Easter Morning

While soldiers guarded the sepulcher in which the body of Jesus Christ lay, the earth violently shook, two angels descended from heaven, rolled away the stone, and sat upon it. Overcome with fear the soldiers fell to the ground as if dead.

"Holy Women Near the Tomb" by Maurice Denis

The next morning, as soon as day began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and other women hurried to the tomb bearing sweet spices to anoint the Savior’s body. Worried about how they would roll back the heavy stone, they were surprised to find it already rolled back, and two angels guarding the entrance. Sensing the women’s fear, the angels said, “Be not affrighted: Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: he is risen; he is not here” (Mark 16:6). “Remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee. Saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again” (Luke 24:6-7).

At the invitation of the angels the women then looked inside the sepulcher and when they had seen that it was empty the angels instructed them to go tell Peter and the disciples that the Lord had risen. The women returned quickly and told all they had seen. But most of the men took it as idle talk and refused to believe the women.

However, Peter and John hurried to the sepulcher and when they arrived Peter stooped down to look inside and saw that the linen clothes were lying undisturbed, but the napkin which had been about Jesus’ head was folded in a place by itself. The sight must have startled him. If the body had been stolen the linen would have been taken with the body or at least strewn about the room in disarray, but instead it lay where it had been and the napkin neatly folded. What could it mean? Perplexed Peter and John returned to their homes.

Overcome with sorrow, Mary stayed in the garden, and still weeping, peered inside the tomb one more time. There she saw the two angels, one sitting at the head and the other at the feet where the body of Jesus had lain. Seeing her sorrow, one said to her, “Woman, why weepest thou?” (John 20:13.

"Jesus Appears to Mary" by Gregg Olsen

“Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him.”

As she spoke, she turned back and saw Jesus standing in the garden, but with tears filling her eyes she didn’t recognize Him. “Why weepest thou?” he asked her.

Thinking He was the gardener she begged of Him, “Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away.”

Jesus responded, “Mary,” and at the sound of the familiar voice calling her name her grief turned instantly to joy and she cried, “My great Master.”

“Hold me not,” Jesus cautioned, “for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God” (John 20:17).

Mary did as instructed and thus dawned the greatest day in the history of the world. Many mighty miracles followed as graves opened and the resurrected bodies of the saints came forth to minister to believers. 

Jesus also appeared to many other people and the world rejoiced in the fact that the great enemies of life, spiritual and physical death, had been defeated. Because He loved us so much, Jesus Christ saved us.

He is risen!

The Crucifixion

Crucifixion was designed to cause death but to do so at the slowest, most torturous pace. The agony was intense as wounds tore and bled, and muscles and joints pulled from tendons and sockets. But that is not what caused death. The strain of hanging by the arms eventually caused asphyxiation as the person lost the ability to breathe.

That day on Calvary two others were executed alongside Jesus. One of them joined the Jewish leaders in deriding Jesus and cried out, “If thou be Christ, save thyself and us” (Luke 23:39). But the other rebuked the first saying, “Dost not thou fear God. . . .We receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss.”

Then to Jesus he said, “Remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.”

Many of the women who had followed Jesus were sorrowing at the cross including Jesus’ mother. When Jesus saw her there he said,, “Woman, behold thy son!” Then to John he said, “Behold thy mother!”

At noon darkness fell over the land, and for the next three hours the sun was hid. Finally after three hours of suffering, Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”

John tells us that then, knowing all things were now accomplished, Jesus said, “I thirst.”

In response someone dipped a sponge into a pot of vinegar, put the sponge on a hyssop reed, which would have been about three or four feet long, and lifted it to Jesus’ mouth. After He had sucked from it Jesus said, “It is finished. Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit” (Luke 23:46). Then bowing his head, as the Greek text says, Jesus breathed out his last breath and delivered up His spirit.

Meanwhile at the temple the new course of Levites were performing the sacrificial rituals and at this same moment the trumpets announced that the ritual service was one-third over. Inside the Holy Place the veil separating it from the Most Holy Place ripped in two. The symbolism of this incident is beautiful. Before only the High Priest, representing Jehovah, could enter the Most Holy Place which contained the throne of God, and he was only allowed in once a year on the day of Atonement. With the veil rent, the way back to God was now open for all mankind. But there is something more. Josephus tells us that according to the Rabbis, the veil was a handbreadth thick. It was woven of 72 twisted plaits, each consisting of 24 threads (24 ply yarn!). Josephus, who tends to exaggeration, also informs us that the veil was so large it required 300 priests to lift it into place. But at the moment of Christ’s death it miraculously ripped in two from top to bottom.

Wanting the ordeal to be over before the Sabbath began, the Jewish leaders implored Pilate to expedite the crucifixion. Under orders, then, the soldiers broke the legs of the two thieves so that they could no long push themselves up by the small platform at their feet and would suffocate. But when they came to Jesus, He was already dead. Seeing this one of the soldiers thrust his spear into the Savior’s side and blood and water gushed out. This is significant in that it indicates that instead of dying by asphyxiation, Jesus’ heart literally ruptured making the cause of death a broken heart.

After the death of Jesus, Joseph of Arimathaea asked Pilate for the body and he and Nicodemus lovingly anointed Jesus with myrrh and aloes, wrapped Him in linen burial clothes and spices, and placed him in a never before used sepulcher over which was rolled a stone.

On Saturday the Jewish leaders, remembering that Jesus had said that after three days He would rise again, asked Pilate to place a guard at the sepulcher for they feared someone would steal His body and then claim Jesus had risen. Pilate consented, saying, “Ye have a watch: go your way, make it as sure as ye can” (Matthew 27:65). Given permission, the Jewish leaders sealed the stone door and set soldiers to guard the tomb.

But soldiers would not be enough to secure this tomb.

It's Good Friday

As Jesus awoke the sleeping disciples saying, “Rise up, let us go; lo, he that betrayeth me is at hand” (Mark 14:42), Judas, leading a great multitude entered the garden. What we usually don’t realize is how great that multitude really was. The gospel writers tell us that the group consisted of the chief priests, scribes, elders, the captain and officers of the Jews temple police force, and a band of Roman soldiers armed with swords and staves and carrying torches and lanterns. Like all things in New Testament scholarship, how many men were in a band of soldiers is debated, but it is safe to assume there were at least 150 which shows how much the chief priest fear Jesus. In addition, it is Passover week and the city is crowded with people who hearing the commotion would have followed out of curiosity. One senses the irony as hundreds of angry men stomped through the night led by the light of their torches in order to capture the Light of the world! (See Isaiah 50:11.) As they approached Jesus, Judas cried out “Hail, master!” and kissed Jesus.

Jesus responded, “Judas, betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss?” (Luke 22:48). Then turning to the crowd He asked, “Whom seek ye?” 

They responded “Jesus of Nazareth.”

Jesus answered, “I am he” (John 18:6). But you will notice in your scriptures that the word he is italicized. This means that the word is not in the original Greek manuscripts but is a word the King James translators added to make things clearer. However, in this case it hides the meaning. What Jesus says to them is simply, “I am” which was considered to be the name of God. As Thomas Aquinas explained, the title I Am referred to the “being of all things.”

Something extraordinary happens as Jesus pronounces, “I am.” At those words the entire multitude stepped backward and fell to the ground which indicates to me that there must have been a power or spirit that accompanied those words as if to give the people one last chance to understand and repent. Instead they arrest Him, but as He surrenders His love is manifest as He asks that His disciples be set free.

At this point Peter drew his sword and lashing out cut off the ear of a servant of the high priest named Malcus. “Put up thy sword,” Jesus says to Peter. Then turning to Malcus he touched his ear and healed him. But even that fails to soften the angry mob. Now, turning Himself over to the mob Jesus said, “This is your hour, and the power of darkness” (Luke 22:53).

After His arrest Jesus was taken to the palace of the chief priest Caiaphas, and his father-in-law Annas, and tried for the crime of blasphemy. The fact that they were trying a man during the night and many other details of the proceedings were illegal under their own laws, but that did not stop them. A unanimous decision was reached (also illegal) and the crowd began to spit on Jesus and make a game of covering His face, striking him, and then crying out, “Prophesy unto us, thou Christ, Who is he that smote thee?”

Outside as Peter waited, a maid who also sat with him at the fire suddenly proclaimed, “This man was also with him.”

But Peter answered, “Woman, I know him not.” Two more times people recognized Peter as a follower and both times Peter again denied knowing Jesus. After the third denial the cock crew and Peter remembered that the night before Jesus had told him, “Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice.” At the realization of what he had done, Peter went out and wept bitterly.

As the day began to dawn, Jesus was taken to Pilate because the chief priests wanted Him executed under Roman law. As they delivered Jesus up to Pilate in the Praetorium, the official residence of the Roman governor, they refused to enter the judgment hall themselves lest they be defiled. Curious about this man he had heard so much about, Pilate began the examination by asking, “Art thou the King of the Jews?” (John 18:33).

Jesus replied, “Sayest thou this thing of thyself, or did others tell it thee of me?

Sarcastically Pilate replied, “Am I a Jew?” and explained that it is the chief priests that have told him these things. As the trial goes on Pilate persisted, “Art thou a king then?”

Jesus finally answered, “For this cause came I into the world. . . . Everyone that is of the truth heareth my voice.”

At this Pilate asked, “What is truth?” But without waiting for an answer sent Jesus to be judged of Herod.

Herod is equally as curious to see Jesus and questioned Him intensely, but Jesus refused to answer Herod. So Herod and his men mock “the King” by arraying him in a gorgeous royal robe and send Him back to Pilate.

Pilate can see that Jesus has committed no crime and is reluctant to pass judgment, but the Jewish leaders incite the crowd and insist on Jesus’ death. In a last attempt to free Jesus, Pilate offers the people a choice. There is to be a prisoner released to celebrate the Passover. Do they want Barabbas who is accused of murder and sedition set free or Jesus? The name Barabbas in Hebrew means “son of the father” and an early Christian scholar named Origen claimed that Barabbas’ given name was Yeshua, which in Greek is Jesus. Whether that is true or not the irony remains. The Jewish leaders chose to free the guilty “son of the father” who had destroyed lives, and condemn the innocent “Son of the Father” who would give them life.

Pilate, still unconvinced of the Savior’s guilt pleaded with the crowd, but fearing rioting from the crowd that refuses to relent, Pilate washes his hands as a symbolic gesture that he does not agree with this verdict, but proclaims Jesus as guilty and condemns Him to be crucified with the words, “Shall I crucify your King?” and the people shout back, “We have no king but Caesar” (John 19:15).

Once again the soldiers mock and torture the Savior as they carry him to prison. Clothed in the purple royal robe, they now place a crown of thorns upon his head and salute him saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” as they smite and spit upon Him.

Tired from being awake all night, fatigued from the atoning agony, and wounded from the scourging He had received Jesus began the walk to Calvery with the beam of the cross upon His back, but He had no strength left for the task and so a man, Simon a Cyrenian, was pulled from the crowd and forced to carry the cross. Once on the hill, Jesus was nailed to the cross beam, it was lifted into place on the permanently installed post, His feet were nailed to the post and He was crucified with a placard placed atop the cross that read in three languages, “This is the King of the Jews.” The Jewish leaders asked Pilate to change the placard to read, “He said, I am King of the Jews.” But Pilate refused to change it saying, “What I have written I have written.”

As the soldiers jeered and reviled while carrying out their duties, Jesus looked down upon them and said, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34).

Totally clueless as to the eternally significant event taking place at the top of the cross, the soldiers at the bottom of the cross made four piles of His clothing, but instead of ripping the royal coat into four pieces they cast lots to see who would win it. Thus they went home that day rejoicing over their spoils unaware of the great gift of life that had been given them.

The crowd continued to jeer and mock. “Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself, and come down from the cross.” And the chief priests cried out, “He saved others; let him save himself, if he be Christ, the chosen of God.” 

 

(To be continued tomorrow) 

More About Easter Week

Wednesday is the only day of Easter week that is not reported on by the gospel writers. But there are a few other things I’d like to point out today. First of all, in all the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John), one-sixth of the text is used to describe the twenty-four hours beginning with the last supper and ending with the burial of Jesus. This means that if every day in the life of Jesus were this complete we would have 180 volumes as large as our whole Bible (Vincent 1:433). Oh, how Matthew, Mark, Luke and John wanted us to understand the significance of the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

There are also many things I left out that happened on Tuesday. One I can’t neglect and that is the story of the Widow’s mite. We are told that Jesus was in the treasury which was a hall in the temple where gifts were deposited in thirteen receptacles shaped like trumpets. Jesus watched as one by one rich men paraded through the hall and cast their gifts into the trumpets, but then a poor widow cast in two meager mites. Not wanting this to go unnoticed by his disciples, Jesus made a point of it. “Of a truth,” He told them, “This poor widow has cast in more than all of the others. For they gave a little from their abundance, but she has given all she has.”

In contrast to this story we find another account concerning money. It was also on Tuesday that Judas set into motion the plot to kill Jesus. There is much irony in the very name Judas, for it means “he shall be praised.” We are told that Judas had become offended because of the Savior’s words (JST Mark 14:10) and so he went to the chief priests and asked, “What will ye give me if I deliver Jesus unto you?” And they agreed on a price of 30 pieces of silver.

Scholars and others have purported many estimates of what those 30 pieces of silver are worth in today’s money. I’ve found reports of anywhere between $7.20 to $40,000. This tells us that no one really knows for sure, but the fact that the chief priests later use the money to buy a plot of ground to be used as a cemetery tells us that it was a substantial amount of money. What is more important is that the 30 pieces of silver is fulfillment of a prophecy made in Zechariah 11:12 in which we are told, “So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver,” which in those days was the price that under the law of Moses a man must pay to a neighbor if the man’s animal caused the death of the neighbor’s slave. In other words, 30 pieces of silver was considered the monetary worth to replace a slave.

The symbolism of this slave metaphor is profound and in many Bible stories this symbolism foreshadows the “selling” of Jesus. For example, it was Judah, one of the twelve sons of Jacob, who proposed and sold his brother Joseph as a slave, and now it is Judas who proposes and sells his brother Jesus for the price of a slave.

After the crucifixion, Judas regrets what he has done and returns the money to the chief priests saying, “I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood” (Matthew 27:4). But the chief priests refuse (you can almost hear them laughing in derision) to accept the money for the temple treasury because it is “blood money” and would profane and desecrate the temple. The irony here is mind boggling. They are too pious to accept “tainted ” money, but have no qualms about murdering Jesus.

When they refuse the money, Judas throws down the silver, leaves the temple, and hangs himself. So the chief priests are left with the money and since they won’t put blood money in the treasury, they buy the potter’s field. Of this part of the story Zechariah prophesies, “Cast it unto the potter: a goodly price that I was prised at of them” (Zechariah 11:13).

Pondering these stories leads all of us to the question,

“What is Jesus worth to us?”

Discovering the answer to that question is what Easter week is all about.

Unbending

Christianity teaches us that "the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam" (Mosiah 3:19). In other words, because of the Fall of Adam, we are born into a telestial world as “natural” or “fallen” creatures and the task of life is to be raised up—to become spiritual and saved creatures. 

 

I like the way C. S. Lewis explains it, "Fallen man is not simply an imperfect creature who needs improvement: he is a rebel who must lay down his arms" (Lewis, Mere Christianity, p. 59). Lewis goes on to explain why this is so important. "A creature revolting against a creator is revolting against the source of his own powers-including even his power to revolt. . . . It is like the scent of a flower trying to destroy the flower." 

 

In another of Lewis's works, a science fiction story entitled Out of the Silent Planet, Lewis uses a word to describe our fallen condition that I like better than carnal or fallen. Lewis says we are “bent.” When the scientist, Ransom, describes the dangerous motives of other space travelers to the inhabitants of the planet Malachandra, he says they are “bent” which implies that they are distorted rather than broken and something that is bent can usually be bent back or corrected.

 

I like this because it gives me a mental picture of me bent with sin and my Savior straightening me out. Yes, it is painful at times, but if I hang in there and don’t resist, I will be straightened. I will be saved. I like that a lot.

Oh, The Mistakes I've Made!

I have made and continue to make a lot of mistakes in my life. The older I grow the more it seems that the things I have done wrong in my life come back to haunt me. The other day while working in the kitchen the thought suddenly came into my head of a time when I was in high school when I snubbed a girl. At this point I can't even remember why, but it probably had something to do with fearing my own reputation. As the experience came back to me, it hurt. I wished with all my heart I hadn't avoided the girl who needed a friend; and now--fifty years later--there isn't a thing I can do about it. But there is Someone who can make it up to the girl and heal me.

Living in Truth has taught me that this kind of sorrow is not a negative experience, even if it is painful. Instead it is a healing process and an important one to pass through if we are going to grow closer to our Father in Heaven.

Coming to the point where we realize that we NEED a Savior to make amends for all our mistakes is essential. The important thing is that we pass through the sorrow without becoming depressed and dismayed. The adversary will try to divert us into a path of self-pity with thoughts such as, "I am so terrible! I am never going to make it. I've done so many horrible things. I am awful." You can recognize this kind of misguided thinking because of the preponderance of "I's" in the statements. It is unnecessary pain and is actually selfish thinking.

But sorrow that is part of Living in Truth and spiritual progression is all about the others we have hurt. We sorrow for them, not for ourselves, and wish we had never hurt them. This kind of sorrow is necessary pain that leads us to Christ. It happens when we remember that one of the most beautiful aspects of the Atonement of Jesus Christ is that we have the privilege of learning from our mistakes without being condemned by them.

Happy, Salty Tears

Did you ever wake up feeling so happy and blessed that you break out in tears? I've never had that happen before, but today is the day.

It is so strange because it is the thought of salt that makes me cry, and as the tears trickle over my cheeks I remember that tears are salty and cry even more because more salt make me think about Mary "salting" and swaddling her child. I see her tenderly cradling her son, and I feel her love because I've cradled a son and daughters and I know that intense feeling--it's so much a part of me that it's not just in my heart, it's in my bones and muscles and flows in my blood. It's me.

As I feel that love I think about how the child Mary cradled would grow to be a man and that the love Mary felt for Him would be so different from the hate the world would throw at Him. That hate became so intense they crucified Him, and He allowed it to happen--because of me. He sacrificed Himself for me! And then I shed more salty tears and think about how all the sacrifices under the law of Moses were salted and that the salting of His swaddling was a foreshadowing of His sacrifice.

I don't know why this research on salt has affected me so very much, but it has. Everything I see and do reminds me of salt. Besides eating it every day as I watched people throwing salt on their sidewalks and driveways during the recent storm so that the ice would melt, I remembered all the times the Savior has melted the iciness in me.

In short, dozens of times a day I encounter salt and think of my Savior so that my heart is full to overflowing. And this morning it's all spilling out.

Salt and Leaven

I hope you're not getting tired of salt, but I'm on fire with it. I have learned so much I wish I could share it all. But bear with me while I share a few more salty thoughts.

The opposite of salt is leaven. While salt, preserves, purifies, enhances, sustains, and endures, leaven, corrupts, infects, boosts, interferes, and perishes.

The interesting thing here is how much this mimics the work of the adversary. Leaven isn't totally or all bad. Leaven has some good uses--we all love leaven in our breads. But leaven introduces destructive elements into the good. For example, it makes our bread perish faster. Likewise the adversary doesn't usually work or entice by presenting us with obvious evil. Instead he mixes truth and untruth and in very subtle ways mixes his leaven of unrighteousness into our lives so that we often overlook it and give in to it because it is so subtle.

I love what I am learning about salt especially because I see and taste and experience so often during my day that it is a constant reminder of the Atonement of Jesus Christ which preserves, purifies, enhances, sustains, and endures forever.

Close To the Heart

In class today as we discussed the Atonement of Jesus Christ, I shared my experience with Grizelda and what I have learned about the Atonement from that experience. Sharing the story brought back a lot of emotions and feelings that are riding close to the surface of my heart right now. But, today added something more to those feelings.

I brought my cage to class to show the students, and as soon as I pulled it out of the sack a student on the front row burst into tears. He continued to weep as I told the story and finally got up and left. He returned a few minutes later trying to compose himself, but it wasn’t until after class as I spoke to him that he told me that his mother died two years ago of a brain tumor and she, too, had a cage like mine that fit only her, that had been used when she went through radiation.

Obviously this brings up many questions such as why I was spared and she wasn’t. Why was I so blessed and not her? I have no answer to that question, and can only trust in the wisdom of God. But I feel the weight of the question someplace deep in my stomach. Where much is given, much is expected and I was given so much . . . so what is expected?

In a few minutes I will go into another classroom and teach the same lesson to a different class. I want them to feel the essence and importance of the Atonement. I want them to understand the love Jesus Christ has for them, but I also hope I won’t cut as close to anyone else’s heart as I did this morning.

Learning About The Atonement In Japan

Last week after I posted my experience with learning something more about the Atonement, I received a beautiful letter from Yoko who has given me permission to share some of it with you. She began by explaining that she had attended my class on Living in Truth at BYU Education Week in August, and then said, “Your lecture on "Living in Truth" helped me greatly. I wish I had known about this concept earlier, but I can say "Living in Truth" has reduced my vexation by at least half.”

She then went on to explain that she was visiting her homeland in Sendai, Japan, last March when the great earthquake hit. She described the unbelievable devastation and deprivation that ensued and how everyone was suffering. She stayed and did all she could for a couple of weeks, but then had to return home to the United States where she continued to follow the news.

While at home she felt that even though she is 60 years old, she had to go back and help, so she returned and on the day she arrived another 7.0 earthquake hit and she worried that she would not be able to get to Sendai. She had taken a helmet, boots, gloves, food and everything she would need to sustain herself and to help others, but she couldn’t get into help unless she belonged to an organization. She contacted many organizations but while waiting to be accepted she visited the ward she lived in when she was baptized many years ago and discovered that the ward was headquarters for the relief effort. There she was finally given an assignment. But instead of being asked to do physical work at devastated areas, she was asked to give grief counseling. After a brief class where she was taught how to give hand massages with aroma oils as a tool to let people talk, she went to work.

I’ll let you read her words for the rest. “We visited people at many evacuation centers at different cities on the coast. My job was to listen to whatever the people wanted to say about themselves and their experiences of the quake and tsunami. All the people who were at evacuation centers lost everything including their homes and every belonging that they worked hard for. They were there with only clothes on their backs. Some people lost family members. I have never seen or heard so much grief and sorrow in my life. I gave them aroma massages and some of them really opened their hearts to me and told me how they lost their loved ones. One old lady told me that she lost everything plus her daughter-in-law. She and her 50 year old son were at the evacuation center and she said, ‘My son goes outside and cries every night.’ She told me her son, his wife and the wife's friend were running from the tsunami holding hands but somehow their hands were separated and only her son survived. I gave her extra long massage.”

“I loved her hands and couldn't let them go for a long time. I listened to so many people and their profound sorrows. I only could say to them in my heart while I was touching their hands, ‘You might not know Him but He knows you and your sorrow. He is touching you through my hands right now.’ I felt so much love for them. I knew it was His love for them. One other thing I want to tell you. At the end of three days doing this, my whole body was filled with so many emotions, grief, and sorrow. I felt I couldn't listen to one more person. I felt like my head was going to explode if I had to listen to one more. But I thought, ‘I came all the way from America, I can’t quit after only three days.’ I prayed for the strength and somehow kept going. But it was hard. Then the thought came to me that Jesus Christ had to suffer for who knows how many people, not only for sins but he felt people's sorrow, grief, all other feelings and emotions in Gethsemane. Sister Johnson, I felt like I was allowed to peek at the magnitude of His suffering at Gethsemane. My love and appreciation for Jesus Christ increased because of my experiences in Japan. It was real.”

Thank you, Yoko, for sharing. The Atonement is real. It is love, and you were part of that love.

The Atonement

Years ago when my Church calling was to write lesson manuals for the Church, I wrote several lessons on the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and I thought I knew what the Atonement was all about. But since I’ve been teaching religion at BYU I’ve come to realize that I didn't know much at all and that I’m only now beginning to  understand it. It is much broader and grander than I ever realized before.

For example, yesterday I found out that one of my students had lost his mother to a heart attack last year while he was on his mission. As he told me about what had happened my heart ached for him, and as I left him I couldn’t get his image out of my mind. But it wasn’t the image of him telling me what had happened. It wasn't an image of sadness. Instead it was the picture of him sitting in my class happy and at peace and listening as we discussed the gospel—the picture of what I knew about him before I knew of the sorrow he had passed through.

As I was seeing this image of him, the thought came to me that without the Atonement he would never be able to recover from his mother’s death. Without the Atonement every sin would sink us deeper into darkness and despair with no hope of escape. Without the Atonement any tragedy or adversity such as death would be doom and gloom with no chance of recovery. Without the Atonement life would be a constant state of entropy with no possibility of growth or change--a state of constant regression into outer darkness. Without the Atonement happiness would be an unreachable, unattainable fiction.

The Atonement of Jesus Christ is not just about paying for our sins. The Atonement of Jesus Christ is about making happiness, joy, growth, learning, love, and everything good possible. In short, the Atonement is our only hope. 

I am so grateful for it.

Easter Isn't Over!

Easter day is over, but Easter is not. I know that the term Easter originally came from a pagan goddess, but we all assign meaning to the words we use and pagan goddess has nothing to do with what Easter is to me. Easter is the Atonement and Resurrection of Jesus Christ and those continue on and on today, tomorrow, and forever. So before I stop rejoicing in the Easter season, I want to say one more thing. 

It is easy to read the story of the Passion of Christ (passion in this case means suffering) and be touched, but think about it in such universal terms that it doesn’t make a change in the way we think or act. But perhaps the greatest of all the Savior’s miracles is the fact that the Atonement while being infinite in that it covered all mankind for all time, was at the same time finite in that it was for me and for you as individuals. It was infinite in that through it the Savior can and will help me infinitely, but at the same time he knows every finite need and concern I have.

C. S. Lewis explains it this way: God “has infinite attention to spare for each one of us. He does not have to deal with us in the mass. You are as much alone with Him as if you were the only being He had ever created. When Christ died, He died for you individually just as much as if you had been the only man [or woman] in the world” (Mere Christianity [1943], 131).

That is what I rejoice in as this Easter season comes to a close. That is why Easter season may end, but Easter will not. Easter is part of every day and when I remember that, I am a different person. Jesus Christ loves us enough to save us not just in the next life, but every day of this life if we just turn to Him and remember that every day is Easter.

Our Savior

The end of the semester is fast approaching and since I am teaching the Life and Teachings of Jesus Christ that means we are discussing the Atonement . As I prepare I am totally overwhelmed. I’ve always been in awe of the great love and sacrifice that is the Atonement, but since my brain surgery my feelings for the miracle and the wonder of the Atonement have increased so much that I have no words to express them. I will walk into class today feeling very, very inadequate and wishing I could convey to these young people all that I feel. I just pray that they are in tune with the Spirit so the Spirit can do what I cannot.

The last day of my radiation they gave me the mask that was used to bolt me to the table during the radiation. Molded to my head, it holds an impression of me in it. When I came home that day the radiation had completely exhausted me. I could barely walk into the house. Somehow I made it to the bed and collapsed with the mask in my hand. For the next few hours I lay there unable to hardly move. All I could do was think and with the mask so close I began to ponder it. I thought about how I was the only person in the world who fit that mask and how like it, the trial I was going through with Grizelda was also tailored just for me. I was learning and growing and being tested, in other words being made stronger. I thought about how I was the only person who had ever worn that mask, but at that thought a strong feeling washed over me that I was wrong. Someone had worn that mask long before I did—Jesus Christ had suffered every bit of the pain, anguish, sorrow, and hurt. He had suffered this exhaustion. He had suffered my pain before I had, and so he knew all about it. I was not alone in this ordeal. As a matter of fact my ordeal was much easier than it would have been because He loves me so much He suffered all pain so He could then have the power to ease my suffering.

The Atonement was not only about sin, it was about all pain. And because Jesus Christ has taken on all of our disappointments, worries, pain, sorrow, cares, sin, and injustices, He knows how to succor us. All we have to do is trust in Him.

About the Good News!

In class today we’re discussing the Atonement. I always feel so inadequate to teach the Atonement. How do you put into words all that the Atonement is and all that it means to us? Without the Atonement of Jesus Christ we would have been doomed to an eternal state of misery and woe. I, for one, don’t like misery and woe. I prefer joy and peace. And the reason I know which I prefer is that I’ve tasted both. It isn’t even a question in my mind. I want to dwell joy and peace eternally, and I know I can because of Jesus Christ.

Too often in classes we summarize the Atonement in trite phrases such as, “It’s victory over physical and spiritual death,” and move on to the next question. But that doesn’t even begin to come close to what it means in my daily life. It may be fact, but it doesn’t capture all that the Atonement is. The Atonement gives me the opportunity to grow and change. It connects me to God’s love. It allows me communion with the Spirit. It is hope. It is salvation. And this list could go on forever because the Atonement literally makes everything in life that is good possible.

Despite my inadequacies in teaching, I love teaching the Atonement because even though I can’t express all I feel, it makes me feel it. Today is going to be a wonderful day; a day of joy and rejoicing because I’m thinking about the righteousness of my Savior.