My Easter Sunday talk - April 2017
NOTE: Most of this was taken from BYU Professor Andrew Skinner's talks and discussions with his fellow BYU Scholars - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3mlMrFhGq6I
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3mlMrFhGq6I
PURPOSE: To further BRING TO LIFE this Easter journey and for us all to ponder how miraculous it is that Jesus Christ's love for us is greater than the agony, he suffered, in the Atonement.
INTRO
We begin on a THURSDAY NIGHT in the upper room of a house in south Jerusalem.
Many important things take place in that room but probably one of the most important events was that CHRIST INTRODUCED AND ADMINISTERED THE sacrament there.
After JUDAS leaves the remaining 11 DISCIPLES and Jesus walk through the quiet streets to the CITY GATES. They DESCEND DOWN THE TEMPLE MOUNT, crossing a little brook in the narrow Kieron Valley and enter the LOWER WESTERN END OF THE Garden of Gethsemane.
Gethsemane, part of an olive vineyard, was near the Jerusalem cemetery and opposite the Temple. We know there was a FULL MOON that evening (owing to the Time of the Jewish Passover) and as Brother Andrew Skinner explained:
QUOTE:It is quite possible, as some have suggested (assuming no cloud cover), that the full moon cast the shadow of the Temple over the garden near the graveyard. Jesus and the apostles thus made their way to Gethsemane in the shadow of the Temple by a place of death. Such a scene could not have done other than serve as a foreboding reminder to the Savior of his impending fate and infuse the atmosphere with increasing gloom."
We then read in MARK 14:32-34
32 And they came to a place which was named Gethsemane: and he saith to his disciples, Sit ye here, while I shall pray.
33 And he taketh with him Peter and James and John, and began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy;
34 And saith unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death: tarry ye here, and watch.
35 And he went forward a little, and fell on the ground, and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him.
36 And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what my will, but what thou wilt.
I want to spend a few minutes analysing elements of this scripture to highlight the Saviours great suffering in Gethsemane.
1) SORE AMAZED
In MARK 14:33 we read He began to be sore amazed and very heavy.
Another translation would be TERRIFIED Surprised
WHAT WAS CAUSING HIm to feel this way?
QUOTE: "...Jesus was weighed down with he sin, sorrow and sufferings of the entire human family. It was an experience that only a God could withstand and not succumb to death" - Brother Skinner
"Christ's agony in the Garden is unfathomable by finite mind, both as to intensity and cause... In that hour of anguish Christ met and overcame all the horrors that satan, the prince of this world, could inflict" - James Tamage - Jesus the Christ
7 Billion people are alive today, they estimate 107 Billion people have lived, yet alone those to come and those beyond this world ( Consider MOSES scripture "worlds without number have I created") Imagine one of your most painful moments and multiplying it by 100 billion and yet that doesnt even begin to cover what our Saviour suffered that night! (2 Npehi 9:7 it must needs be an INFINITE atonement)
ALMA 7:11 EXPLAINS it was more than just sin - pains, afflictions, temptations of every kind, sickness, infirmities..."
2) FELL AND PRAYED
IN MATTHEW 26 we read, that three times he "FELL ON HIS FACE AND PRAYED" the same prayer asking. "Oh my father if it be possible, let this cup pass from me"
QUOTE: "He fell and prayed, he fell and prayed, he fell and prayed - It is almost as though he is trying to find any restbite from this intensity and yet it will not leave, it keeps getting heavier and heavier bearing down on him and now I think we understand the parallel BETWEEN THE SAVIOURS EXPERIENCE AND THE PLACE THAT IT OCCURS" - Brother Skinner
3) GETHSEMANE - Literally means "Oil Press"
When the olives are crushed the initial colour of the oil is of a blood red hew. This is very Symbolic of the Saviours experience (who's personal testimony, of what he went though, we are so blessed to have);
DC 19:15 ...how sore you know not, how exquisite you know not, yea, how hard to bear you know not... Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit—and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink—Nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I partook and finished my preparations unto the children of men."
PRESIDENT NELSON "...Remember just as the body of the olive, which was pressed for the oil that gave light, so the Saviour was literally pressed under the weight of the sins of the world... from every pore oozed the lifeblood of our redeemer. Throughout the joyous days of your mission, when your cup of gladness runs over, remember His cup of bitterness which made it possible. And when sore trials come upon you, remember Gethsemane".
4) HEMATIDROSIS (Bloody sweat) is a rare phenomenon, an American medical association journal, explained "in persons experiencing extreme distress and highly emotional states. AS A RESULT OF EXTREME STRESS AND PRESSURE, THE small blood vessels just under the skin haemorrhage, blood mixes with perspiration" producing a bloody sweat.
5) ABBA -
The Aramaic term for Abba (the language Jesus would have primarily spoken) which means "papa or daddy"
"To miss the significance of the word ABBA at this point in the story of Gethsemane is to miss the TRUE RELATIONSHIP that existed between Jesus and His Father" - Brother Skinner
It also helps us recognise his desperation and agony as He called out to His Father for relief from such unimaginable suffering!
Elder Holland has beautifully written " In that most burdensome moment of all human history, with blood appearing at every pore and an anguished cry upon His lips, Christ sought Him whom He had always sought—His Father. “Abba,” He cried, “Papa,” or from the lips of a younger child, “Daddy...This is such a personal moment it almost seems a sacrilege to cite it. A Son in unrelieved pain, a Father His only true source of strength, both of them staying the course, making it through the night—together."
......
HIS ARREST -
MATTHEW 26:45
45 Then cometh he to his disciples, and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take your rest: behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.
46 Rise, let us be going: behold, he is at hand that doth betray me.
I can't imagine how difficult it must have been for the Saviour to know that one of his closest friends, a chosen disciple (to which surely Jesus must have seen so much goodness and potential) was the one that led a mob to take Him away.
Elder Holland said of Judas "The most difficult to understand in this group is Judas Iscariot. We know the divine plan required Jesus to be crucified, but it is wrenching to think that one of His special witnesses who sat at His feet, heard Him pray, watched Him heal, and felt His touch could betray Him and all that He was for 30 pieces of silver. Never in the history of this world has so little money purchased so much infamy. We are not the ones to judge Judas’s fate, but Jesus said of His betrayer, “Good [were it] for that man if he had not been born.”
TRIALS -
Jesus was taken on 4 different journeys before His final walk, when He bore the cross. The BYU Scholars mentioned how Jerusalem is a very hilly city and that each of these walks would have been around a mile - all this and Jesus has had no rest after suffering in Gethsemane!
High Priest - Jesus was first taken to the High Priest where they accused Him of Blasphemy and declared that he is guilty of death" They then spat in his face and beat Him. They did not have the power to crucify him, that power lay in the Romans' Hands and their representative there was Pontius Piloted.
MATTHEW 27
1 When the morning was come, all the chief priests and elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death:
2 And when they had bound him, they led him away, and delivered him to Pontius Pilate the governor.
2) Pilate does not believe he is guilty of anything and once he hears that he is from Galilee he sends Him onto Kind Herod as Galilee is his jurisdiction.
3) King Herod who was the son of the Kind Herod who tired to have him killed as a child! This King Herod was responsible for the murder of his cousin John which must have been very upsetting for Jesus. The King was excited to see him as he had heard a lot of Him and was anticipating witnessing one of His miracles nevertheless the Saviour Said nothing to him, so He mocked him and sent him back to Pilate.
4) Pilate said - "I HAVE FOUND NO FAULT IN THIS MAN...NO, NOR YET HEROD..I WILL THEREFORE CHASTISE HIM AND RELEASE him...but they cried out all at once saying, a way with this man, and release unto us Barabbas...they cried crucify Him, crucify Him"
(A FEW SIDE NOTES: Pilate's wife had had a dream and was also certain that Jesus was innocent. It is possible, as suggested in one of the gospels, that Pilate had Him flogged as a means of satisfying the Jews without having to put Him to death. There was pressure on Pilate on both sides - the Jew's were trying to convince Him that He was making himself a King above Ceasar which would then put him in a lot of trouble if he did not take this opportunity to dispel this 'potential problem' now while he had the chance. Pilate then hoped the people would choose Jesus' freedom over Barabbas. (whose name translates, ironically, as "son of the Father") but it seems the High Priests had managed to rally enough support to free Barabbas (who the scholars believe was arrested for being involved in a protest against the Romans).Matthew 27:24 When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see yet to it)
FLOGGED -
Jesus was then flogged with what we would call a cat of 9 tails. Leather twangs with pieces of bone and metal within them designed to break the flesh. Jewish law permitted no more than 39 lashes but we have no record of how many lashes they inflicted upon our Saviour. We know that many of its victims died then and there at the horrific flogging.
CARRIED THE CROSS -
We believe men would have only carried the cross piece of the cross as the upstanding stake would have been already in the ground. WE estimate it would have been around 100lbs. Consider how exhausted Jesus was from all that has happened, ridiculed and spat upon, flogged and now being forced to carry His own cross on a back that must have been bleeding, broken and raw - the thought of this is just heart breaking. Even Jesus, who was the son of God at this point needed help to bare His cross, this is reminder of how excruciating this whole experience must have been - and still there is more to come...
CRUCIFIXION - Is a torturous method of extending death, they estimate Jesus suffered on the cross from 9am to 3pm roughly 6 hours according to the gospel of Mark.
NATURE OF CHRIST - throughout this unbelievable suffering we see time and time again the Saviour is thinking of others - even to the men that put him on the cross he said "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do" he reassures the dying thieves that suffer beside him, makes sure his Mother Mary has John to look after Her when He has gone and even as he carries His cross up the hilly valley on a bruised and bloodied back he offers counsel to the company of faithful women who follow Him! What compassion and selflessness and what a great example to us all!
I cant bear to go into the detail of how painful this must have been but then Elder Holland explains that before the end of his mortal life, there was something even more difficult to come:
"Now I speak very carefully, even reverently, of what may have been the most difficult moment in all of this solitary journey to Atonement. I speak of those final moments for which Jesus must have been prepared intellectually and physically but which He may not have fully anticipated emotionally and spiritually—that concluding descent into the paralyzing despair of divine withdrawal when He cries in ultimate loneliness, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
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."
Jospeh of Armitha offered his tomb, Nicodemus also came to help prepare his body with enough spices (JOHN 19:39) to make His a royal burial. They only had uNTIL SUNDOWN to prepare and place his body before Saturday which was the sabbath.
SO WHY DID HE DO ALL OF THIS???
Because He loves us! As 1 nephi 19:9 said "And the world, because of their iniquity, shall judge him to be a thing of naught; wherefore they scourge him, and he suffereth it; and they smite him, and he suffereth it. Yea, they spit upon him, and he suffereth it, because of his loving kindness and his long-suffering towards the children of men."
The Saviour knows each of us individually and knows what we are capable of - through the Atonement of Jesus Christ He assured all of us a way to have eternal life and to even be Like God (if we desire it). I love Alma 7:13 "Now the Spirit knoweth all things; nevertheless the Son of God sufferers according to the flesh that he... (7:12) may know according to the flesh how to succour His people according to their infirmities". The Saviour choose to actually feel and suffer all of our sins sorrows and sicknesses (even though the spirit could have helped him understand them without feeling them) so that He would succour or 'run to us' and help us through every trail in life.
Resurrection -
LUKE 24: 1 Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them.
2 And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre.
3 And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus.
We believe these women came early to finish preparing His body for burial and upon seeing it empty they ran back to tell the Disciples.
The BYU Scholars explain that because of Greek influence, and other factors, the concept of 'resurrection' was not understood. It was widely believed "the body was a tomb" and so people couldn't understand why someone would be resurrected there had also never been a case of a man raising himself from the dead - this might help explain why his followers were so shocked!
Peter and John ran to find the tomb empty and then Mary follows behind them ...
JOHN 20
11 ¶ But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping: and as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the sepulchre,
12 And seeth two angels in white sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain.
13 And they say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? She saith unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him.
14 And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus.
15 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away.
16 Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master.
Elder Holland writes "On that first Resurrection Sunday, Mary Magdalene first thought she saw a gardener. Well, she did—the Gardener who cultivated Eden and who endured Gethsemane. The Gardener who gave us the rose of Sharon, the lily of the valley, the cedars of Lebanon, the tree of life...One, only one, person could speak her name that way. With that single word all doubt, confusion, and uncertainty was swept away. Mary, in that instant, came to the grand, sublime realization that he for whom she mourned, even Jesus that was crucified, had risen from the dead, just as the angels early that very morning had testified, “He is risen.” (See Luke 24:6.) ... As we approach this holy week—Passover Thursday with its Paschal Lamb, atoning Friday with its cross, Resurrection Sunday with its empty tomb—may we declare ourselves to be more fully disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, not in word only and not only in the flush of comfortable times but in deed and in courage and in faith, including when the path is lonely and when our cross is difficult to bear. This Easter week and always, may we stand by Jesus Christ “at all times and in all things, and in all places that [we] may be in, even until death,”21 for surely that is how He stood by us when it was unto death and when He had to stand entirely and utterly alone."
I have a testimony of the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ. I know He lives because I know Him. I know He leads this Church and I know He did all of this because He loves us and sees within each of us the most unimaginable potential! We are His sisters and brothers and He gave everything He had to make a fullness of Joy possible for each of us! I know that without the Atonement we would not have this wonderful mortal opportunity yet alone an eternal life. I can testify all of this is true because when I follow in the meekness of His Spirt I have peace, I have joy and I have a greater understanding and knowing He is always with me,and that He has suffered all of my personal trials, gives me the strength to overcome all things. I love how DC 122:7-9 captures this:
7 And if thou shouldst be cast into the pit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast into the deep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good.
8 The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he?
9 Therefore, hold on thy way, and the priesthood shall remain with thee; for their bounds are set, they cannot pass. Thy days are known, and thy years shall not be numbered less; therefore, fear not what man can do, for God shall be with you forever and ever.
I testify that all of this is true and that, because of Him, everything is possible, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen
