Richard Wagner and the Gospel of Jesus Christ

At last, the moment has come: Siegfried, who, together with his parents, was created for the sole purpose of killing Fafner and stealing the Rheingold, finally has his long-anticipated battle with the dragon. In this moment, at the climax of Wotan’s two-generation-long plan, one would think that Siegfried knows exactly what he is doing. But, after delivering a deadly wound to his opponent, the dying Fafner asks:

Wer bist du, kühner Knabe, der das Herz mir traf?
(Who are you, valiant lad, who has wounded me to the heart?)

Siegfried responds:

Viel weiß ich noch nicht, noch nicht auch, wer ich bin.
(There is much that I still don’t know: I still don’t know who I am.)

There are some things that Siegfried and we have in common:

1. God had a plan for us long before we were born. The Lord himself says to Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1:5):

Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee.

2. Often, especially in difficult moments, we don’t understand why things are happening, even though we are exactly where Heavenly Father wants us to be.

But, we also have some significant advantages over Siegfried:

1. God is not our grandfather or a distant relative: He is our Heavenly Father, and consequently we have a much deeper connection to Him (Matthew 7:9-11):

Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?
Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?
If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?

2. Contrary to Wotan, who follows his selfish agenda, our Heavenly Father will never plan anything that would be to our disadvantage. The prophet Alma says (Alma 7:20):

I perceive that it has been made known unto you, by the testimony of his word, that he cannot walk in crooked paths; neither doth he vary from that which he hath said; neither hath he a shadow of turning from the right to the left, or from that which is right to that which is wrong; therefore, his course is one eternal round.

And the Lord Himself says to Moses (Moses 1:39):

For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.

3. We know who we are: In “The Family – A Proclamation to the World“ it says:

Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny. […] In the premortal realm, spirit sons and daughters knew and worshipped God as their Eternal Father and accepted His plan by which His children could obtain a physical body and gain earthly experience to progress toward perfection and ultimately realize their divine destiny as heirs of eternal life.

4. Even though God’s plan is different for each of us, there is a core part of the plan that is the same for everyone and that God has revealed to us. This core part is called the gospel of Jesus Christ. It consists of:

1. 1. 1. Faith in Jesus Christ

      2. Repentance

      3. Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins

      4. Receiving the Holy Ghost

      5. Enduring to the end

As always, Jesus Christ is the perfect example for us: He followed the same plan (Matthew 3:13-17):

Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him.
But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?
And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him.
And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him:
And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

If Jesus trusted in Heavenly Father’s plan, we should too, even when facing the dragons of our personal hardships!

There he stands, Parsifal, the young hero who on his own had defeated the entire army of the evil wizard Klingsor. He had even resisted a group of young girls who had been sent out to tempt him into breaking the law of chastity. But now, in his moment of triumph, one woman, Kundry, comes and tells him the news that will change his life forever: While he was gone from home, performing his heroic acts, his mother had passed away because of his youthful recklessness. Devastated by this unbearable news, Parsifal cries out:

Wehe! Wehe! Was tat ich? Wo war ich? Mutter! Süße, holde Mutter! Dein Sohn, dein Sohn musste dich morden! O Tor! Blöder, taumelnder Tor. Wo irrtest du hin, ihrer vergessend, deiner, deiner vergessend? Traute, teuerste Mutter!
(Woe is me! Alas! What have I done? Where was I? Mother! Sweet, dear mother! Your son, your son it was who killed you! Fool! Blind, blundering fool, where did you wander, forgetting her forgetting yourself too? O dearest, beloved mother!)

In this moment, when Parsifal seems to be overwhelmed by his sins, Kundry utters the words that will change his life a second time:

Bekenntnis wird Schuld in Reue enden, Erkenntnis in Sinn die Torheit wenden.
(Confession will end guilt in remorse, understanding changes folly into sense.)

Rarely has the gospel been preached this effectively with so few words: Parsifal can confess his sins and repent. This understanding must have caused the same feeling in Parsifal that Alma the Younger relates the following way (Alma 36:17-21):

And it came to pass that as I was thus racked with torment, while I was harrowed up by the memory of my many sins, behold, I remembered also to have heard my father prophesy unto the people concerning the coming of one Jesus Christ, a Son of God, to atone for the sins of the world.
Now, as my mind caught hold upon this thought, I cried within my heart: O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me, who am in the gall of bitterness, and am encircled about by the everlasting chains of death.
And now, behold, when I thought this, I could remember my pains no more; yea, I was harrowed up by the memory of my sins no more.
And oh, what joy, and what marvelous light I did behold; yea, my soul was filled with joy as exceeding as was my pain!
Yea, I say unto you, my son, that there could be nothing so exquisite and so bitter as were my pains. Yea, and again I say unto you, my son, that on the other hand, there can be nothing so exquisite and sweet as was my joy.

Some people, like Alma and Parsifal, have passed through unbearable pain. In this, the darkest moment of their lives, their own personal version of hell, they have come to know that there is just one thing that can save them and it is the Lord Jesus Christ. If somebody has reached this point in their lives, not many words are needed, because as Elder Matthew Cowley said, the gospel of Jesus Christ is

simply beautiful and beautifully simple.

If one hears the gospel at the right moment and with an open heart, just a few words like those of Kundry are enough. Without any further preaching of the gospel, Parsifal notices that from this moment on he must look unto Jesus Christ, saying:

Es starrt der Blick dumpf auf das Heilsgefäß: Das heil’ge Blut erglüht: Erlösungswonne, göttlich mild, durchzittert weithin alle Seelen
(My dull gaze is fixed on the sacred vessel; the holy blood flows: the bliss of redemption, divinely mild, trembles within every soul around)

If we, like Parsifal, fix our eyes on Jesus Christ and His Atonement, asked by Alma the Younger the following question (Alma 5:26):

And now behold, I say unto you, my brethren, if ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now?

We will be able to answer with a heartfelt yes and sing the song of redeeming love forever and ever to the glory of God, who has offered redemption to us and all of mankind!

Coming soon...