I finally gave my Snowday Spring Sacrament Meeting Talk
The weather has been so cold, so wet, so yucky! We had record snowfall this winter, and so much rain! Sometimes it seemed like the winter would never end. But now it is spring, a season of promise, a season of renewal. Happy spring! Everything old is new again. Did you see the beautiful spring green leaves on the branches of the trees this morning? Or the lovely wildflowers peeking out along the roadsides? Maybe the clear blue sky caught your eye? It's gorgeous!
God delights in blessing us through his handiwork. I feel happily renewed in the spring, and I know that it pleases Heavenly Father when we're happy.
After all, look at 2 Ne 2:25.
Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy.
Heavenly Father created us that we might have JOY! Our Father, through our Savior Jesus Christ, created all of the earth to bless our lives and help us to come back to Him. Did you know that the earth and all things in it are here to remind us of Jesus?
Nephi teaches us about this:
"Behold, my soul delighteth in proving unto my people the truth of the coming of Christ; for, for this end hath the law of Moses been given; and all things which have been given of God from the beginning of the world, unto man, are the typifying of him."
2 Nephi 11:4
Webster’s defines a type as “to represent by a model or symbol”. In the scriptures “Types”, are examples or symbols of things. You know, kind of like an object lesson.
So, if indeed all things typify Christ, if they are symbols of Him, then likewise the changing of seasons, the coming of spring and the renewal and promise it brings, typify the Savior and the eternal gifts he has given us. We receive from Him the gift and the promise of new life-
(personal resurrection or immortality- like going from winter to spring). He also gives us personal renewal -the atonement. And through the atonement, the gift of eternal life.
Hmmmm, that sounds familiar. What is God's work? …to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of Man. Remember Moses 1:39? For behold, this is my work and my glory to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. How is that done? Through the great plan of salvation and its key components- The creation, The Fall, the atonement (eternal life) and the resurrection of Jesus Christ (immortality).
Okay, so let’s talk about the Resurrection of Christ.
Because of the fall of Adam and Eve, we are subject to physical death- the separation of the Spirit from the body. Through the atonement of Jesus Christ, we will be resurrected, reuniting our bodies with our spirit in a perfect immortal state- no longer subject to disease or death. Paul taught the Corinthian Saints:
But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept.
For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
Christ was the first person on the earth to be resurrected- "the first fruits of them that slept”.
There were many, many appearances of the Resurrected Christ. We remember He first appeared to Mary, in the garden. After the winter of the crucifixion, she had this wonderful spring experience.
President Monson says,
This transcendent promise (of the resurrection) became a reality when Mary and the other Mary approached the garden tomb—that cemetery which had but one occupant. Let Luke, the physician, describe their experience:
“Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre
“And they found the stone rolled away. …
“… They entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus.
“… As they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments:
“And … said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead?”
“He is not here: for he is risen.”
Our Savior lived again. The most glorious, comforting, and reassuring of all events of human history had taken place—the victory over death. The pain and agony of Gethsemane and Calvary had been wiped away. The salvation of mankind had been secured. The Fall of Adam had been reclaimed.
Jesus Christ also appeared to Peter, the future president of the Church, and then the resurrected Lord appeared to His Apostles. He helped them to understand that He had a body of flesh and bones. Thomas especially had a hard time believing. Did you have moments in the cold this winter where you doubted it would ever be warm again? I did. Luke continues to record:
(This actually happened about a week after resurrection morning)
And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them,Peace be unto you. But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit. And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. (Luke 24)
No one had ever been resurrected before. This was a really new thing for them- but it was definitely cause to celebrate. The resurrected Christ was seen of hundreds of others as well- including the Nephites at the temple in Bountiful, the apostle Paul and the Prophet Joseph Smith. He lives! He lives who once was dead!
Brigham Young taught on the Resurrection: "Even though a person's body may be buried by the ocean, eaten by wild beasts, burned by ashes, the particles will be watched over and be preserved until the resurrection. At the sound of the trumpet of God, every particle will be reassembled to every man. Not one particle will be lost."
And President Hinckley added: … In the resurrection all of the elements will be brought together, and we'll be individuals, recognizing one another and working with one another. There's no question in my mind we won't be just amorphous creatures. We'll be people, after the resurrection, with bodies, who will work together to accomplish the work of the Lord.
Alma teaches that at the time of our resurrection, we will be judged according to our works…We shall be brought to stand before God, knowing even as we know now, and have a bright recollection of our guilt. He taught the saints in his time about the resurrection, renewal and spiritual progression. He spoke to them about being “born again”. Saying:
“Now I say unto you that ye must repent, and be born again; for the Spirit saith if ye are not born again ye cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven; therefore come and be baptized unto repentance, that ye may be washed from your sins, that ye may have faith on the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world, who is mighty to save and to cleanse from all unrighteousness.” (Alma 7:14)
Have you ever considered being born again as a “spiritual resurrection”? When we are baptized, we choose to submit to our Father. We partake symbolically of death and the resurrection when we are buried in the water and “resurrected” back up out of it. We are born again- or symbolically resurrected through this ordinance.
When I chose to repent and change and be baptized, back a long, long time ago, I came out of the dark winter of sin, and experienced, for the first time the blossoming spring of spiritual rebirth. I was born again- It was wonderful! I could answer Alma affirmatively when he asked: And now behold, I ask of you, my brethren of the church, have ye spiritually been born of God? Have ye received his image in your countenances? Have ye experienced this mighty change in your hearts? I had experienced a mighty change in my heart. I had no more disposition to do evil but to do good continually. (Mosiah 5:2)I had been born again. For the first time. It was spring- and it was wonderful!
President Ezra Taft Benson said, "When you choose to follow Christ, you choose to be changed. "No man," said President David O. McKay, "can sincerely resolve to apply to his daily life the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth without sensing a change in his own nature. The phrase 'born again' has a deeper significance than many people attach to it. This changed feeling may be indescribable, but it is real." (Ezra Taft Benson CR April 1962, p. 7.) "
That's part of why the Sacrament is so important to us. It allows us to renew our baptismal covenant and become clean every whit, ready to grow and become ever more like our Savior. The physical resurrection is a one time, amazing thing, but we can experience a spiritual resurrection, being born again of God, fresh and new, as regularly as the seasons, through the great gift of the sacrament and partaking of Christ’s atonement.
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I think it’s cool that our two most important holidays, Christmas and Easter, mark the changing of seasons. We begin each winter by celebrating Christmas and then end winter and open spring with the celebration of Easter. But think about this- President Hinckley has told us, "There would be no Christmas if there was no Easter."
"There would be no Christmas if there was no Easter."
Have you ever thought of that before? We spend weeks and weeks preparing for Christmas, celebrating the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. We hold the crèche for our community, we sing songs and we perform in plays. We give gifts, decorate our homes in colors and symbols to help us remember His life, attend parties and do extra service for our neighbors- all in remembrance of this sacred birth.
But there would be no reason to celebrate without Easter, without the resurrection of the Savior. Why would there be? Without the triumphant resurrection, the celebration of Christ’s mission completed; without the transcendent gift of the atonement and the resurrection, our Savior’s life would not be celebrated. We celebrate His birth because he was triumphant in his mission to save us from death. Here's the whole quote from President Hinckley:
“The whole essence of the Christian religion is based on the atonement of Christ, his death and his resurrection. There would be no Christmas if there was no Easter. The fact that he was resurrected gave credibility to his whole life's mission, and that's the essence of it. We go on living. This is a stage in our eternal journey. We lived before we were here. This is our mortal existence, and we shall go on living after this”.
Everything the Savior did while he was here on earth, His teachings, His example, His work, was made credible through the resurrection. He taught over and over again that “I will destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up again.”
His triumphant resurrection testified of the truth of everything Jesus Christ said He was. It proved all that He said and did. What would have happened if His body had remained in the tomb? Everything He had said and promised, everything he had done, would have been null and void. His gifts, his teachings to us- all to no effect. It is because the tomb was empty that our lives are full.
In this month’s Ensign there’s a little article on the back page, that illustrates the power in the resurrection. Brother David Frischnecht tells of an experience he had shortly after his father passed away. His family had gone to the mortuary to choose a casket and a vault for their father’s body. It was a solemn time for them. As they considered their choices, the salesman claimed among other things that the vault was self sealing, and was guaranteed to stay sealed for 75 years. Brother Frischnecht says, “Even though the occasion was a solemn one, that guarantee amused me. Who will check the seal in 75 years? And if it has failed, who will collect the money? Really- what are the chances of the vault staying sealed?”
Brother David then goes on to relate this vault to the one our Savior was entombed in. Remembering that after the crucifixion the Chief Priests and Pharisees were worried that the disciples would come and steal the body of Christ out of the tomb in order to claim that he was “resurrected”, they went to Pilate and proposed that soldiers be placed on watch to be sure this did not happen. But really, what were the chances of the vault staying sealed? Probably about as good as keeping a raging lion sealed in a cardboard box. Our Lord created the rock that was in front of the tomb! He created the earth, and nothing could stop his triumphant resurrection.
Truly, as President Hinckley said, “The fact that he was resurrected gave credibility to his whole life's mission, and that's the essence of it. We go on living. This is a stage in our eternal journey. We lived before we were here. This is our mortal existence, and we shall go on living after this”.
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, in teaching our children, said,
"In the peaceful setting of a spring garden, Jesus arose from His burial tomb to live again with our Heavenly Father. And in some wonderful, miraculous way, He gave us the same power and privilege. I do not know exactly how this will happen, but I know that we have, through Jesus, been given the opportunity to conquer all doubt and despair and death…..…...I would especially like you to remember our Brother Jesus Christ to whom we owe everything, for He came to heal our wounds, calm our fears, and bring us safely home when we really, really needed Him."
May you and I, through the renewal and promise of spring, always remember our Savior and the marvelous gifts he has given us through His Atonement and His Resurrection.
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