HAPPY EASTER!
By Steve Smith
By Steve Smith
I hope this message finds you all well, and that you
enjoyed last week’s General Conference sessions as much as I did!
In spite of the crazy things going on in the world today, we
still have the opportunity and ability to celebrate our Savior’s gift to us
during this Easter season.
As always, and maybe even more so now as we strive to
provide a more gospel-centered home without the blessings of church attendance,
I hope you have had a chance over the past couple of weeks to reflect on what
you have learned from your studies on “Come Follow Me”, and how the lesson has
made an impact on yourself and your family.
The special Easter lesson for the past couple of weeks has
counseled us to reflect on “the Book of Mormon’s powerful testimony of the
life, death, Resurrection and Atoning power of Jesus Christ.” I appreciate how
the prophets in the Book of Mormon bore mighty testimony to the Divinity of
Christ and His Atoning sacrifice for us, oftentimes at the peril of their own
lives. Nephi, Jacob, Mosiah, Alma, to name but a few, all provided us with
clear explanations and firm testimonies of Christ.
In light of the fact that this is the Easter season, I have chosen
Elder Gerrit W. Gong’s talk “Hosanna and Hallelujah – The Living Jesus Christ:
The Heart of Restoration and Easter”, taken from his conference talk of last
week. I urge you all to take some time to read and reflect upon his entire
message. I have included some of his talk that stood out for me.
Elder Gerrit W. Gong
Hosanna and Hallelujah – The Living Jesus Christ: The
Heart of Restoration and Easter
Dear brothers and sisters: with hosanna and hallelujah, we
celebrate the living Jesus Christ at this season of continuing Restoration and
Easter. With perfect love, our Savior assures us: “In me ye might have peace.
In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome
the world.”
With the passage of time, moral agency and mortal experiences
help us become more like our Savior as we labor with Him in His vineyard
and
follow His covenant path.
In celebrating the ongoing Restoration of the gospel of Jesus
Christ, we also prepare for Easter. In both, we rejoice in the return of Jesus
Christ. He lives—not only
then, but now; not just for some, but for all. He came and comes to heal the
brokenhearted, deliver the captives, recover sight to the blind, and set at
liberty those who are bruised. That’s
each of us. His redeeming promises apply, no matter our past, our present, or
concerns for our future.
<Last
Sunday was> Palm Sunday. Traditionally, palms are a sacred symbol to express joy in our
Lord, as in Christ’s
Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem, where “much people … took branches of palm trees, and went
forth to meet him.”
(You may be interested to know the original of
this Harry Anderson painting hangs in President Russell M. Nelson’s
office, just behind his desk.)
In the book of Revelation,
those who praise God and the Lamb do so “clothed with white robes, and palms in
their hands.” Along with “robes of righteousness” and “crowns of glory,” palms
are included in the Kirtland Temple dedicatory prayer.
Of course, the significance
of Palm Sunday goes beyond crowds greeting Jesus with palms. On Palm Sunday,
Jesus entered Jerusalem in ways the faithful recognized as fulfillment of
prophecy. As Zechariah and the Psalmist prophetically foretold, our Lord
entered Jerusalem riding a colt as multitudes knowingly cried, “Hosanna in the
highest.” Hosanna means “save now.” Then, as now, we rejoice, “Blessed be he
that cometh in the name of the Lord.”
<The> week following
Palm Sunday is Easter Sunday. President Russell M. Nelson teaches that
Jesus Christ “came to pay a debt He didn’t owe because we owed a debt we
couldn’t pay.” Indeed, through the Atonement of Christ, all God’s children
“may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.”
At Easter, we sing
hallelujah. Hallelujah means “praise ye the Lord Jehovah.” The “Hallelujah
Chorus” in Handel’s Messiah is a beloved Easter declaration that He is “King of Kings, and
Lord of Lords.”
The sacred events between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday are the
story of hosanna and hallelujah. Hosanna is our plea for God to save. Hallelujah
expresses our praise to the Lord for the hope of salvation and exaltation.
In hosanna and hallelujah, we recognize the living Jesus Christ as the heart of
Easter and latter-day restoration.
<Following the appearance of Jesus Christ
in the Kirkland Temple on Easter Sunday, April 3, 1836 to Joseph Smith and
Oliver Cowdery>, Moses, Elias, and Elijah also came. By divine direction,
these great prophets of old restored priesthood keys and authority. Thus, “the
keys of this dispensation are committed” within His restored Church to bless
all God’s children.
The coming of Elijah in the
Kirtland Temple also fulfilled Malachi’s Old Testament prophecy that Elijah
would return “before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.” In
doing so, Elijah’s appearance coincided, though not by coincidence, with the
Jewish Passover season, which tradition reverently anticipates Elijah’s return.
In fulfillment of prophecy
and as part of the promised restoration of all things, Elijah did come as
promised, at Easter and the onset of Passover. He brought the sealing authority
to bind families on earth and in heaven. The spirit of Elijah, a manifestation
of the Holy Ghost, draws us to our generations—past, present, and future—in our genealogies,
histories, and temple service.
Significantly, the Book of
Mormon describes the “power and resurrection of Christ” —the essence of Easter—in terms of two
restorations.
First, resurrection
includes physical restoration of our “proper and perfect frame”; “every limb and
joint,” “even a hair of the head shall not be lost.” This promise gives hope to
those who have lost limbs; those who have lost ability to see, hear, or walk;
or those thought lost to relentless disease, mental illness, or other
diminished capacity. He finds us. He makes us whole.
A second promise of Easter
and our Lord’s Atonement is that, spiritually, “all things shall be restored to
their proper order.” This spiritual restoration reflects our works and desires.
Like bread upon the water, it restores “that which is good,” “righteous,”
“just,” and “merciful.” No wonder the prophet Alma uses the word restore 22 times as he urges us to
“deal justly, judge righteously, and do good continually.”
Because “God himself
atoneth for the sins of the world,” the Lord’s Atonement can make whole not
only what was but also what can be. Because He knows ours pains, afflictions,
sicknesses, our “temptations of every kind,” He can, with mercy, succor us
according to our infirmities. Because God is “a perfect, just God, and a
merciful God also,” the plan of mercy can “appease the demands of justice.” We
repent and do all we can. He encircles us eternally “in the arms of his love.”
Today we celebrate restoration and resurrection. With you, I
rejoice in the ongoing Restoration of the fulness of the gospel of Jesus
Christ. As began 200 years ago this spring, light and revelation continue to
come forth through the Lord’s living prophet and His Church called in His name—The Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints—and through personal revelation and inspiration by the supernal
gift of the Holy Ghost.
Dear brothers and sisters
everywhere, as we meet and learn together, your faith and goodness fill me with
a sense of gospel adventure and gratitude. Your testimony and gospel journey
enrich my testimony and gospel journey. Your concerns and joys, your love for
the household of God and community of Saints, and your lived understanding of
restored truth and light increase my fulness of the restored gospel, with the
living Jesus Christ at its heart. Together we trust, “thru cloud and sunshine,
Lord, abide with me.” Unitedly we know, amidst our loads and cares, we can
count our many blessings. In the daily details and small and simple things, we
can see great things brought to pass in our lives.
“And it shall come to pass
that the righteous shall be gathered out from among all nations, and shall come
to Zion, singing with songs of everlasting joy.” At this season of hosanna and
hallelujah, sing hallelujah—for He shall reign forever and ever! Shout hosanna, to God and
the Lamb! In the sacred and holy name of Jesus Christ, amen.
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