Actual Easter

I watched a short video clip the other day about Easter and it was really moving... so I spent some time typing it up as the guy talked.  I have no idea who he is or where he is speaking but I figured it didn't matter because the message is just really great.  Here it is:

My dad, who had Alzheimer’s, had gotten it so bad that when I would talk to him, he would look at me and he’d say, “I’m so sorry, I don’t know you’re name… but I’m pretty sure I like you!”  And I said, “I’ll take that!”

Well, a few years earlier, before his Alzheimer’s had gotten so severe, he had been asked to be the closing speaker for Sacrament meeting on Easter… the last, you know, 14 or 15 minutes of Easter.  And I was a little tentative when he told me about it, because I didn’t want him to have a problem and embarrass himself, but oh, he was thrilled that he’d been asked.

He gets up to give his 15 minute talk on Easter.  And I’m at the back, ready for an intervention…ready to come up and help him off.  And he stands up, and says, “Brothers and Sisters, in the Pearl of Great Price (scriptures), we learn that Heavenly Father, Elohim, the father of us all, is the greatest intelligence in the universe.  Greatest in the universe. And that no other intelligences, and all the other intelligences combined, can’t equal the brilliance of God the Father.”

And I thought, “My, that’s an interesting way to do the Easter talk.”  And then he doubles down on the God the Father thing.  He starts telling everything that’s ever been said, any scripture that refers to it, any writings, any speeches from all the prophets over time, about how brilliant, beyond the beyond the beyond, is our Father in Heaven.  Nothing about Jesus, nothing.

And I’m at the… this is sad, but at the back, you know, just behind in the little overflow section. I didn’t do this, but I felt like saying, “Jesus!! Jesus!!”  I’d grab a flower and say, “It’s Easter!  Do Jesus, Dad!  You got two minutes, get to Jesus!”  No Jesus.

And then this, and then this…

Two minutes left in his talk and he says, “So isn’t it interesting that the greatest intelligence of all abandons His son, at the most crucial moment, to fulfill His atoning sacrifice, causing His perfect son not to moan, but to cry out in agony. ‘My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me?’”

Then my father says, “I don’t believe that He (God) ran to some corner of the universe because it was too painful for Him.  He chose to leave Him (Christ) alone. To abandon Him, so that he felt completely alone. Could it be, at that precise moment, the greatest intelligence in all the universe had witnessed to all… that He, God the Father, had put all of His faith in His son?”

“And if the greatest intelligence that will ever be put all of His own faith in Jesus, shouldn’t we?  And could it be, at the moment you feel abandoned, and you feel forgotten, and you feel left alone, the greatest intelligence in the universe is bearing witness that he has faith in you?”

John the Baptist in prison, Joseph Smith in Liberty Jail, “Where’s the pavilion that covers your hiding place?” and Jesus Christ on the cross, “My God, why have you forsaken me?” If you have felt forsaken, if you have doubted, if you have feared, you’re in good company.

I know Jesus Christ lives; I know this and have faith and believe it more than I know anything else.  I know that God lives too, and there's no way He would send his son to die, to be tortured and crucified, without an eternal plan that plainly crosses earthly existence.  God wouldn't do that; no parent would do that.  

Jesus Christ is my Redeemer, your Redeemer, the world's Redeemer- to those who seek Him and trust Him.  I would especially tell Tim's dad Henry, who wrote once he'd like to know Jesus: you can know Him, you can seek Him, you can trust Him.  Pray to feel that these things are true; if you're sincere, you'll know.  There's nothing more comforting in all the hills of life to know that one thing is constant- the love of Christ.

Happy Easter to all!  I am especially grateful that I am able to spend the day with those I love.