It would be a great blessing to adequately put into words the feelings of my heart on the blessed Easter Sunday. My name is Sarah Johnson. I am a wife, a mother, a sister, a daughter and a friend. I have had a witness that Jesus Christ is our great Redeemer. As spiritual children of our Heavenly Father, the great plan of happiness was presented, and taught in the preexistence. I can imagine a beautiful place, where we created friendships and alliances there, just as we have here. We progressed in knowledge, in understanding, and in truth. But this was not enough. To complete our training, to become like our Father and Mother in Heaven, we needed a body of flesh and bone. Our ultimate perfection would require that we experience hunger, pain and sorrow and still follow God’s law, willingly. We needed to feel happiness, elation and love. We needed to live in a state where choice was preserved in time, so that the consequences of our actions could be padded with learning and repentance.
I imagine a great hall, where we stood in the grand council. Just as we had the opportunity to sustain President Monson in General Conference, we too had the opportunity to raise our hand to the square and sustain Jesus Christ, as Redeemer and Savior. From the beginning we have had a choice. Despite possible heartache, set back, mistakes, weakness, and sin, I chose Jesus Christ along with each of you here today. And to this day, I again raise my hand and my heart to him as I have taken the sacrament and willingly allowed the cleansing power of the Atonement to wash away my sins.
The Son of the morning, Lucifer, a once glorious and appointed brother, stood in defiance of God’s law. With pride and arrogance he preferred power over priesthood, deviance over faith, force over freedom.
Many were deceived. Underneath the glamor of his deception was a seething hatred, bubbling toxicity, and fuming, petrified jealousy. With his plan no one would be lost to sin, he would demand perfect obedience. The crevices of his deception gave way to the blackness of his soul. Without examination his desire to save all seemed heroic. The actuality of his plan revealed cold, emboldened filth.
In heaven, opposition was born.
To live with freedom, and the subsequent ability to sin is directly opposite of the perfection that Heavenly Father’s presence requires. To be created with inherent weaknesses, which tutor us in humility, and dependence on God, is in direct opposition to the perfect strength and obedience that Heavenly Father embodies. To enjoy God’s everlasting mercy is in direct opposition to the absolute justice that the law demands. Thus the need for Jesus Christ’s infinite Atonement was born.
“Even so when they begin to grow up, sin conceiveth in their hearts, and they taste the bitter, that they may know to prize the good.
“And it is given unto them to know good from evil; wherefore they are agents unto themselves” (Moses 6:55–56).
As a child I thought that the Atonement was pretty. I understood that Jesus Christ’s sacrifice was required, I felt a deep love for him. I remember wanting desperately to know, if I lived when he was alive, if I would be one of the children that he invited to Come Unto Him. I examined the beautiful art, rendered by faithful stewards, of his prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, taking upon my own misgivings, and disappointments and sin. My mistake however, is that I thought the Atonement was easy, it always looked so beautiful. Descension below all things is not easy, or beautiful.
Jesus Christ spilt his blood willingly for me. He absorbed my trials, so that I wouldn’t have to suffer as he did. To Joseph Smith he counseled,
“Therefore I command you to repent—repent, lest I smite you by the rod of my mouth, and by my wrath, and by my anger, and your sufferings be sore—how sore you know not, how exquisite you know not, yea, how hard to bear you know not.
“For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent;
“But if they would not repent they must suffer even as I;
“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—“Doctrine and Covenants 19:15–19
Years ago, as I explored Old Jerusalem, a half naked man walked the cobblestone streets, yelling to the tormented spirits within his frame, he hit his head, over and over, as if to expel the devils inside of him.
- I walked passed the blind man, a tunic covered his head, and torn cloths draped his emaciated frame as he asked strangers for sustenance.
- Our bus drove up to throngs of filthy, bare footed, happy children, who ran through dirt filled streets playing games in their small town.
- I walked the path of our Redeemer’s final 24 hours, over the course of two days. I was fully fed, fully hydrated, and fully rested. I was surrounded by people who loved me, and yet I was absolutely and utterly wasted with emotional and physical exhaustion after climbing and descending the physical markers that are left from his tumultuous final hours.
- I wept bitterly and freely at the Garden Tomb. I was surrounded by twisted and cankered Olive Trees, which probably stood in Jesus’ day. The cleansing power of the Atonement wrought a deep change in my soul that day, as I gave freely to the Savior my heartache and weakness.
- In the museum of the Holocaust, in my own small way, the Atonement’s brevity came screamingly to my humbled heart. Hour after hour photos of human suffering, unmerited sacrifice of families, comforts and dignity splattered across walls through photos and remembrances. Sickness filled my soul.
I cannot fathom the Atonement for what it actually is; the saving graces for every person, for every sin, for every heartache ever experienced by billions of Heavenly Father’s children. But, in that moment, I could fathom suffering, and I knew Jesus Christ’s Atonement overcame the suffering of those innocent Jewish people, and it also took fully into account the sins of those who inflicted the pain.
“Nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I partook and finished my preparations unto the children of men.” Doctrine and Covenants 19:15–19
While preparations are complete, the Atonement is not yet finished. Jesus Christ made an offering for our sins and suffering through his own blood. This was just the down payment for the true power of the Atonement. The remaining balance is ours to pay.
3 Nephi 9:20 teaches, “And ye shall offer for a sacrifice unto me a broken heart and a contrite spirit. And whoso cometh unto me with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, him will I baptize with fire and with the Holy Ghost.”
I remember one day driving around town with my mom as a child. At the time we drove a white Honda Tercel. The beige pleather seats would burn my skin after soaking in the hot summer sun. I remember asking my mom, if Jesus was all powerful, and could do all things (because I knew he could) why didn’t he come down and do missionary work, and help feed the poor and fix all the problems. It made sense in my finite mind.
Elder Christopherson explains “Inasmuch as we follow Christ, we seek to participate in and further His redemptive work.”
Because of Him we can teach our family the gospel, solidify testimony and encourage repentance.
Because of Him, we can participate in missionary work. We can share our love for the gospel, without taking upon us the burden of making other’s choices.
Because of Him we can participate in Temple Work. Recently I had the opportunity to seal my Dad to his parents. I knelt at the altar at the Draper Temple, I acted as proxy to my Grandmother Alvernia Elizabeth, while my husband, Jonny acted as proxy to my Grandfather Michael Rizzo. Clasped in the symbols of the temple, the priesthood power bestowed a crowning blessing upon my father, to be sealed together for time and all eternity to his parents. I can bear witness that there is no work more powerful and cleansing that can be done for yourself or your loved ones than to do vicarious work for your ancestors. I felt light penetrate into the farthest recesses of my soul and heal every broken fiber. Tears fell freely as generations were protected by the everlasting priesthood power.
In my own family and circle of friends I have seen many miracles:
- After divorce of a parent, I have seen love.
- After my uncle lay in his deathbed because of a brain tumor and two bouts of spinal meningitis, I have witnessed him live on to serve a mission with his wife.
- After generations of parental abandonment I have found healing through the sealing power found in the temple.
- After burying a child, I have seen young parents cling to the hope and truth of the gospel plan.
- After living through a valiant fight with cancer, I witnessed my sweet Grandmother take flight to have “the best date of her life,” with my grandpa.
Life isn’t always fair, but through Jesus Christ, all things can be for our good. President Erying said, “If we have faith in Jesus Christ, the hardest as well as the easiest times in life can be a blessing. We never need to feel that we are alone or unloved in the Lord’s service because we never are. We can feel the love of God. The Savior has promised angels on our left and our right to bear us up. And He always keeps His word.”
