It’s the most wonderful time of the year! The sweet scent of spring break still lingers in your conscience and the bright hope of a semester finishing in just a few short weeks. The glimmers of sunshine that the temperamental weather allows, like a promise of “the best is yet to come!” The days of some of the sorest goodbyes, but also the happiest of hellos. The days of summer planning and brisk morning jogs and countless weddings and engagements. Where stress and the temptation to play Frisbee outside both reach a climax simultaneously. Spring is pretty fantastic, but this is not to what I reference.
This week is dubbed “Holy Week,” starting with Palm Sunday when the Savior entered Jerusalem and concluding with Easter morning. I feel the power of the Spirit more powerfully imprinted on my heart during this week than any other time of the year, stemming back from those early years playing the Easter Cantata under the direction of an inspired choral director. It’s the opportunity to reflect on Christ. For us to remember. Easter goes much deeper than the sacrifice. It goes deeper than death. The celebration of Easter is not about the cross nor is it even about what occurred at Gethsemane. It’s about grace, love, empowerment and an empty tomb. This truly is the most wonderful time of the year.
Throughout this life we develop so much death and darkness in our souls just from being on this earth. We have pain, regrets, and misfortunes that infect our very essence. It attempts to crack our testimonies and eat at our divine nature. It’s corrosive and subtle and subtracts hope from your life, demolishes your self worth. Try as we might, we cannot break free of our own strength. It is this very pain and these shadows—that’s why Christ came. He suffered and atoned for us. Not just to make us clean, but to make us whole. To enable us to be better. He doesn’t wash us clean and then push us back out there to fend for ourselves. He washes our filthy feet and picks us up off the floor and carries us to where we need to be, training us to walk when we have the strength. He died to give us life, to give us hope, to break bonds and free us of addiction and vice. He doesn’t just want us to live without sin, he wants us to live abundantly.
I think baptism is beautiful. To be completely immersed in water and come up suddenly clean, with that victorious splash as you are pulled up out of the water. When we are completely immersed in the water, surrounded by darkness, when the sounds of life are muddled, that represents death. Though important, I would wager that full immersion is not the most important part, just as the most important day is not Good Friday. It's that Easter morning, breaking through the water and rising again. And may I emphasize that you do not bring yourself out of the water? There is that strong hand on your back that brings you out of the water for our own personal resurrection.That's what grace is, and let me assure you, it is indeed sufficient.
“Each of us will have our own Fridays—those days when the universe itself seems shattered and the shards of our world lie littered about us in pieces. We all will experience those broken times when it seems we can never be put together again. We will all have our Fridays.
But I testify to you in the name of the One who conquered death—Sunday will come. In the darkness of our sorrow, Sunday will come.
No matter our desperation, no matter our grief, Sunday will come.”
This is an excerpt from one of the best talks ever written, by Joseph B. Wirthlin.
I guess the point I’m wanting to get across is that I want to understand the real Easter message. I want it to "click" in my life, yearround, not just Holy Week. I want to be grateful that someone loves me (and you!) enough to die and atone for all the sins I’ve committed and who has gone to the depths to understand exactly what I feel and experience. But most importantly, I want to live my life empowered by the atonement. Live life brighter, be better. I don't want to accept merely “clean,” but sparkling, because Christ cut every bond that is holding me back.
To answer Job’s timeless question: “If a man should die, should he rise again?” And the resounding question through all creation and eternities is: Yes. The fingerprints of God are everywhere if you look for them, and throughout everything is threaded the ribbon of the Atonement. If I know nothing else, this I know deep in my bones. Christ arose. He conquered. The grave could not hold him, and through Him, we too can be conquerors.
Happy Easter everyone. Next time you see those crosses that spring up every Easter in decorations and cards, do me a favor and close your eyes and imagine instead an empty tomb. Because that's what it's about. A dear friend once said "I don't wear a cross necklace to show my faith in Christ. And they don't make empty tomb necklaces, so I guess I'll have to live my life in a way that shows I know the reason Christ died and that I know for a fact that He lives." I hope you all have wonderful celebrations with your family and loved ones!
