#BecauseOfChrist

On Palm Sunday, Jesus Christ rides triumphantly into Jerusalem as His followers draw near Him to lay down cloaks and palm fronds in His path. They surround Jesus with love and praise. In return, they no doubt receive the profound spiritual lift that comes from being in Jesus’s presence. The people in the crowd probably had life experiences just as varied as ours, but all were able to share equally in the joy that comes when we draw closer to Jesus Christ. 

During Jesus’s time in Jerusalem, He visits the temple. There, inside His Father’s house, Jesus sees various merchants doing business. To see a place of worship converted into a center of commerce is something that Jesus cannot abide. Speaking with unmistakable authority, He commands them to leave. The cleansing of the temple at Jerusalem was an act of astonishing bravery. We can take courage knowing that Jesus Christ did what He knew to be right, whether it was popular or not.  

As Jesus Christ continues to teach His followers, one thing becomes clear—Jesus has a deep knowledge and love of the scriptures. Throughout the week, Jesus often quotes the very scriptures He’s fulfilling. For those who listen, prophecies that were by then hundreds of years old become powerful and new. Suddenly, the scriptures don’t seem so ancient. With the help of Jesus Christ, they see that the word of God does not have an expiration date. No matter what era we live in, we can find peace in the powerful parallels between the scriptures and our own lives.   

The last week of Jesus Christ’s mortal ministry is filled with prayer. There are the prayers He offers on behalf of His disciples, filled with timeless words of comfort and guidance. But there are also the prayers that He encourages them to offer on their own. He knows that soon His disciples will be without Him, and so He lets them know the importance of praying, encouraging them to ask their Father in Heaven for the things they’ll need to make it through the challenges ahead. Through His words and His example, they learn that when they make the effort to pray to the Father, no matter what happens, they will never be alone. 

Jesus observes the sacred holiday of Passover with His Apostles. He institutes the sacred ordinance of the sacrament, in which His disciples are invited to eat and drink in remembrance of Him. He teaches them of the comforting power of the Holy Ghost. And, knowing that His time with them will soon end, He tells them He loves them. His Apostles have come such a long way since they first encountered Jesus, and yet His words show that He knows their transformation into true disciples is just beginning.

After what is often referred to as the Last Supper, Jesus bids His Apostles to follow Him through the night to a quiet garden named Gethsemane. Despite their Master asking them to stay awake with Him, the exhausted disciples fall asleep. Alone, Jesus begins to pray and is soon overcome with an incomprehensible agony. There in the Garden, He begins the process of taking upon Himself the sins of the world. It is the beginning of an act of sacrifice that will reach its ultimate conclusion the next day on the cross at Golgotha.

The pain Jesus feels is all-encompassing. And yet it is dwarfed by the vastness of His love. For His Father. For His disciples. For us. For you. As the Apostles sleep, Jesus Christ makes it possible for them to find a new kind of rest for their souls. Because of Him, they can leave their past mistakes behind and grow into the disciples God always meant for them to become.

In the early hours of the morning, Jesus is betrayed into the hands of the local authorities. After a series of one-sided trials, He is sentenced to death by crucifixion. Roman soldiers mock and scourge Him and nail Him to the cross. But instead of condemning them, Jesus Christ begs His Father to “forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). Even now, in His darkest moment, Jesus speaks of love and redemption. With His dying breath, Jesus addresses His Father. “It is finished” (John 19:30). Then, Jesus Christ dies. An unlikely elegy comes from a Roman centurion: “Truly this was the Son of God” (Matthew 27:54). The realization is just as awe-inspiring today as it was then. 

It’s hard to imagine the anguish Jesus Christ’s followers must have felt on the day after His death. The night before, His body was lovingly prepared and placed in a garden tomb. Today, they are left to figure out how life can possibly go on without Him. Almost certainly His death had taken something from them, but what they had lost was no match compared to all that His life had given. Whether they understood it or not, Jesus Christ had forged a new path forward for all who would follow Him, one lit by a hope that shines brighter than any darkness we may encounter. 

Early in the morning, Mary Magdalene, a friend and follower of Jesus, comes to the tomb to care for Jesus Christ’s body. To her astonishment, she finds the tomb empty. But she is not alone. A man addresses her — a gardener, she supposes. But then He says her name: “Mary.” And she sees. He is Jesus. The Christ lives. The knowledge is too wonderful to contain. Her faith propels her into a joyous sprint as she runs to tell the others. It’s a testimony that still propels people today. You can know just as she did that Jesus Christ lives, and because of Him, all will live again. If we follow Christ, we can find true happiness on earth and eternal life in the presence of Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father in the world to come.