Live the Light
LIVE THE LIGHT:
This song comes from 3 Nephi 19 from the teachings of the disciples who Jesus chose from among the gathering to be his 12 leaders of the Nephites. The day after Jesus' first visit, these disciples begin teaching what He taught the previous day, so this piece flashes back to chapters 11-18 and focuses on what they learned.
When Jesus teaches among the Nephites, he first explains his gospel, which includes faith on him, repentance, and baptism. He says that anyone who teaches more or less than this is not teaching his gospel. He then give the Nephite people the exact same words he taught in the Sermon on the Mount. This discourse has been described as the greatest theological instruction of all time. Here, Jesus is giving the people, not the law of Moses, but a higher law.
The law of Moses was a law of outward ordinances and rules that helped the leaders of the people govern in righteousness. It laid out the process for handling theft, murder, adultery, lying, etc. This was the bare minimum that the Lord expects of us to keep our communities civilized. But the Sermon on the Mount teaches us that we must be better than the law. It is more about motive and intention than it is about outward actions. He taught us forgiveness and compassion over exactness and obedience.
This is what I wanted to convey in this song. There is so much in the Sermon on the Mount that many songs have been made from various parts of this sermon. Many papers have been written on the topic and teachings. So I saw this as a great undertaking. What could I possibly offer that would stand out among all the great works created on this subject?
From the days of Nephi, the prophets had written that the law of Moses is dead and that they sought after and lived a higher law. They looked forward to the day when they didn't have to live the Mosaic law anymore. Now that Jesus is here, among this people, they finally have permission to do away with old things.
I wanted this song to be a celebration. When the 12 chosen disciples of Jesus are teaching the people who travelled all night to be in the same place where He was, they were teaching it from memory. With that in mind, I imagined what the most exciting and memorable thing was to one of those disciples and put it into the song. This meant that I didn't have to repeat it verbatim or try to squeeze it all in.
For this song, I chose to pattern off of Cheryl Crow's "Soak Up the Sun." I wanted it to be joyful, exciting, and preachy so that it would easily represent the disciple teaching the crowd. It should not be a call to repentance. This is a proclamation that Jesus came to visit and that he taught us his gospel.
