Sabbathoughts for Easter

Happy Easter, everybody.

Today, as we write, is Good Friday. It is the day we remember that the Lord Jesus was tried (illegally), sentenced, and crucified. We may ask, What is Good about it? Let Jesus Himself answer:

"O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken:

"Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?

"And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself" --- to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. ". . . Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures.

"And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day.

"And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem."

And as Lehi in the Book of Mormon taught: "Wherefore, how great the importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth . . . ."

So, what's good about Good Friday is that it is the day the Good News of the gospel became valid and effective and was consummated in His sacrifice and suffering and subsequent resurrection.

Just as the word gospel comes to us from the old Saxon, "Godspel", meaning God's story, or God's news, or Good News, so we can see that Good Friday is really "God's Friday", as He finished the work His Father had given Him to do.

How marvelous it all is!

As the tour guides in Old Jerusalem say when they show tourists the Garden Tomb: "This tomb is different from all other tombs; this one is empty!"

The greatest victory of all time was announced not in these six words, "Manchester United --- Six, Manchester City --- Nil," nor in these eight words, "Brigham Young University --- Sixty, University of Utah --- Zero," but in these eight words: "He is not here: for he is risen."

Because, O my! it was Jesus Christ, / The Savior of mankind;
He's won the victory over the grave / And He won't leave us behind.

That is the chorus of a song my family and I wrote in the mid--1970s at Easter, entitled The Borrowed Tomb. Here's the rest of it:

Saw them take Him down Friday evening, / His face was ghostly white,
And the thunder was rumbling around the cross, / It was such a chilling sight.
Then they laid Him down in that borrowed tomb, / Quickly now, it's the Sabbath Day,
From womb to tomb in just thirty-three years, / Thirty-three years and one day.

And, O my! it was Jesus Christ, / The Savior of mankind;
He's won the victory over the grave / And He won't leave us behind.

Sunday morning in that Garden, / When Mary came to see,
The stone of the tomb was rolled away / And a voice spoke tenderly;
But Mary thought it was the gardener / So she didn't raise her eyes to see,

But, O my! it was Jesus Christ! / The Savior of mankind;
He's won the victory over the grave / And He won't leave us behind.

Thomas came along with doubt in his heart, / The Apostles said, We've seen the Lord!
Thomas said, Until I've felt His wounds, / I can't believe a single word.

But, O my! it was Jesus Christ! / The Savior of mankind;
He's won the victory over the grave / And He won't leave us behind.

Now this is what we witness to everyone, / That the Lord is risen today;
And the wonder of the Resurrection is / That we'll all rise in the same way,

Because, O my! it was Jesus Christ! / The Savior of mankind!
He's won the victory over the grave / And He won't leave us behind!

Truly, what died at that first Easter was Death itself, swallowed up in the Atonement and Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior and Redeemer of the world. Do we know what these words mean? Do we understand the wonder of it all?

As Peter said (and he should know; he was there), "But and if ye suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled;

"But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear."

These things we know of a surety based on the knowledge received through the Prophet Joseph and the Restoration. Truly, a new Prophet has come to the world to bear new, solemn witness to what is being eroded and lost to the world of mankind.

Happy Easter, everyone, you defenders of the faith!

Steve