BYU Easter Conference 2021 - Tyler Griffin

what a wonderful time of year this is when we're given the opportunity to celebrate the most glorious event in in the history of the world that resurrection of the lord jesus christ i love the opening lines of that beloved hymn i know that my redeemer lives what comfort this sweet sentence gives he lives he lives who once was dead he lives my ever living head i want to i want to approach this subject today from a slightly different angle i want to change one word for a moment and let's explore what happens i want to change the word from lives to lived i know that my redeemer lived now what do i mean by that rather than putting all of the focus on the event of the resurrection that happened on easter morn i want to go back to his ministry and some of the things that happened in his life that show that jesus chose to live for us in order to build his character and his capacity to be able to perform that infinite atonement and to to be able to endure infinite agony and suffering in our behalf so to begin with in matthew chapter 4 jesus endures three intense temptations from the devil now stop and think about that for a moment he did not allow himself to indulge in any kind of sin he didn't allow himself the the capacity to give in he lived for us through those temptations and he withstood them thus making it so that he would be able to still qualify as our savior and as our redeemer down the road next everything that jesus taught everything he shared with the people either through parable or or through direct teaching shows us that he is living for us by by showing us how we can live in fact at his last supper there's a fascinating little interchange that takes place there this is in john chapter 14 verse 5 where thomas one of his apos apostles says lord we know not whither thou goest and how can we know the way and jesus saith unto him i am the way the truth and the life no man cometh unto the father but by me in essence he's telling his apostles and by extension he's telling us there is no secret passageway somewhere else he's saying i am the way i know that my redeemer lived is an invitation for us to explore his life and to see the way he lived his life so that we can better emulate it so that we can follow him and become more like him in the process as thomas and those other apostles learned on that beautiful night two thousand years ago then we have the miracles that jesus performed he healed he fed he sustained he calmed he gave life to the dead and sight to the blind and a new new lease on life for those who had leprosy or who were lame or halt or withered in any manner i love that jesus didn't just do these things in isolation he did them so that we could see his power not only in their life two thousand years ago but that we could see his hand reflected in the miracles that he brings into our life today and by extension the invitation that we walk with him and do the things that he has done so that we likewise can look around at those miracles both big and small that need to be performed for people who are struggling all around us whether it be lifting up the hands that hang down or feeding the hungry clothing the naked or giving a powerful reassurance to people through blessings or prayer or through our very presence to mourn with those that mourn our comfort those that stand in need of comfort or to help those who are struggling in any way he lived and he showed us then how to live then we bring the story to gethsemane's doorstep where he is ready to begin that infinite atoning sacrifice once again back in john chapter 14 we are mere moments away from jesus beginning that that infinite agony in gethsemane and culminating the next morning on the cross and what does he say to his apostles chapter 14 verse 27 peace i leave with you my peace i give unto you not as the world giveth give i unto you let not your heart be troubled neither let it be afraid i find that interesting that here's jesus christ on the threshold of gethsemane he is about to enter into that infinite agony of the atonement and what is he doing he's turned outward worried about his apostles and how they might feel a little anxious and troubled and he's reassuring them and giving peace to them i know that my redeemer lived he lived he didn't just survive but he wasn't just going through the motions here he was turned outward even at that late hour when when this suffering was imminent he was still turned outward worried about his apostles and there's no record in the account of them coming to him trying to reassure him on this threshold of gethsemane but i love the fact that jesus is so focused on what the needs around him may be and meeting those needs he's showing us once again how to live today so as we pick up this story in matthew chapter 26 verse 36 we're told that he came with them unto a place called gethsemane which means oil press it's a place where they would process olives and squeeze them and press them so they could get the olive oil out it's such a beautiful symbolic name for what jesus was about to do going into this into this particular garden verse 37 or 30 verse 37 tells us and he took with him peter and the two sons of zebedee and began to be very sorrowful and very heavy and he turns to them and he says my soul is exceedingly sorrowful even unto death tarry ye hear and watch with me this seems to be a profound way for him to say to them oh no i think i'm going to have a hard time even surviving this will you will you watch with me and then he leaves them there and verse 39 tells us he went a little further and fell on his face and prayed saying o my father if it be possible let this cup pass from me nevertheless not as i will but as thou wilt this to me is such a critical moment in this in this story of jesus's infinite atonement where it hits him with that full force up front and he falls to the ground on his face and he's pleading with god to take this away i can imagine that every element of his physical nature everything that he has inherited from his mortal mother mary all of those those natural tendencies and and earthly feelings and emotions that you and i feel at that moment would have likely been pleading with him to give up and to stop and to not endure this infinite agony this pain that is beyond description i am so grateful that jesus lived for me and for you rather than giving up early or allowing his spirit to leave his body before the full price was paid for each of us now what is it what is it that's in that millstone symbolically weighing down on the lord jesus christ that would be so heavy that would cause him to fall to the ground on his face we know from scriptures that he is suffering for our sins and sins have some consequences attached to them as we do things that are inappropriate as we sin and we break god's laws we experience some emotions things like guilt remorse feelings of emptiness and hollowness and feelings at times of self-loathing and it's fascinating to me that jesus is about 33 years old here and never in his entire life has he experienced the human emotion of guilt of of regret of thinking oh no why did i why did i do that that was such a poor decision he doesn't know what that feels like he lived his life in perfection so that he would be without blemish in order to fulfill that that covenant that he had made with the father and with with us that he would overcome death and hell for and in behalf of each of us so here he is coming into the garden and all of a sudden he's feeling not just a little bit of remorse not just a little bit of regret or a little bit of guilt but he's feeling that foreign and behalf of all of us it's coming in infinite proportions is it any wonder he turns to his three apostles and says my soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death tarry ye hear and watch with me now it's not just the natural consequences of our wrongdoing and our sins that jesus is experiencing here we're told in the book of mormon that jesus experiences other things as well some of the the information that these book of mormon prophets fill in for us some of the the blanks that get filled in are statements such as he suffereth the pains of every living creature all men women and children through all time so listen to these words of the angel delivered to king benjamin and from king benjamin to the people and by default through the quarter of time to us mosiah chapter 3 verse 7 and lo he shall suffer temptations and pain of body hunger thirst and fatigue even more than man can suffer except it be unto death for behold blood cometh from every poor so great shall be his anguish for the wickedness and the abominations of his people so when the old testament writers say things like he will be a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief you then read these passages from the book of mormon and we see that there is no mortal pain no mortal anguish whether it be physical in nature or mental or emotional or psychological or relational or any pain associated with abuse being inflicted upon an individual there is nothing that you and i can experience in this life that jesus doesn't understand experientially that he doesn't understand perfectly now as he's going through this ordeal in the garden of gethsemane once again i know that my redeemer lived he didn't give up he didn't stop that process early even though he had power to do so he wasn't being forced this was a free will offering he was using his agency to choose to do this for us once his experience there is complete then the arresting party arrives there in the middle of the night so you can picture this this is happening around passover so it's a full moon we're in the middle of the night so you can picture this full moon somewhere overhead shining down its light into this garden when this group of men come with swords and spears and staffs and and torches and lanterns and there stands jesus in majesty and in glory that this world has never known before having just completed what he has done in gethsemane it's fascinating to me when you read john 18. john's account tells us that the group stands there semi-paralyzed they don't know what to do and so jesus has to step forward and ask them whom seek ye and their response is we seek jesus of nazareth and his answer was i am or in the greek ego amy implication being that he just introduced himself as the great i am from the old testament jehovah the the god of the old testament and you'll notice in john's account that the whole arresting party falls backward to the ground nobody moves he has to ask again whom seek he and they say we seek jesus of nazareth and he tells them i have told you i am and at that point peter comes forward and cuts off malchus's ear jesus would have been completely justified in striking down that group but he didn't he would have been justified in turning to malcus we get his name out of john's gospel who just got his ear cut off and he would have been justified in turning and saying to malcus do you really think that hurts because jesus knows something of infinite agony not the kind of pain that malchus is going through but jesus didn't chide malcus jesus didn't mock him nor did jesus ignore him while none of malcus's comrades none of his friends came to his defense that night there was one person who defended malchus and it happens to be the very person that malchus came to arrest or to help in capturing as jesus turns to peter and stops him and says put up your sword and then he turns to malchus and in luke's gospel we're told that jesus heals that ear the fact that we know malcus's name gives me hope that jesus healed more than just malchus's ear that night that something deep in malcus's heart was also touched and healed when jesus would have been so justified in condemning him and the rest of the group he chose to stand up under that situation and suffer it he didn't resist it he was willing to go through with it i know that my redeemer lived for me and for you and this is another story showing that now he's brought to the trials and i love nephi's words in first nephi 19 when he sums up those those trial experiences in front of the sanhedrin as well as in in front of those three roman trials pilate herod and pilate and the mockery that he takes from the the soldiers the roman soldiers listen to verse 9 in verse nephi 19 and the world because of their iniquity shall judge him to be a thing of naught wherefore they scourge him and he suffereth it they smite him and he suffereth it ye they spit upon him and he suffereth it and you might ask why nephi gives you the answer because of his loving kindness and his longsuffering toward the children of men i know that my redeemer lived for me when everything in his physical nature would have been pleading with him to give up or to stop the abuse that was being inflicted upon him by these wicked people who are are abusing him senselessly to use isaiah's phrase he gave his back to the smiters and his cheeks to them that plucked off the hair and at any time jesus has the power to stop it but he didn't he suffered it which means he allowed it he lived for us so that he could fulfill an infinite atonement now jesus is placed on the cross it's ironic to me that the first thing we have recorded coming from him after being placed so cruelly on that cross and having been treated so terribly by those soldiers the first thing we hear from from calvary's cross is father forgive them for they know not what they do jesus lived for us he's showing us an example of how to live he's giving us the way to to handle difficult situations in our own life that come forward now we're told that from about noon to 3 pm on the cross thick clouds gather darkness gathers and the full weight of gethsemane is going to return to him but now on the cross lifted up stretched out and hanging there on that cross in that situation president russell m nelson said uh tying in gethsemane with golgotha he says under the direction of his father he was the creator of this and other worlds he chose to submit to the will of his father and do something for all of god's children that no one else could do condescending to come to earth as the only begotten of the father in the flesh he was brutally reviled mocked spit upon and scourged in the garden of gethsemane our savior took upon himself every pain every sin and all of the anguish and sufferings ever experienced by you and me and by everyone who has ever lived or will ever live under the weight of that excruciating burden he bled from every pore all of this suffering was intensified as he was cruelly crucified on calvary's cross so you get this intensification of everything that's that the same things he's experienced in the garden but now he's vertical he's stretched out he's in front of a whole group of people you can see why this pain and anguish would be intensified once again every part of his mortal body would have been pleading with his spirit to give up the ghost to not have to keep enduring this unfair and infinite agony that it was being put through but i love the fact that jesus lived for us until the point when he could finally say at the very end three of my favorite words in all of scripture it is finished only then could he freely and willingly give up the ghost only then did he choose to give up the ghost because it was finished the price was paid our souls had been redeemed from death and hell the the price had been paid for our souls so that we wouldn't have to suffer in in an infinite uh punishment state forever now he freely gives up his ghost and he allows himself to die with his body now being placed in the tomb for those three days of quiet rest it's interesting isn't it that he gives up the ghosts shortly before sundown on that friday night and when the sun sets it will now be officially the sabbath day for the jews a day of rest and that particular sabbath day according to the gospel of john was also a high sabbath because it was also the passover celebration during that time isn't it interesting that the firstborn of the father didn't get passed over like the firstborn in egypt got passed over because the blood of the lamb was placed on the lintels of the door and the doorposts and on this event the firstborn son did not get passed over but he stood betwixt you and justice and he absorbed the full weight of justice until he could say it is finished and only then did he give up the ghost now we celebrate easter morning that triumphant day when jesus raised from the dead walks out of that tomb glorified and resurrected that event is amazing now we can stand and say i know that my redeemer lives brothers and sisters as we contemplate this story it's important for me to look back at how jesus lived that opened the door for him to be able to live in his resurrection and then for me to try to emulate that example and walk that path today so that jesus can live again symbolically in me guiding me shaping me honing me helping me become more like him so that it can be real those teachings and those miracles and that hope that gets spread to other people listen to these words he lives to silence all my fears he lives to wipe away my tears he lives to calm my troubled heart he lives all blessings to impart didn't walk out of that tomb that easter morn just so that we could celebrate the event of the resurrection and leave it there he walked out of that tomb so that we could continually live ourselves so that we could have life in us that life that grows from line upon line precept upon precept until that glorious day of our own resurrection and of our own potential exaltation down the road he lives all glory to his name he lives my savior still the same oh sweet the joy this sentence gives i know that my redeemer lives and i know that my redeemer lived and i know that my redeemer will yet live inside of each of us as we seek during this easter time of year and for the rest of the year and for the rest of our lives to allow him to touch our lives to heal us to bring life to those parts of our soul that feel dead to bring new life to those parts of our soul that feel blind or halt or maimed or leprous in any way and as we allow him to more fully become a part of our life his glorious resurrection will continue to bear fruit as we become more like him he lives my kind wise heavenly friend he lives and loves me and you to the end and i leave that with you in the name of jesus christ amen you

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Length: 29min 56sec (1796 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 29 2021