Holy Week: Easter Sunday

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Close your eyes, and bring your attention to your breath. Inhale deeply, hold for two seconds, now breathe out all the tension, stress, or negativity in your body. One more time. Breathe in deeply, hold, exhale slowly all the way. 

As your breathing returns to normal, gently turn your thoughts and attention toward the last week of Christ’s life. Elder Gong describes the Holy Week this way: “The sacred events between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday are the story of hosanna[, meaning “save now,”] and hallelujah[, meaning “praise ye the Lord Jehovah”]. Hosanna is our plea for God to save. Hallelujah expresses our praise to the Lord for the hope of salvation and exaltation. In hosanna and hallelujah we recognize the living Jesus Christ as the heart of Easter and latter-day restoration.”

Today we will be pondering Easter Sunday, when Jesus was resurrected. 

Imagine you are Mary Magdalene. You witnessed many of Christ’s miracles, even being the recipient of His healing. You listened to His powerful sermons. You felt the light and hope He brought to the earth and the love and care He had for those in it. You also witnessed the unjust trial of Christ, and the horrific crucifixion. You were left with despair, emptiness, helplessness. You mourned at His tomb for as long as you could before the Sabbath came.

Then you endured the Sabbath day, going through the motions, but yearning for the evening to come, when you could return again to the tomb of Jesus Christ and finish attending to His body. Finally it is time. Your Sabbath worship is finished, and you set off to the tomb with Mary, Jesus’s mother, and some other women. As you are walking, someone raises a concern—will the group be strong enough to roll the stone in front of the tomb away so that you can access the body inside?[1]

When you get to the tomb, you see that the stone has already been moved.[2] Was there an earthquake?[3] Did someone come take the body? But then you see two individuals sitting on the stone—their clothes are white as snow and their countenances are sharp and bright.[4] The Roman guards who were guarding the tomb are on the ground, as if they are dead.[5] Your adrenaline starts pumping—what is going on here? What more horror do you have to suffer? But then the two men in white call out to you and the other women: “Fear not ye, for we know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified.”[6] But “Why seek ye the living among the dead?”[7] “He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.”[8] “Go quickly,” they say, “and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead.”[9]

You approach, bewildered, confused, hopeful, scared, curious, and bend down to enter the tomb. Inside, the body you are expecting to see is not there.[10] In its place is a linen, folded neatly and abandoned.[11] As you return to the outside of the tomb, wondering if Christ really could have risen from the dead—and what that would even mean, you notice the two men are gone.

The other women run with “fear and great joy” to bring the disciples the message.[12] But you hang back. Confused and overwhelmed, you take a few quiet moments to mourn by yourself.

Whether Jesus’s body was taken or whether He really did rise again, you are still left with an empty tomb.

You remember the Pharisees’ concern that someone might try to take Jesus’s body and make it seem like He had risen again. You look into the tomb once more  and you see two more people dressed like the people you saw sitting on the stone. Where did they come from? There is  “one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain.”[13] They ask you why you are weeping. You tell them “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have lain him.”[14]

As you are answering, gesturing to the outside of the tomb, you see another person out of the corner of your eye.[15] This person speaks too, asking you why you are weeping and who you are looking for.[16] Assuming it is the gardener, you ask, “Sir, if you have moved the body, please tell me where it is and I will take Him away.”[17]

The man responds with one word—your name.[18] The familiarity in His voice is all it takes for you to realize who is standing there. You spin around and there is Jesus, almost as if the past few days didn’t happen. But they did happen—you see the marks on His hands, wrists, and feet from the nails. “Master!”[19] He anticipates your next movement, which would be to embrace Him in joy, and warns, “Hold me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.”[20]

When you are done worshipping and speaking with Christ, you run to tell the others the good news.

Later, Christ appears to His disciples, who are frightened at first, thinking they are seeing a ghost.[21] Christ assures them, “Peace be unto you.”[22] “Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.”[23] Christ spends the rest of His time on earth instructing His disciples to baptize others and teach others what He had taught them. “As my Father hath sent me, even so I send you.”[24]

He blesses them, gives them the gift of the Holy Ghost,[25] and reminds them “I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.”[26] And he ascends up to heaven[27] to sit on the right hand of God.[28]

The devastation and horror of the atonement and crucifixion stand in deep contrast to the joy, hope, and vindication of the resurrection. Mortality is full of this type of devastation and agony and horror. It is all around us and we will all experience it to some degree. But the gospel provides the contrasting joy and hope and vindication. Even as we despair in mortality, we can hope for the day when we see Christ like His disciples saw Him that Easter Sunday, and feel the prints in His hands and feet.

We have been pondering the story of Christ’s disciples seeing Him again after His horrific death. Now take a few moments to ponder what it will be like when you see Christ again, after experiencing the difficulties of mortality. He will look you in the eyes and will already know everything you’ve been through—not just know it, but have felt it with you.

Christ assured His disciples, and assures us still today: “And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.”[29]

When you are ready, take a final deep breath and slowly turn your awareness back to your body. As you open your eyes and return to your surroundings, take a moment to jot down any thoughts, promptings, or questions that came to mind while you were pondering. Continue to ponder the things that have come to your mind and your heart as you prepare for and celebrate the Easter Holiday.

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[1] Mark 16:3

[2] Luke 24:2.

[3] Matthew

[4] JST Matthew 28:2-3; JST Mark 16:3; Luke 24:4.

[5] Matthew 28:4.

[6] Matthew 28:5-6; see also JST Mark 16:4; Luke 24:5-7.

[7] Luke 24:5.

[8] Matthew 28:5-6; see also JST Mark 16:4; Luke 24:5-7.

[9] Matthew 28:7; JST Mark 16:5.

[10] JST Mark 16:6; Luke 24:3.

[11] Luke 24:12; John 20:5.

[12] Matthew 28:8; Mark 16:8.

[13] John 20:12.

[14] John 20:13.

[15] John 20:14.

[16] John 20:15.

[17] John 20:15.

[18] John 20:16.

[19] John 20:16.

[20] JST John 20:17.

[21] Luke 24:37.

[22] Luke 24:36; John 20:19, 21

[23] Luke 24:39.

[24] John 20:21.

[25] John 20:22

[26] Matthew 28:20.

[27] Luke 24:51.

[28] Mark 16:19.

[29] John 16:22