The Greatest Gift in Human History –
Sacrament Meeting Easter Program, April 2011
Total length: approximately 24 minutes
Narrator 1: Today we celebrate Easter. We celebrate the life, the Atonement, the death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
“Man never lived of whom more has been said and sung, none to whom is devoted a greater proportion of the world’s literature. He is extolled by Christian, Mohammedan and Jew, by skeptic and infidel, by the world’s greatest poets, philosophers, statesmen, scientists, and historian[s].”1
Why this man; why Jesus? Why is He the centerpiece of literature, of art, of our very reckoning of time? Of course, we know why. He is more than a man. He is the very Son of the Living God, ordained before the world was created.
April sings & Shelby plays: The Shepherd of My Soul, DeFord (4:00)
Narrator 1: Of all the recorded history of Jesus Christ, The Passover week --that journey to Atonement and Resurrection -- is perhaps the most poignant and even most important.
It begins on Palm Sunday with Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Fulfilling prophecy, he rode in on a young donkey while the masses laid their own garments and palm fronds at his feet and hailed him King.2
Jesus spent the following few days about His Father’s business. He cleansed the temple and taught the disciples and faithful followers about faith, preparation, and service.3
Narrator 2: Sometime while the other disciples were preparing the upper room for the feast of the Passover, Judas Iscariot secretly met with wicked Jewish leaders and agreed to betray His Lord to them for a meager 30 pieces of silver. 4
At that last supper, Jesus knelt and washed the feet of each of His disciples.5 He instituted the sacrament as a remembrance of His impending sacrifice.6 He quietly told Judas, “That thou doest, do quickly,” then Judas left.7
(Love one Another playing quietly in the background)
Narrator 1: As His final sermon to the disciples before Gethsemane, Jesus defined true discipleship:
“That ye love one another; as I have loved you.
By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”8
(Piano finishes playing Love One Another)
Narrator 2: It is hard to consider what came next as Jesus and a few of the disciples went to Gethsemane. As the disciples nodded off to sleep, Jesus left them and went a little further to kneel and pray.9
Elder Holland observes,
“...He left them to do what only He could do. The Light of the World stepped away from human company and entered the garden grove to wrestle with the prince of darkness alone. Moving forward, kneeling, falling forward on His face, He cried with an anguish you and I will never know, “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me” (Matt. 26:39). But He knew, for our sakes, that it could not pass and that He must drink that bitter cup to the dregs.”10
In those agonizing moments, even hours, Christ took upon Himself our sins. Not just the “sins of all mankind,” but yours and mine. Each wrong decision, each personal betrayal of our covenants, every sin we would ever commit. The agony was so great, the physical burden so real, that He sweat “great gouts of blood from every pore...” 11
We know that His Atonement was not only for the sins of mankind, but for their sorrows as well. “...the Savior’s Atonement lifts from us not only the burden of our sins but also the burden of our disappointments and sorrows, our heartaches and our despair.” 12 The Son of God truly “descended below all things”13 that He might know how to comfort us in our deepest need.
Choir Sings: Consider the Lilies, Hoffman (5:00)
Narrator 1: Christ’s gift to us didn’t end in Gethsemane. From Elder Bruce R. McConkie:
“After this – His body then wrenched and drained of strength—He confronted Judas and the other incarnate devils, some from the very Sanhedrin itself; and He was led away with a rope around His neck, as a common criminal, to be judged by the arch-criminals,
They took Him to Annas, to Caiaphas, to Pilate, to Herod, and back to Pilate. He was accused, cursed, and smitten. Their foul saliva ran down His face as vicious blows further weakened His pain-engulfed body.
With reeds of wrath they rained blows upon His back. Blood ran down His face as a crown of thorns pierced His trembling brow.
But above it all He was scourged, scourged with 40 stripes save one, scourged with a multi-thronged whip into whose leather strands sharp bones and cutting metals were woven.
Many died from scourging alone, but He rose from the sufferings of the scourge that He might die an ignominious death upon the cruel cross of Calvary.
Then He carried His own cross until He collapsed from the weight and pain and mounting agony of it all.
Narrator 2: Finally, on a hill called Calvary while helpless disciples looked on and felt the agonies of near death in their own bodies, the Roman soldiers laid Him upon the cross.
With great mallets they drove spikes of iron through His feet and hands and wrists. Truly He was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities.
Then the cross was raised that all might see and gape and curse and deride. This they did, with evil venom.
...while He was hanging on the cross for another 3 hours, all the infinite agonies and merciless pains of Gethsemane recurred.
And finally, when the atoning agonies had taken their toll – when the victory had been won, when the Son of God had fulfilled the will of His Father in all things – then He said, “It is finished,” and He voluntarily gave up the ghost.”14
Choir Sings: O Lamb of God, Lund (5:20)
Narrator 2: “As the serenity and solace of a merciful death freed Him from the sorrows of mortality, He returned to the presence of His Father.”15 Jesus’ disciples lovingly took his body and laid it in the tomb, borrowed from Joseph of Arimathea. Then, in 3 days as the Jews measured time, the two Marys came to the tomb to anoint the body of their Lord. They were met by two angels sitting upon the great stone removed from the door of the tomb. “Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen.”16
President Thomas S. Monson teaches,
“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...‘I am the resurrection, and the life,’ spoke the Master. ‘Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you.’”17
Narrator 1: A verse from Revelation teaches us of the great gift the Savior gave through His Atonement and Resurrection: “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” 18
I know that my Redeemer lives. What comfort this sweet sentence gives. May we live for Him as He lives for us.
Choir Sings: I Know That My Redeemer Lives, Anderson, (3:30)
Talk from ward member.
References:
1. Jesus the Christ, James E. Talmage
2. Matthew 21:7-9
3. Matthew 21-25
4. Matthew 26:14-16, Luke 22:3-6
5. John 13:4-5, 14
6. Matthew 26:26-29
7. John 13:7
8. John 13:34-35
9. Matthew 26: 36-44
10. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, He Will Never Let You Down, General Conference, October 1989
11. Elder Bruce R. McConkie, The Purifying Power of Gethsemane, General Conference, April 1985
12. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, Broken Things to Mend, General Conference, April 2006
13. Doctrine and Covenants 122:18
14. Elder Bruce R. McConkie, The Purifying Power of Gethsemane, General Conference, April 1985
15. President Thomas S. Monson, He is Risen!, General Conference, April 2010
16. Luke 24:5-6
17. President Thomas S. Monson, He is Risen!, General Conference, April 2010
18. Revelations: 21:4
Narrators: Chris Nelson, Sherlyn Doyle
