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This devotional address entitled, The Inconvenient Messiah, was given on February

2nd of 1982 by Jeffrey R. and Patricia T. Holland, then-President and wife of the president of

BYU.

Many of you are aware, and all of you ought to be,

that Elder Bruce R. McConkey has been writing and publishing a series of books

on the life of the Savior, tracing his role in the eternal plan

from the councils in heaven through his earthly life

onto his exaltation and eternity.

That series of books entitled in several volumes as

the promised Messiah, the mortal Messiah, and the soon-to-be-published millennial Messiah,

has been a part of my personal study material over these past several months of their publication.

For my purposes today, and with reasonable assurance that I won't

infringe on Elder Mokonky's series, I've labeled my remarks the inconvenient Messiah.

I wish to speak this morning of the demands of discipline and discipleship, of the responsibilities

we have to face when we choose to follow Jesus Christ.

In the Savior's life and in ours, Satan counters such discipline with temptations of an easier way,

with temptations and offers of convenient Christianity.

It is a temptation Jesus resisted, and so must we.

Life was very inconvenient for him, and unless I miss my guess, it will often be so for you and for me when we take upon us his name. Frankly, I would prefer to speak with you individually about such

temptations. I would be thrilled if at this very large university there were a way to have some

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