This lesson plan is written for you to use in a class or at home. If you use it at home, I suggest just taking various segments a day at a time and discussing them as a family or on your own in your journal (my family usually does a segment a night over the dinner table). Don’t try to do the full lesson at once – it’s meant to be taken in smaller chunks. If you use it for a class at church, I suggest just choosing a segment or two to focus on during the lesson.

Segment 1, Grief: In Matthew 14, John the Baptist is beheaded in a gruesome/public way that surely left his loved ones mourning. Here’s what Matthew says happened when Jesus heard the news (as written in chapter 14):

13 When Jesus heard of it, he departed thence by ship into a desert place apart: and when the people had heard thereof, they followed him on foot out of the cities.

14 And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick.

I keep coming to these verses wondering what they tell us exactly. It seems that Jesus wanted to be alone, but ended up needing to serve instead. Perhaps the multitude was also mourning. Or, perhaps, he utilized his time alone to feel whole through the grief in order to be able to serve those around him. Though I’ve never grieved the public beheading of a cousin (and most likely/hopefully never will), I related to the idea of wanting a bit of time alone to work through difficult emotions, but also being pulled in other directions – perhaps to help others work through those same difficult emotions (I feel like this pull has happened a lot since becoming a mom nearly 12 years ago!). Sometimes taking the time we might need seems difficult. 

In her blog “Grief Healing” Marty Tousley discusses this pull we might feel when dealing with grief while also balancing other responsibilities:

“As the busy mother of three sons, you worry that you have no time to do your grief work. Keep in mind that grief is patient; it will still be there at the end of the day or at those quiet, alone times when you are free to pay it the attention it demands. At such times, allow yourself to be open to your pain, and think of it as a way of honoring the love you feel for your mother. Remember, too, that you need not do it all at one time.”

Questions to ponder:

1. When dealing with grief or other strong emotions, how can we take the time to grieve? How can we take the time to comfort those also mourning?
2. How can we give time to others to mourn?

Segment 2, Finding Joy in Christ: In Matthew chapter 14, the disciples were out on a ship in the midst of a storm – probably terrified for their lives. Jesus realized they needed help and walked on the water out to them. Naturally, they were even more scared – assuming a ghost was walking toward them. Jesus said to them (Matthew 14:27): “Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid.” 

I’m struck by Christ’s command to “Be of good cheer.” I imagine being on that ship, feeling like the weather was going to kill me, then thinking a ghost was coming to haunt me, and I’m wondering what it might have felt like to be commanded to “Be of good cheer.”

Tish Harrison Warren, a Priest of the Anglican Church of North America, wrote “Joy is both a gift and a practice…but it isn’t primarily a feeling any more than self-control or faithfulness are feelings. It is a muscle we can strengthen with exercise.” 

Using this definition of “joy,” I wonder if that’s what Christ was telling his disciples. Maybe he was saying, “I know it’s hard, but I’m here to help you strengthen this muscle. I’m here to help you find joy.” Like any other muscle group we’re trying to strengthen, there will be ups and downs. I think Christ is there to help us through the ups and downs of finding joy.

Questions to ponder:

1. How does Christ help us strengthen our “joy muscle” and become full of cheer? 
2. How can Christ help us find joy even through ups and downs (especially through the downs)?

Segment 3, Becoming Whole: At the end of Matthew 14 (and similarly at the end of Mark 6), we’re told that people were brought to Christ for healing and many “besought him that they might only touch the hem of his garment: and as many as touched were made perfectly whole.”

In a church magazine article from 2008, Shari Pippen shared what it was like to have an incurable illness that caused her discomfort and unhappiness. One day, as she read New Testament accounts of people becoming whole through Christ, she realized she could feel this wholeness as well:

“In a tender moment, the Spirit taught me about what it means to be made whole. It does not always mean a healing of our physical infirmities. Rather, it means that when we come to the Savior, He will first heal our hearts and then, sometimes, He will heal our bodies. To be made whole, we have to reach out to Him in faith. In the case of the woman in the story, she literally reached out and touched the hem of the Savior’s garment. In my case, I had to pour my heart out in prayer.”

Questions to ponder:

1. In what ways do I want to feel whole?
2. How can I ask God to help me feel whole?
3. How has God helped me feel whole before?

Segment 4, Jesus as the Bread of Life: In John 6:35, Jesus declares, “I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.”

In a General Conference talk from 2014, Cheryl A. Esplin spoke of the sacrament and then said, “Our wounded souls can be healed and renewed not only because the bread and water remind us of the Savior’s sacrifice of His flesh and blood but because the emblems also remind us that He will always be our ‘bread of life’ and ‘living water’.” In other words, we can be made whole as we remember the promise that the Lord fills us as our bread of life and living water.

Questions to ponder:

1. How can I feel filled through Christ?
2. In what ways has he filled me today? These can be small ways, but taking a second to think about some way we have seen God fill us today can help us find the joy that God promises us.
3. In what ways has he filled me throughout my life?

Segment 5, How Great the Wisdom and the Love: The Come Follow Me manual suggests singing the hymn by Eliza R. Snow “How Great the Wisdom and the Love” while reading these chapters this week. I agree! I think Eliza R. Snow’s words are a perfect poem to help us feel the joy and love the Christ brings us. She penned:

How great the wisdom and the love

That filled the courts on high

And sent the Savior from above

To suffer, bleed, and die!

His precious blood he freely spilt;

His life he freely gave,

A sinless sacrifice for guilt,

A dying world to save.

By strict obedience Jesus won

The prize with glory rife:

“Thy will, O God, not mine be done,”

Adorned his mortal life.

He marked the path and led the way,

And ev’ry point defines

To light and life and endless day

Where God’s full presence shines.

In mem’ry of the broken flesh

We eat the broken bread

And witness with the cup, afresh,

Our faith in Christ, our Head.

How great, how glorious, how complete

Redemption’s grand design,

Where justice, love, and mercy meet

In harmony divine!

Questions to ponder:

1. How do wisdom and love fit together?
2. How does knowing Christ saved a “dying world” help me today?
3. Where can we see God’s full presence shine? 
4. Great | Glorious | Complete | Redemption’s grand design | Justice | Love | Mercy | Harmony Divine : These are just some of the words Eliza R. Snow used to describe the Savior. What do each of these words mean to me? How does feeling them embodied in the Savior help me personally?