“Is it I, Lord?” each of the disciples asked. “Is it I?”
Well might the Saviour have answered each of them, “yes, it is you,”
as well He might answer each of us were we either wise or bold enough to ask that same question.
When we meet together each Sunday and partake of the Sacrament, are we not intended to ask, “is it I?”
Is it I who has betrayed you, Lord, by my sinful thoughts and deeds?
Is it I who has hurt the feelings of someone I have loved?
Is it I who has coveted things that belong to another?
Is it I who has treated someone unfairly, has gossiped or criticized
or otherwise failed to act and speak in perfect honesty?
Is it I, Lord, who has added to your burden on the cross by my
careless words and selfish moods, by my
unkind thoughts and unworthy acts?”
None of us is free from the guilt of having burdened our Saviour with more than He should have had to bear. And none of us can look on Judas’ betrayal or Peter’s denial or the fear and uncertainty which must have paralyzed all of His disciples who ran when Jesus was captured and never spoke up on His behalf while the trial for his life was carried out, without acknowledging that our own guilt is at least equal to theirs.
And what did Christ do in response to these betrayals?
and in response to our betrayal of Him?
Christ loved them then, and loves us still.
The beautiful words of the song, “Via Dolorosa” tell the rest and meaning of that story:
| Down the Via Dolorosa, in Jerusalem that day, The soldiers tried to clear the narrow street; But the crowd pressed in to see A man condemned to die on Calvary. |
In fact, Easter is a celebration: a celebration of the hope and joy that follow in the wake of that love that carried Him not only onto a cross and into a grave, but out again, to live once more and to ascend into heaven, from where He guides us and sends us grace this very day.
Just as we come before the Saviour and our Heavenly Father in this Sacrament meeting, bowing before the Sacrament table while the bread and water are blessed, asking “is it I?” and understanding that indeed it is, so too do we then receive the bread and the water, signifying his body and blood, to acknowledge the answer to another “is it I” set of questions:
Is it I for whom you suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane, when you prayed alone in agony and your blood spilled like sweat, and even an angel’s visit was insufficient to fully comfort you? |
the answer to all of these is, “yes, it is you”.
Again, the words of a hymn tell us where the story goes from the hill of Golgotha to the tomb and then to the light of a new day celebrated especially on this Sabbath morning:
Christ the Lord is risen today, Alleluia. |
we know that we will live.
We know that resurrection is the gift that His atoning sacrifice grants to all people, regardless of their race or religion or their conduct in this life. Each spirit after death will be restored to the body with which it had concourse in this life; and each body shall be raised up and made incorruptible, a perfect and eternal body, suited to the level of reward that the individual who wore it in this life has merited.
But we also know that Christ’s gift goes well beyond the mere resurrection of the body; His gift also makes available to us the restoration of the soul to a state of mind and being that allows us to live again in the presence of our Heavenly Father.
His grace grants us the opportunity and ability to repent of sins, to improve upon weakness, to overcome transgressions, and to live in and by the Holy Spirit.
In Mozart’s beautiful “Ave Verum,” also known as “Jesus, Saviour,” we hear these words:
Jesus, Saviour, Son of the Father, Word made flesh by God’s power divine. | |
Jesus, impressed with their faith, said to the man, “your sins are forgiven.”
The scribes, also present, began to murmur that this was blasphemy, so Jesus said to them, “which is easier: to say, your sins are forgiven, or to say arise and walk?” And in reply to His own question, He turned again to the man sick with palsy and laying on his bed, and said, “arise and walk,” and the man did, which Jesus said He had done, “that ye may know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins.” (See Mark 2:1-12.)
Therefore, Bernard de Clairveaux could sing,
“O hope of every contrite heart, O joy of all the meek,
to those who fall, how kind thou art!
How good to those who seek.
Jesus, our only joy be thou,
As thou our prize wilt be;
Jesus, be thou our glory now, and through eternity”.
So often throughout the year we celebrate the many commandments and gifts of God. We acknowledge the words of wisdom He has given us. We study the principles of honesty, of health, of chastity and of charity. We examine our conduct to see whether we are living in a manner that is pure and clean. We avoid theft and aggression, gossip and discrimination.
We strive to be and behave as we believe we should
and as we learn He did.
Easter, and each Sacrament meeting that represents it, is a reminder that underlying all of those principles and practices that seem to us to represent righteousness, is the fact that on none of them can we rely without first relying on He who made it possible for us to even consider the hope and happiness of eternal life.
“It is by grace that we are saved,” said the prophet Nephi,
“after all we can do”. (2 Ne. 25:23.)
Notwithstanding our best efforts to be good people, not a single person has a hope of obtaining eternal life without relying wholly on the merits and mercy of Jesus Christ.
Some will deny that Latter-day Saints believe this. Some will see our efforts to do good works as evidence of a belief that we can earn our way into the kingdom of God by good deeds alone. This is a falsehood and it is not what we believe.
We believe as the prophet Mormon taught, as recorded by his son, Moroni, that
It is mockery before God [to deny\ the mercies of Christ, and the power of his Holy Spirit, putting trust in dead works. Behold…this thing ought not to be. |
By the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified…for by the law is the knowledge of sin. |
If we did not know the law, and our deeds were imperfect, still the mercy of Christ would save us; but when we know right and wrong, or good and evil, and choose to do what is wicked, we are condemned by our knowledge, are breakers of the law, and must repent in order to obtain the fullness of His grace.
Repentance, Mormon says, in different words, leads us to a new relationship with God. He says, “the first fruits of repentance is baptism,” but baptism is nothing more than the symbol of a new covenant, or relationship, with our Heavenly Father, a decision and a promise to live by His Spirit instead of by the wisdom and will of the world.
Having entered into this relationship, which we renew each week when taking the bread and water of the Sacrament that signify Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf, Mormon writes that our sins are remitted; that is, we are redeemed: Not because we have fixed exactly what we did wrong, but because we have turned our hearts and minds to Him by whom grace that leads to salvation comes.
Then, Mormon says, we will be blessed with meekness and lowliness of heart, having submitted ourselves to God’s Spirit through Jesus Christ; and then “cometh the visitation of the Holy Ghost, which Comforter filleth with hope and perfect love, which love endureth by diligence unto prayer.”
As Willy Reske writes in the song, “Dedication,”
Father, I come to thee, calmly and reverently, That I may do my part, serving with all my heart. |
That I came into the world to do the will of my Father…that I might be lifted up upon the cross… that I might draw all men unto me, that as I have been lifted up by men even so should men be lifted up by the Father. |
Come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and…if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy. |
When, in our hearts, we acknowledge and understand the depth and direction of this grace, then we will be inclined to sing,
Beautiful Saviour, Lord of the nations; Son of God and Son of Man, honour, praise and give glory; give praise and glory evermore; give glory evermore. |
that Jesus is the Christ;
that He is indeed the truest lover of our souls,
the conduit of the Father’s love
and the means by which we can return to Him.
Jesus is the Only Begotten Son of God and His Firstborn in Eternity.
Jesus is the Lord and the one of whom the Seraphim sing,
“holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty”.
He is the one of whom fear is the beginning of wisdom;
and yet also the one in whom all trust for His grace and
love and mercy can be given.
I express my gratitude – weak and insignificant as my faith may be – for the knowledge of and hope in Him that I have been blessed to have. I pray that my life might begin to match the words that I know and sing and pray about Him; that I might never make Easter a wasted and empty celebration, forgetting the grace and goodness that caused my God to condescend to come to earth to suffer and die for me. I know His grace and salvation are personal and intended for me, that He would have done this even if I was the only man who had ever lived, for He has told me this by personal revelation. I testify that each person is also entitled to know from Him personally that He wrought salvation for him or her. I pray that each person may open his or her heart to His inspiration and his or her mind to His gift of understanding, that your faith might be made more perfect, your hope more certain, and your love more full.