Easter Sunday

I saw this past week the last 2/3s or so of the Mel Gibson movie: "The Passion of Christ."  I did not see it when it first came out.  It was a conscious decision.  I had heard of its rating and violent content.  I wanted to remain reverent about the Savior's Atonement and last week of His life.  But it has been some years; and so when I saw the show in progress I decided to watch.  To some degree it was something I needed to see.  It was a graphic (overly but probably realistic) display of what He was actually put through.  The blood and pain that he experienced was obviously indescribable and actually killed lesser "men."  But as members of the LDS Church we have additional information about this event.

President Joseph Fielding Smith (I believe) said that mankind as a whole and sectarian religion particularly do not understand that the scourging and crucifixion that Jesus experienced, as horrible as it was, was still not as painful and extreme as that experienced by other men over the history of the earth; that the Atoning Sacrifice was really experienced in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before.  Here, Luke (the Physician), records that Christ bled from every pore with the weight of the sins, weaknesses, disease, and pain experienced by the totality of mankind throughout the human history of the earth.  And to add to our understanding of this event, the Lord Himself was very specific in the Doctrine & Covenants 19:18--"Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit—and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink—".  (Pres Spencer W. Kimball mentioned that, of course, the Crucifixion was very much a part of, and the culmination of the Atonement.  We don't want to minimize its importance.)

Pres James E. Faust, at the time, 2nd Counselor in the First Presidency, in a Conference Address in gentle tears said, "I wonder how many drops of blood He shed for me?"  (A beautiful anthem has been written on his text since then.)

What a wonder that the glorious resurrection of the Savior brings to us Hope and Joy instead of the horror that He endured for us--a chance to live happy lives and return to Him and Heavenly Father.  We do this while suffering our own heights and depths (our own Gethsemanes, if you will, and Celestial experiences, as well) but nothing compared to what He took upon Himself in our place.  May we be very thankful.  May we seek out those Celestial Experiences by obedience to the commandments, attendance at Church, paying of Tithes and Offerings, magnifying of callings, and frequent Temple Attendance -- that our joys may be great and our Gethsemanes small.  I love you all!! In the name of Jesus Christ. 

Grandpa