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Welcome to the Recent Speeches podcast presented by BYU Speeches, featuring inspiring new devotionals and forums given each week on BYU Campus. Be sure to check out our other podcasts by searching BYU Speeches wherever you get your podcasts or by visiting Speeches BYU Edu Podcasts.
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This devotional address entitled Miracles of the Multitude, was given on June 3, 2026 by Elisa M. Dishman, a professor of law at Brigham Young J. Reuben Clark Law School About a year and a half ago, my husband and I sat in a children's hospital for a parents workshop. Our daughter was struggling with significant chronic pain and a small group of parents, all of us with children facing different health challenges, had gathered to learn techniques to ease our children's suffering. Down the hall, our children were doing the same. Learning from medical professionals and each other helped how to manage their pain so they could more fully participate in school friendships and everyday life. Our workshop lives led by a highly credentialed, capable, and deeply compassionate psychologist and, I might add, an alumna of byu. She walked us through the nature of chronic pain and introduced us to a relaxation tool called visualization. Visualization, or guided imagery, is a therapeutic technique in which the mind creates detailed positive mental scenarios to reduce stress, ease physical pain, and improve emotional well being. We practiced visualization together as parents. The psychologist asked us to close our eyes and imagine ourselves in a park sitting on a bench. I visualized myself sitting on a bench, but instead of a park, I saw a curving brick pathway. I saw a stream running nearby and heard water rippling over the rock's streambed. I saw tall trees that shaded the bench and green plants along the banks of the stream. I felt sunlight filtering through trees as a breeze fluttered the sleeves of my dress. I was amazed at the quiet calm and feeling of peace that washed over me. I was struck by the power of the mind to create that image and its associated feelings. Then I abruptly realized what you might be realizing too, that my mind had taken me to a very specific and real place, the south side of our campus, along the brick pathway above the botany duck pond, a place many of you walk past every day up those steep stairs on the way to class. It is one of my favorite places on campus that I have shared with my University 101 students, and I was taken aback that when my mind was searching for comfort, it immediately brought me here to our campus. Most people's minds would not instinctively retreat to their workplace when conjuring images of relaxation, but mine did. Two things stood out to me from that experience, and they shaped what I want to share with you today. The first was the feeling of stepping into a room with other parents who truly understood what I was going through. There is something powerful, almost tangible about being surrounded by people who understand what you are going through. It can be profoundly lonely to care for a person who is suffering or to be suffering ourselves. Being among people who are all doing their best to find healing or to help someone they love who is hurting creates a strong connection among a group, even if they start out as strangers. The second was I believe my mind brought me back to BYU that day because this community played a real role in healing of my family. I want to speak to you today about the role of community in the miracles of Jesus Christ and what that means for us here at BYU. BYU's roots stretch back to a very humble community of early saints in Kirtland, Ohio. As many of you know perhaps from your University 101 class, Kirtland was the site of revelations that form the basic constitution of church education. It is where the prophet Joseph Smith received revelations like the olive leaf and in Doctrine and Covenants 88 established the school of the Prophets and where the saints built the first Latter Day Temple. Kirtland was a place of an outpouring of revelations in the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I visited Kirtland for the first time at a deeply personal moment in my life. After about a year of treatment, my daughter was struggling with a neurological disorder triggered by an accident, one that caused significant chronic pain and greatly limited her ability to attend school and engage in daily life. We decided to take her to an intensive pediatric rehabilitation program at the world renowned Cleveland Clinic, one of the few inpatient programs in the country that treats her condition. This meant temporarily moving our family to Cleveland, where we are fortunate to have family living nearby. The rehabilitation program was rigorous. Our daughter participated in several hours of therapies and treatments each day and attended school within the clinic with a small group of other patients suffering from chronic health conditions. My husband and I spent many hours attending parent education meetings, treatments, and medical consultations. Our older son came to support his sister and attended meetings for siblings and families. It was during some of our limited off time in Cleveland that my husband's son and I drove the 30 minutes to Kirtland while my daughter continued in her program. Visiting this sacred place of restoration while my daughter was seeking her own restoration felt deeply significant to stand in Kirtland and feel the weight of what happened there. The miraculous outpouring of light and revelation alongside heartache, betrayal and sacrifice felt intensely personal Wondrous miracles and intense suffering coexisted in Kirtland. Both are part of the story of restoration and the legacy of faith we inherited from that early community of saints. Our daughter graduated from the Cleveland Clinic program with our family there to cheer her on. On graduation day, the cohort of young people who graduated from the program walked down the clinic halls together to the cheers of family, friends and medical professionals. I made posters with my very limited artistic abilities with encouraging messages for the graduates. These pictures are of our family at graduation day at the clinic. You can see that BYU was part of that special day with my husband rocking his royal cougar blue and the Y I drew on the mountain of the poster that read, you can do hard things, and if you've ever hiked the Y or even made it past turn seven, you know that you can do hard things too. Many of these young people, our daughter included, still had very long healing journeys ahead. And there would be fits and starts, good days and bad, but at that moment, we were all there to cheer her and the other patients along the way. Experiencing Kirtland through the lens of my daughter's process of restoration taught me an important lesson. Restoration, whether of the gospel or of a person, can be painful and challenging, but also glorious and miraculous. And community is woven through every moment of that journey, in the disappointments and the triumphs. There is a large painting of Kirtland that hangs in the Education in Zion Gallery in the Joseph F. Smith Building here on campus. It is 18ft tall and 10ft wide. It is called the Temple A Holy School. Most of the painting is made up of dark cloudy sky, but light also breaks through and shines on the relatively small temple on the bluff. This painting reflected the experience I had in Kirtland, showing that darkness and light, setbacks and breakthroughs and heartache and transcendence can exist in the same part and be part of the same story. At the other end of the gallery, a companion painting, the School A Temple of Learning, shows the BYU Academy and Maeser Building bathed in light. These buildings were the beginning of our campus today and a visual testimony that the work of restoration goes forward and that out of small and difficult beginnings, great things can come to pass when a group of people are dedicated to a common purpose and gathered around the Savior. I have taken my University 101 students to see these paintings. One of my favorite details, something our student tour guide at the gallery pointed out, is that the artist is simply listed as anonymous, not because no one knows who painted them, but because they were created by a group of BYU students working together, this combined effort is symbolic to me of community the community in Kirtland that is our history and the BYU community today that is our legacy. In preparation for this devotional, I reread the miracles of Jesus Christ in the Gospels with a slightly different lens. Rather than focusing only on the individual being healed and the Savior, I found myself thinking about everyone else the crowd that thronged him, the apostles and disciples that were his companions, the friends and family who sought him to heal their loved ones and the multitude that followed him. There is a larger audience or community in the stories of the miracles performed in the Gospels, and pondering about that expanded community teaches us something important about how restoration and healing occur in our community centered on Christ. Before I continue, I want to speak directly to anyone who is waiting for a miracle right now, anyone whose prayers have not been answered in the way you hoped or on the timetable you expected. I have felt that too. There was a time that when hearing about the miracles of Christ were painful to me because I did not receive the miracle I had prayed for. But I have also found in those seasons of waiting, that studying and healing miracles of Christ brought me hope and increased my faith. I testify that miracles, large and small, hard sought and unexpected, occur in our daily lives when we are tuned to recognize them. My prayer is that wherever you are on your healing journey, the Spirit will whisper to you that you are a beloved child of heavenly parents and a valued member of our community. With that in mind, I'd like to discuss three aspects of community found in the healing miracles of first, miracles of community restoration second, miracles prompted by community members and third, miracles of community abundance. First, I would like to speak about miracles of community restoration. When Jesus healed people, he did not simply cure their physical ailments, he restored them to their communities. Consider his healing of those afflicted with leprosy. In biblical times, a person with leprosy was required to announce their own uncleanliness, to keep distance from others and live apart from family and friends. At the time, many skin conditions were classified as leprosy, even if they were not contagious or what we would consider leprosy today, meaning that the isolation would was often more injurious than the disease itself. In the story of Jesus healing the ten lepers who stood afar off, they lifted their collected voices and said, jesus, Master, have mercy on us. And when he saw them, he said unto him, go, show yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass that as they went, they were cleansed Jesus directs the lepers to show themselves to the priests so they could be declared clean. When Jesus healed the lepers physically, he simultaneously pointed the way back to their families, their friends, and their communities. This was not an afterthought. Returning to their community was an important part of their restoration and healing. As you know, of the 10 healed, one returned and fell down at Jesus feet, giving thanks. And he was a Samaritan. It is significant that the one who returned was a Samaritan, perhaps a person even more accustomed to being marginalized than the others. One who had not only suffered from leprosy, but also social stigma based on his heritage. Jesus acknowledged this marginalization when he observed that the other nine had not returned to give glory to God. Save this stranger. To the grateful Samaritan, Jesus said, arise, go thy way. Thy faith has made thee whole. Another example of the role of community restoration and healing is the man at the pool of Bethesda who who had an infirmity for 38 years. When Jesus approached him, knowing the man had been a long time in the case, he asked, wilt thou be made whole? The man answered, sir, I have no man. When the water is troubled, to put me in the pool. But while I am coming, another steppeth down before me. Jesus said unto him, rise, take up thy bed and walk. And immediately the man was made whole. And he took up his bed and walked. Because the infirm man was alone, no one could move him to the pool. When the waters were stirred. Jesus. Jesus healed him and told him to take up his mat and walk, to leave a place of isolation and rejoin the world. The absence of community was not incidental to his condition. It was part of what had kept him in a place of suffering. There are many other instances in the Gospels where the Savior heals and then sends the healed person back to the community. To the woman with the issue of blood, he says, go in peace. To the man with the unclean spirits, he says, go home to thy friends. To the paralytic man, he says, go thy way into thy house. And to blind Bartimaeus, he says, go thy way. He often tells those he heals to go, in contrast to other calls of discipleship, to follow me. For those who have been pushed to the margins, returning to family and community was not separate from healing. It made the miracle complete. These stories matter deeply to us here at byu. A community that isolates its vulnerable members is itself in need of healing. When Jesus healed the sick and welcomed the outcasts, he was doing the work of healing a broken community. Not just broken individuals. Paul captures this sentiment when he wrote, and whether one member suffer, all members suffer with it, or one member be honored, all members rejoice with it. None of us is fully healed until we were all healed and restored to the body of Christ. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Expressed a similar truth beautifully all men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. BYU's mission is to assist individuals in their quest for perfection and eternal life. But this is not a quest that can be journeyed alone. We need this community to reach our destination. What brings us together a love of our Savior and our identity as children of God must be greater than the pressures that divide us. Second, I'd like to speak about miracles prompted by community members in many stories of Christ's healing. Members of the community bring about miracles based on their faith in petitioning the Lord. It is often not the same sick or afflicted person who initiates the miracle. It is someone else, a friend, a mother, a father, a sister, a Roman centurion. These community members act as agents of faith, and their creative, determined love moves the Savior to act. I would like to share three examples of different ways community members brought about the Savior's healing miracles. First, consider the paralytic man whose form four friends carried him on a bed to where Jesus was preaching to the crowd. When the crowd was too thick to get their friend to Jesus, they did not give up. Instead, they uncovered the roof where he was, and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lie. When Jesus saw the faith of this committed group of friends, he heals the paralytic man first of his sins and then of his physical infirmity. The faith that moved the miracle was not the paralytic man's own. It was the faith of his friends. And immediately the man arose, took up his bed, and went forth among the multitude who glorified God. All of the community gloried in the healing of the One. And I imagine there was an amazing reunion between the man and his friends once his friends got off the roof. Second, there is Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue, who fell at Jesus feet and begged him to come to his dying little daughter. Jairus entreated Jesus to come and lay thy hands on her that she might be healed and she shall live. As Jesus traveled with him through a pressing crowd A messenger arrived with the thy daughter is dead. Why troublest the Master any further? Imagine Jairus devastation. He had brought the Savior. But it was too late. His daughter was gone and he had missed her final moments. But upon hearing this news, Jesus said, be not afraid, only believe. Exercising his faith, Jairus brought the Savior to what appeared to be a hopeless situation, and Jesus raised the young girl from the dead. Third, a servant sick of the palsy was healed by the faith and intervention on behalf of by a Roman centurion. In this example, the Roman centurion does not bring his servant to Jesus, nor does he bring Jesus to heal his servant. The centurion went to the Jewish elders who brought him to Jesus. At the centurion's beseeching, Jesus offers to come and heal the servant. The centurion demonstrated exceptional faith, saying, speak the word only and my servant shall be healed. Jesus marveled and said to those around him that he had not found so great faith, not in all of Israel. He told the centurion, go thy way, and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in that selfsame hour. The healing of the servant is a miracle. But it is also a miracle of a community that a Roman centurion, Jewish elders, and the Savior came together to bring about the healing of one servant. These three examples are a pattern for us. In the first example, friends brought the paralytic man to Jesus. In the second, Jairus brought Jesus to his daughter. In the third, the centurion's faith brought the Savior's healing power to his servant. We can do all three. We can bring our friends to Jesus by inviting them to church services, temple worship, devotionals, and opportunities to serve. We can bring Jesus to our friends by sharing our testimonies, listening compassionately, and offering kindness as the Savior would. And we can be a conduit of his healing power by praying for our friends and rallying our community around those in need. In all of these examples, someone intervened on behalf of a vulnerable person who could not help themselves. Intervening for the benefit of another is something that drew me to the path of law. Lawyers are in a unique position to act for the benefit of their clients in ways that their clients often cannot act on their own. The BYU Law Mission Statement encapsulates that aspect of being a lawyer and links it to the roles of Christ. The BYU Law Mission statement says, we are committed to the teachings of Jesus Christ and honor his many roles, including healer, mediator, counselor, peacemaker, advocate, lawgiver, and judge. In striving to emulate his example, we seek to be and develop people of integrity who combine faith and intellect in lifelong service to God and neighbor. This video shows the beautiful paintings along with the artist Jorge Coco. These paintings hang in the law school to represent our mission. They depict each of the Savior's roles as they relate to the role of the disciple, lawyer as healer, mediator, counselor, peacemaker, advocate, lawgiver and judge. Mr. Coco happened to be at the law school touching up the paintings the same day this video was filmed and I consider it a tender mercy that he was there that day so we could appreciate seeing him with his inspiring art. These roles of the Savior reflect lawyering at his best, advocating for clients who cannot speak for themselves, helping people understand the law, creating healing and peace, using legal processes to resolve disputes and mediating for clients in difficult situations and offering our sound judgments so our clients can make better decisions. Each of these roles is at its core an active community, helping people to seek fairness, obtain redress and navigate conflict to live together more peaceably. Now, if you are at all starting to feel inspired to attend law school, not to worry, we have admissions counselors standing by ready to answer your questions and take applications. Third, I would like to discuss Miracles of Community Abundance As I reread the Gospels, searching for the community surrounding miracles, I was struck by how the multitude is described. They were often numerous thousands of people at a time when long distance travel was hard. Walking on foot out of the cities, they brought their sick with them, carrying them on beds to wherever Jesus was. They followed him so persistently that he sought solitude on ships, in mountains, or in the desert, and the multitude followed him there too. Jesus had compassion on the multitude and healed their sick, and upon seeing the miracles, the multitude glorified God. The feeding of the five thousand and four thousand are defining miracles of community abundance, and these numbers only counted men. The true multitude was far larger. In the feeding of the 5,000 the disciples sought to send the multitude away from the desert so they could buy food. But Jesus did not desire to send them away. Rather, he said, they need not depart, give ye them to eat. The disciples responded that they only had five loaves and two fishes. In the hands of the Master, five loaves and two fishes became a feast, and after everyone had eaten, there remained 12 baskets full in the feeding of the 4,000 great multitudes came to Jesus on a mountain, bringing with them their sick, injured and afflicted, and cast them at Jesus feet. Jesus had compassion on them because they continue with me three days and have nothing to eat. I will not send them away fasting lest they faint in the way. The disciples asked Jesus how they would feed a multitude in the wilderness, and Jesus asked how many loaves they had. 7. And few fishes was their response. Again, Jesus blessed these offerings, feeding the multitude until they were filled and there were seven baskets left over. Where the disciples saw scarcity in the multitude, Jesus saw abundance. When the disciples wanted to send the multitude away, Jesus drew them in. When the disciples saw what was lacking, Jesus saw an opportunity to nourish. These miracles are not just about bread and fish. They are about what becomes possible in a community gathered around the Savior. They are miracles of the multitude. This insight has prompted some questions about our BYU community. What miracles of the multitude do we have here at byu? What greater miracles might occur if we increased our efforts to gather ourselves around the Savior? How do we, as a multitude at byu, glorify God in gratitude for the miracles we witness? I want to close by returning to the visualization I shared at the beginning of this talk and telling you why I believe. My mind went to this campus in a moment of distress during this hard season for our family. Our BYU community surrounded us in ways I will never forget. A colleague ordered a meal delivery service within days of our accident, and Minnie generously donated a student's toddler included my daughter in his family's evening prayers. My college dean and his wife invited my daughter and me to his home so we could pet their new puppies. Student body officers from the law school came to my office with a card and a gift for my daughter. Faculty, staff, and administrators regularly checked on me in personal conversations and through email and text messages. Colleagues kept my daughter in their prayers, and one in particular added her name to his personal prayer list and prayed for her by name. For months. An undergraduate student took night classes so she could work during the day as my daughters ate at school. Each of these acts was a loaf of bread or fish offered to her, feeding my family through a difficult time, and together they became an abundance of love and support that eased a burden that we could not have carried alone. This community showed me what it looks like to be willing to bear another's burdens so that they may be light. Alma teaches the people in the Book of Mormon that Christ will take upon them their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities. This verse came to my mind often during those years of receiving care from this community. The word succor means assistance or relief given to someone in distress. While I desperately wanted my daughter to be immediately healed, I came to believe that Christ knew me and knew that I needed and valued the support of my community. Christ succored me in a difficult time by blessing me with an outpouring of love from this community, and I am grateful to the many people who exemplified the Savior's love in serving me and my family. As you leave today, I hope you will pause to remember who in this community has supported you and offer gratitude for them. I also know that some of you may have felt let down or left out by our community at times. I know Christ is aware of that pain. After all, his most trusted apostles fell asleep in the Garden of Gethsemane when he needed them the most. One betrayed him, one denied Him. And yet, when the resurrected Lord returned to his apostles, he entrusted them to feed his sheep and care for his flock. As a community centered on Christ, we are all responsible to improve how we love, include and help each other heal. I hope you will ask yourselves, is there someone nearby who is suffering or alone and within my reach to help? Am I paying enough attention to notice when someone is struggling, isolated or missing? Am I listening to the Holy Ghost when He prompts me to act and am I following through on those promptings? What am I doing right now to build a community of Christ at byu? A BYU education is a once in a lifetime opportunity. An opportunity to build your intellect, your faith, your character and your relationships. You will miss the full benefit of a BYU education if you pursue only the education part and skip the BYU part. The community, the connection, the belonging that is central to attending this university. You don't have to feed thousands on your own. It only took a few fish and loaves of bread to feed a multitude. You have something to offer, even if it's frozen fish sticks or goldfish crackers. Jesus will take what you offer, bless it and multiply it in ways you cannot imagine. In so doing, it's my hope that we will be a community that gathers around the Savior and experiences miracles in our multitude. And I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ.
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