me, and hedge not up my way, but the ways of mine enemy” (2 Ne 4:33)

A “stumbling block,” “stumbling stone,” or “rock of offence” as it is sometimes referred to in the scriptures, is anything that distracts from the true Rock of our salvation. It is a fake, a knockoff, a cheap imitation of the true foundation, and will cause us to stumble and fall if we do not learn to avoid such epigones.

In Ether, we read about 16 small stones which were prepared by the Brother of Jared so that his people could have light during their 344 day journey to the promised land. He prepared the stones after asking the Lord in desperation, “O Lord, wilt thou suffer that we shall cross this great water in darkness?” The Brother of Jared might have been surprised when the Lord responded with another question, “What will ye that I should do that ye may have light in your vessels?” The stones were the Brother of Jared’s humble solution.

I am impressed by the harshness of the conditions to which the stones were subjected, "for they were molten out of a rock; and they were white and clear, even as transparent glass." Let us not take for granted the difficulty of the task undertaken by the Brother of Jared. Melting rock to make glass requires thousands of degrees of heat. The Brother of Jared must have been one heck of a Boy Scout. But as painstakingly as he worked to prepare them, the Brother of Jared could not make the stones shine in the darkness. That was the Savior’s job. Could the Lord have made ordinary, non-molten stones light up? I’m sure it’s within his power to do so. But the molten, tried-in-the-fire stones stood as a testament to the faith of this good man. So strong was the faith possessed by the Brother of Jared, that the stones underwent a miraculous transformation “. . . for it is by faith that miracles are wrought.” (Moroni 7:37)

We are those stones. And our lives can be lit up by the touch of the Savior. Stones that make the best transmitters of the Savior’s light are those that submit to the refiner’s fire. “My people must be tried in all things, that they may be prepared to receive the glory that I have for them, even the glory of Zion.” (D&C 136:31) Eventually, the stones, along with all those who were illuminated by them, made it to the promised land.

By following the teachings of Jesus, by recognizing goodness in others, by submitting to all which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon us, we build our foundation upon the rock of our Redeemer, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.

Jesus is the Rock of our Salvation, from whom living waters flow. Jesus is the Rock of Ages, of whom the prophets have testified since the beginning of time. He is the chief cornerstone, strong and immovable; and he is a mighty fortress, a defense from enemy and element which would destroy us.

My we learn to recognize, through the study of his words and the emulation of his example, the Crystals behind the covering, the God behind the guise, the Master behind the man.