1Jesus “went about doing good.” We read that simple report in the book of Acts. What an enormous understatement that is! Jesus surely did go about doing good! He is the very essence—and source—of goodness! He devoted His entire mortal life to doing good. He is “merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant,” infinite in goodness and everlasting in mercy.
2Any attempt at describing or summarising His goodness and mercy would be an understatement! Truly, as the Apostle John tried to express, if we were to attempt to record every manifestation of the Saviour’s goodness, “even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written.”
3The specific examples we do have immortalised in scripture of Jesus going about “doing good” stir deep awe and wonder, especially when we really consider what it might have been like to be there, to witness His miracles, to receive His teachings, and to experience His healing. He conversed with the social outcasts, He touched the diseased and unclean, He brought comfort to the weary, He taught liberating truth, and He called sinners to repentance. To each leper, blind man, and adulterous woman; to the lame, the deaf, and the dumb; to every grieving mother, desperate father, and mourning widow; to the condemned, the shamed, and the suffering; to the dead in body and the dead in spirit, what He did was offer a new beginning. Yes, another staggering understatement!
4Everything He said and did provided a new beginning for each of those He healed, blessed, taught, and relieved of sin. He didn’t withdraw from them, and He certainly won’t withdraw from you. Imagine in this moment hearing any of these life-giving words from Him:
5“Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.”
6“Damsel, I say unto thee, arise.”
7“Be thou clean.”
8“Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.”
9“Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace.”
10The Saviour’s words to these individuals were brief, but with them He painted vast new horizons of forgiveness, healing, restoration, peace, and eternal life. And the glorious news is He offers the same new beginning to you and to me. All of us can have a new beginning through, and because of, Jesus Christ. Even you. New beginnings are at the heart of the Father’s plan for His children. This is the church of new beginnings! This is the church of fresh starts!
11With baptism by water and the Spirit, we are “born again” and can “walk in newness of life.” How much hope does that new beginning bring to one who has trudged under the burden of sin or suffered from the effects of a troubled life and dysfunctional relationships? Jesus needed no forgiveness of sin Himself or a fresh start in life, yet He was baptised, showing us in high relief the way to the new beginning He has carved for each of us.
12And our new beginning doesn’t just happen once. We tend to think that our baptism is our one shot at a new beginning. It isn’t. We don’t have just one chance. These new beginnings can happen every day! And certainly every week as we eat a small piece of bread and drink a tiny cup of water in remembrance of the gift of our perfect Saviour, who died for the express purpose of giving us as many new beginnings as we need! Jesus gives us as many new beginnings as we need.
13With commitment and rejoicing in a new life in Christ, we can become “a new creature,” where old things pass away and all things become new. What reprieve does that kind of new dawn bring to a soul who keeps trying, through continuing to choose faith in our Redeemer’s power to heal and restore, despite the crushing setbacks of living in a fallen world? The Saviour never gave up on His commitment to fulfill the will of the Father and complete His divine atoning mission, even through pain that caused Him to tremble, to bleed from every pore, to suffer body and spirit, and to pray that the bitter cup might be removed. Again, He was demonstrating for us what faithful endurance with God looks like.
14With every covenant we make and every effort we give to keep it, we can receive “a new heart” and a fuller measure of “a new spirit.” Little by little, the more we invite His goodness into our hearts and cast out the self-defeating voices in our heads, we become His people because we truly make Him our God. Jesus so keenly wants to be our King and our Shepherd and our Prince of Peace, and we can choose to make Him so in our own hearts and minds.
15Repentance opens the door to our new beginnings, fresh starts, and second chances. Our dear President Russell M. Nelson’s teachings have cleared up misconceptions about the divine gift of repentance, and I think we are finally beginning to grasp it.
16It is exciting to hear our youth describe what repentance means to them. I recently heard a young woman say, with a smile on her face, “When I think of repentance, daily repentance, I feel incredible joy and hope. I feel the love and happiness of my Heavenly Father and my Saviour. I am not afraid to come to Heavenly Father in prayer and ask for His help with whatever I’m struggling with. I know They’re not trying to catch me doing something wrong. Their arms are open wide. This is repentance to me,” she said. This young woman understands that because of Jesus Christ, she can have new beginnings!
17Do you need a new beginning? Can you make a fresh start, even you? Think about the people the Saviour ministered to—the people He taught, healed, raised, forgave, and restored. Was He selecting them from a particular economic class or background? Was He distinguishing between the righteous and the sinful? Was He singling people out because they were more deserving or more loved? No.
18Some came to Him with great faith, believing in His power to heal—like the woman with the issue of blood, the Roman centurion whose servant was dying, the leper, Jairus, and blind Bartimaeus. They each put their faith on the line, hoping that the goodness and power of the rabbi from Nazareth would change their lives and their prospects. And He did. He let His healing flow.
19But Jesus also blessed those who had wavering faith, like the father of the sick child who cried out, perhaps as you have, “Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.” And He even poured out compassion upon those who hadn’t sought Him at all, like the woman taken in adultery, the widow of Nain, the disabled man at the pool of Bethesda, and the man born blind. Have you felt Him going about doing good in your life even when you haven’t been seeking Him or following Him?
20To each of these scriptural figures, and to all who would listen and respond, He gave a new beginning, whether it was a new life forgiven of sin or a new life healed of disease or a new life raised from death.
21What does this mean for you and for me? His goodness and mercy and loving-kindness know no bounds. New beginnings are at the heart of the Father’s plan! Fresh starts are the mission of the Son! New dawns, new chapters, and new chances are the simple core of the gospel’s good news!
22So, have you been away too long from your covenants to receive a new beginning? No. Have you done this or that too many times to be given another chance? No. Have you gone too far from Christ for Him to help you write a new story from here on out? No. The adversary is the only one who benefits from the idea that you’re sunk. You are not.
23And new beginnings are for more than just our sins and mistakes. Through the goodness and grace of the Saviour, we can have fresh starts that propel change in old mindsets, bad habits, grumpy dispositions, negative attitudes, feelings of powerlessness, and tendencies to blame others and avoid personal responsibility. You can actually change things about yourself that have been wearing you down for years. You can start again through the might of the Master of new beginnings. He never tires of giving new beginnings to us.
24To those who are struggling with the same sin or the same setback over and over again, you keep going. He hasn’t put a roadblock in front of you. He hasn’t set a limit on your second chances. You press on. You keep striving. You seek help from those around you. And you trust in the new beginning that is there for you every time you turn back to your Father in sincerity of heart. Leave deliberate sinning, casual repeats, and prideful rebellion behind you, where they belong. You don’t have to be who you’ve been before. Embrace your fresh start, your second or third or fourth—or hundredth—chance, offered to you through the atoning blood of Jesus Christ.
25I am grateful beyond description for the new beginnings I have been given and for those I will yet be offered.
26Our Saviour uttered one final understatement, without which there would be no cause for hope or rejoicing this day. After the agonies of Gethsemane and at the conclusion of the torturous cross, He simply said, “It is finished.” Messianic prophecy had been fulfilled, and the full payment of the debt for humanity’s sins and suffering had been paid. He declared “finished” His infinite and eternal sacrifice. Yet His Atonement would not be complete until He Himself experienced new life on the third day, the new beginning, as a glorified, resurrected being through the power of the Father.
27Because He always did those things which pleased His Father, and because He “suffered the will of the Father in all things,” you and I can have new beginnings. Please receive your new beginning, even today, right now. Jesus Christ is the Author and Finisher of our faith, writing countless new chapters with us. He is the Beginning and the End—the end of our shame and suffering and the beginning of a new life in Him, letting us receive His grace, leave the past behind, and begin again with a new dawn, as many times as we need. Truly His “goodness and mercy shall follow [us] all the days of [our lives].” In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.