Focusing on Christ's Life

One of the speakers in my ward today was raised Catholic and he talked a bit about the significance of the cross as a symbol of Christianity. He then told that when he asked the missionaries why we don't display crosses, they asked him which he would use to remember his hypothetical dead brother: the knife used to kill him or a photo of the brother happy and healthy. We do talk about the crucifixion, of course. If Christ hadn't died, he couldn't have been resurrected, for one thing. And the death was a real sacrifice. But we would rather focus on the living Christ.

When I was still Primary age, I thought of another reason to focus on things other than Christ's death: a lot of men die for others or for a cause. At the time, I had thought I would be willing to die for others myself. Since that time I have become more attached to the idea of living, but I hope that given enough cause I would still be willing to die for the right cause, though it is hard to imagine why I would ever be in such a situation.

But I thought that the focus should be more on the fact that Christ lived a perfect life for us than that he died for us. Nobody else has ever managed that. Just as nobody before Jesus Christ was able to break the bonds of death. Putting the focus on Christ's life, before and after death, tells much more about how He is special than does focusing on his death.