Yesterday, we all ate way too much Easter candy and colored eggs. Here are our respective favorites.
Too many kids around here are getting too old and jaded to hunt for eggs, so we invited some of the neighbor kids over to add to the fun.
Today, we all went to church. It was wonderful to sing Easter hymns. I sang in the choir, not because I am really that great of a singer, but because with lots of practice, I can make a contribution and because I really love to sing in church. My girls looked adorable, but I forgot to get a picture before everyone changed after church, so the guys have to provide all the beauty this week. I think they do a pretty good job looking good, my two handsome men!
Stan
and Michael came home after sacrament meeting because Michael was
sniffing and coming down with a cold. I dropped them off at home, took
their picture quick and headed back to church.
I gave one of the talks this morning. I enjoyed learning more about the Savior. I thought it was pretty funny that my dad and I both spoke on the same topic this week, so I mentioned it and then the brother who spoke after me mentioned that his daughter was also speaking in her congregation in Mapleton, UT today. I thought that was even funnier. Maybe I'm easily amused :)
Anyway, here is my talk. Happy Easter!
My dad and I are both speaking in our respective wards this Easter
on the same topic, the last week of the Savior’s life. I tried to get him to
write my talk and he said, “I was going to try to get you to write MY talk.”
The Living Christ: The Testimony of the Apostles says, speaking of
the Savior, “His life…is central to all human history…”
The last week of the Savior’s mortal life was THE most central.
This was the time that prophets had been looking forward to since Adam, the
time pointed to by the sacrifices of the law of Moses, foreshadowed by Jonah’s
three days in the belly of the whale and described in Isaiah, “He was
oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as
a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he
openeth not his mouth.”
John says of all the things that Jesus Christ did, “…if they
should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not
contain the books that should be written…” and of all the Savior’s mortal life,
this last week was also the MOST eventful. We can’t read every parable He
taught that week, or cover all His steps, but we can consider the highlights of
Jesus’ last week. It started in Bethany. He spent the Sabbath having dinner
with his friends Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, who had recently been miraculously
raised from the dead. During the meal, Mary anointed the Savior’ feet with
costly ointment, and wiped them with her hair, which to me seems so tender and
gentle, preparatory to His death and burial.
The next morning, Jesus entered Jerusalem triumphantly, clothed in
white, riding on a donkey, as prophesied. In ancient Israel, kings rode donkeys
as a symbol of kingship and of peace. Horses were considered animals of war.
The Savior is the Prince of Peace.
A huge multitude met Him and recognized Him as the Messiah. They
laid their clothes down to cover His path, as befitting a King. They waved palm
fronds to welcome Him to the Holy City and cried out, “Hosanna to the Son of
David: Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord: Hosanna in the
highest.” Son of David is a sacred title reserved for the Messiah. This was a
joyful, exciting event, where the Savior was recognized by those gathered as
the long awaited Savior. It was so impressive, the whole city wondered who
Jesus was. The Pharisees looking on were upset by the glory given to Jesus and
they told Him to rebuke His disciples. He answered, “I tell you that, if these
should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.” This triumphal
entry was a symbol of His Second Coming, when He will come as conqueror, King
of King and Lord of Lords. He was willing to submit to all things, but the
beginning of the week before His death is a reminder that He is the anointed
One and that all will submit to Him.
As rightful King, Jesus proceeded to the temple and cleansed it. It
is interesting to note that three years earlier, when He cleansed the temple,
He accused the money changers of defiling His Father’s house. This time, as the
openly declared Messiah, He said, “My house shall be called the house of
prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves.” Always compassionate, He healed
the blind and the lame assembled there.
He spent evenings in Bethany, returning to Jerusalem during the
next few days. On one of the mornings, as He traveled back into Jerusalem, he
was hungry and saw a fig tree with leaves on it. The way figs grow in
Palestine, fig trees have fruit when they have leaves. Even the unripe fruit is
good to eat, so by having leaves, the fig tree was saying to the world, I am
fulfilling my purpose, but it really wasn’t. It was hypocritical and
unfruitful. The Savior cursed the tree, saying, “Let no fruit grow on thee
henceforward forever.” The Savior usually used His power to heal rather than to
destroy. What did the fig tree do to be the recipient of the Savior’s
destructive power? It appeared to be fruitful when it wasn’t.
Jesus continued on to Jerusalem and taught in the temple. Various
groups came and questioned Him during this time and He confounded them all and
taught many wonderful lessons, including the parables of the two sons, the
wicked husbandmen, the wedding of the king’s son, and the widow’s mite. At this
time, He also taught, “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are
Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.”
After the temple, the Savior went with His disciples to the Mount
of Olives. There they asked Him to explain His prophesies about Jerusalem and
the end of the world. He foretold both the destruction of Jerusalem and the
calamities that will precede the Second Coming. While foretelling difficulties
ahead, He reassured His disciples that He will indeed return with power and
great glory. He also told them, and us, how to prepare for His coming with the
parables of the ten virgins, the talents and the separation of the sheep and
the goats.
During this last week, we have seen that many of the Savior roles
were emphasized, that of King, Teacher, Judge, and Ruler, but as we near the
end of the week, His role as the Lamb of God, who would suffer and die for our
sins became first and foremost.
Thursday, the day before Jesus was crucified, Judas plotted with
the chief priests and Pharisees to betray Jesus for thirty pieces of silver,
the price of a slave. That same day, Jesus gave His disciples instructions about
where they would eat the Passover meal together.
During the Passover meal eaten with His disciples, Jesus revealed
that it would be Judas who would betray Him and He instituted the sacrament,
the ordinance we take part in each week to remember His great sacrifice for us.
He said farewell to His disciples, teaching them to care for one another,
giving them a new commandment to love one another as He had loved them. He also
set a truly meaningful example of that love and service as He washed His
disciples’ feet. He reminded them that He would not leave them comfortless, but
would send the Holy Ghost to be with them. Jesus also taught His disciples what
they needed to do to avoid being unfruitful, like the hypocritical fig tree He
cursed earlier in the week. He said, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the
husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every
branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me,
and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the
vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the
branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much
fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.”
At the conclusion of Last Supper, the Savior prayed these
beautiful words, “Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also
may glorify thee: As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should
give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal,
that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast
sent.
The Savior then went to the Garden of Gethsemane, where He prayed
and agonized for each of us. He offered Himself as our advocate, our Savior. He
suffered so intensely that great drops of blood fell like sweat.
Elder Bruce R. McConkie taught: “We do not know, we cannot tell,
no mortal mind can conceive, the full import of what Christ did in Gethsemane.
…“We know that in some way, incomprehensible to us, his suffering satisfied the
demands of justice, ransomed penitent souls from the pains and penalties of
sin, and made mercy available to those who believe in his holy name.”
He rose from His prayer and woke His disciples. As He spoke to
them, Judas approached with armed men and officers. Jesus asked them, “Whom
seek ye?” They answered, “Jesus of Nazareth.” He answered, “I am He,” and they
fell backward. Jesus was not running or hiding. He was in control and He was
allowing Himself to be taken. Trying to defend Jesus, Peter cut off the ear of
one of the men. The Savior’s response was, “Put up thy sword into the sheath:
the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?” He went to His
death willingly.
First He was taken before Caiaphus and charged with sedition, or
promoting rebellion, but the charge was elevated to blasphemy, the most serious
charge under Jewish law, when Jesus answered that He indeed was the Son of God.
This charge carried a punishment of death, but since the power to punish
someone with death was not granted to the Jewish leaders under Roman rule, they
delivered Him to Pilate for trial. The charge was now high treason, the most
serious crime under Roman law. He was falsely accused of forbidding people to
give tribute to Caesar and of making Himself a king. Pilate, not finding Him
guilty was about to release Him when he was told that Jesus was from Galilee.
Pilate decided to send Jesus to Herod for trial, as Herod was the ruler of that
province. Jesus, refusing to answer any of Herod’s questions was mocked by
Herod and his men, arrayed in a purple robe and sent back to Pilate. Pilate
tried to have Jesus scourged and released, but the multitude would not allow
that and demanded that He be crucified.
The Roman soldiers then scourged him, dressed Him as a king with a
crown of thorns, spit on him, smote and mocked Him. He truly did descend below
all things and with His stripes we are healed.
After this abuse, He was led to Golgotha to be crucified. At about
9 am, Jesus was nailed to the cross under a sign that Pilate had had written on
the title, “JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS”
Despite all He had suffered at their hands, the Savior pled for
the Father’s forgiveness for the soldiers who crucified Him. Even in His pain,
He was concerned with His mother’s care. There was a great earthquake and the
veil of the temple was rent. Darkness covered the earth. And about three in the
afternoon, after hanging on the cross for about six hours, the Savior said, “I thirst,” and was given
vinegar to drink. He also uttered the heartbreaking words, “My God, my God, why
has thou forsaken me?” He had been left by His disciples, denied by Pater and
finally, even His Father’s comfort was gone.
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland taught, “That the supreme sacrifice of
His Son might be as complete as it was voluntary and solitary, the Father
briefly withdrew from Jesus the comfort of His Spirit, the support of His
personal presence. It was required, indeed it was central to the significance
of the Atonement, that this perfect Son who had never spoken ill nor done wrong
nor touched an unclean thing had to know how the rest of humankind—us, all of
us—would feel when we did commit such sins. For His Atonement to be infinite
and eternal, He had to feel what it was like to die not only physically but
spiritually, to sense what it was like to have the divine Spirit withdraw,
leaving one feeling totally, abjectly, hopelessly alone.”
Jesus, realizing He had completed the work He was offered Himself
for, was able to say, “It is finished,” and “Father, into thy hands I commend
my spirit.”
The soldiers, finding Him dead, pierced His side. Jesus was
quickly buried as the Sabbath sundown was approaching in the tomb of Joseph of
Arimathaea.
While His family and followers mourned on that next Sabbath
Saturday, Jesus taught the spirits in prison. He did not appear to the Nephites
until He was resurrected, but during the three days of darkness in the
Americas, before He rose again, He did speak to them saying, “O all ye that are
spared because ye were more righteous than they, will ye not now return unto
me, and repent of your sins, and be converted, that I may heal you? Yea, verily
I say unto you, if ye will come unto me ye shall have eternal life. Behold,
mine arm of mercy is extended towards you, and whosoever will come, him will I
receive; and blessed are those who come unto me. Behold, I am Jesus Christ the
Son of God. I created the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them
are. I was with the Father from the beginning. I am in the Father, and the Father
in me; and in me hath the Father glorified his name.”
And then, the beautiful Sunday morning, that we are celebrating
today, came and Jesus rose again.
Matthew records, “In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn
toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see
the sepulchre. And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the
Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door,
and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as
snow: And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men. And
the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye
seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here: for he is risen…”
In the Name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
