Brian J. Holmes · Of the Seventy
1Last year, my wife, Maggie, and I ran the Jungfrau-Marathon in Switzerland. Set in the heart of the Swiss Alps, it is considered one of the most difficult marathons in the world. From start to finish, the course climbs over 6,400 feet, or 1,900 meters, as it winds through beautiful alpine villages and rugged, high-mountain terrain. The views carry you through the early miles, but the final stretch turns steep and narrow, forcing runners to hike the rocky path in single file. The last ascent demands careful attention to every step. In this race you are not just crossing a finish line; you are conquering a mountain.
2So imagine our surprise when we learned that one of the runners who finished this race was blind. This courageous man ran tethered to a guide. For most of the race, they ran side by side, but as the course turned steeper and more demanding, the guide moved ahead, calling out every obstacle and directing each step. Because he was bound to a guide, the blind runner accomplished what would otherwise be impossible alone.
3Like that marathon, our journey through life has moments of beauty and joy but is no walk in the park. We all want to cross the heavenly finish line and gain eternal life. Yet the course is often steep and difficult to navigate. We all face trials. Without a power greater than our own, no one successfully finishes this race.
4At some point, we are all like the blind runner. We all need a guide.
5Our Father in Heaven, in His perfect love, has provided us with many helps to guide our journey. As President Dallin H. Oaks taught, the strongest help God has given us is a Savior, Jesus Christ.
6Through His Atonement, Jesus Christ “has done everything that is essential for our journey through mortality toward the destiny outlined in the plan of our Heavenly Father.” Because He lived a perfect life, because He bore every sin and every sorrow, because He broke the bands of death, Jesus Christ alone can stand before the world and declare, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
7In that simple declaration, the Savior taught that He is not only our guide; He is the path. His way is the only path that leads to eternal life.
8Our Savior invites us to walk with Him. His way is the covenant path, the one path that leads to our celestial finish line. We choose to walk the covenant path by exercising faith in Jesus Christ unto repentance, receiving the ordinances of His gospel, and enduring to the end. These ordinances are essential. As Jesus taught Nicodemus, “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.”
9Just as the band tethered the blind runner to his guide, covenants bind us to our guide—Jesus Christ. Elder David A. Bednar taught, “The covenant connection we have with our Heavenly Father and His resurrected and living Son is the supernal source of perspective, hope, power, peace, and enduring joy.”
10Once we bind ourselves to our Savior through covenant, only we can sever the tie. Jesus never will. As we remain tightly bound to Him, He is bound to us. We can expect His power to bless us with strength and joy even when we are experiencing a steep stretch of life. But if we turn away, we have no such promise. Covenant blessings flow from ongoing faithfulness, not merely from past participation.
11When our path gets hard—and it will—we can remember the Apostle Peter. When the road of discipleship became steep and many “walked no more” with Jesus, He turned to the Twelve and asked, “Will ye also go away?” It was a searching question, one that reaches through time to each of us.
12Peter answered:
13“Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.
14“And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.”
15When we have doubts, when discipleship feels demanding, when others turn back, that is the moment to stay bound to Christ just as Peter did. There is nowhere else to go; only Christ has the words of eternal life.
16As we walk with our Savior along the covenant path, we come to know an essential truth: To walk with Jesus is to follow His prophet. The Savior Himself calls prophets, speaks through them, and governs His Church by them.
17Think about it: None of us could know the true and living Christ without prophetic witness. From Adam to Noah, Moses to Peter, and Joseph Smith to our day, God has chosen to reveal His Son to His children through a prophet.
18Some say, “I don’t need a prophet or a church to follow Jesus.”
19But Jesus Himself said to His chosen Apostles, “He that heareth you heareth me; and he that despiseth you despiseth me.”
20To knowingly reject His prophets is, by His own definition, to reject Him.
21The Lord warned of a time when “every man walketh in his own way, and after the image of his own god.” Without apostles and prophets, our perception of Christ gradually becomes whatever we want Him to be. Our understanding of doctrine shifts. Our commitment to standards erodes. Unity dissolves.
22That is why Paul taught that the Church is “built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone.” Not so that we would be controlled but so that we would be established, “that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine.”
23Our Savior promised, “If my people will hearken unto my voice, and unto the voice of my servants whom I have appointed to lead my people, … they shall not be moved out of their place.”
24Brothers and sisters, our Father in Heaven desires all His children to come home. His Beloved Son, Jesus Christ, is the only way back. I testify that because Jesus Christ climbed the steepest mountain of all as He bore the weight of our salvation, we never have to face our mountains alone. As we bind ourselves to Him through covenant and follow His living prophet, we walk the one path that leads us safely home. I so testify in the sacred name of Jesus Christ, amen.