Episode 25

June 17–23

Matthew 27; Mark 15; Luke 23; John 19

“It Is Finished”

This podcast starts with an review of last weeks thoughts on the sacrament.

Then as a Father’s Day thought, I shared a part of a talk by Devin G. Durrant called, “Teaching in the Home—a Joyful and Sacred Responsibility.”  It was about a kid who got up during sacrament meeting and told the congregation that his dad, the bishop, was an even better man at home.  That talk had stuck with me and I pointed out that I wanted to be that kind of parent.  I want to give the best to my family and not just to strangers in public.  So it didn’t really end up being a Father’s Day thought, just a parenting thought.

This podcast is about the crucifixion of the Savior.  The lesson suggests that we look for attributes that the Savior showed during these final scenes and see which ones we can try better to perfect in our own lives.  I spoke of how impressed I was that he could keep his mouth closed in the face of so much opposition and mockery.

I spoke a little about Judas and how he repented too late.  Although the atonement gives us the opportunity to repent and change, it doesn’t and can’t always take away the consequences of our actions.  The ball was already in motion.  He couldn’t stop it.

I shared a quote from a talk by Neal A. Maxwell’s talk, “Why Not Now?”  He said,  “Trying to run away from the responsibility to decide about Christ is childish. Pilate sought to refuse responsibility for deciding about Christ, but Pilate’s hands were never dirtier than just after he had washed them.”  I asked what we figuratively may be “washing our hands of”?

The last reference I used was a talk by Jeffrey R. Holland titled, “None Were With Him.”  He addresses Heavenly Father withdrawing His presence from the Savior on the cross.  I used the talk multiple times.  Here are the quotes I used.

“The loss of mortal support He had anticipated, but apparently He had not comprehended this. Had He not said to His disciples, “Behold, the hour … is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me” and “The Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him”?

With all the conviction of my soul I testify that He did please His Father perfectly and that a perfect Father did not forsake His Son in that hour. Indeed, it is my personal belief that in all of Christ’s mortal ministry the Father may never have been closer to His Son than in these agonizing final moments of suffering. Nevertheless, that the supreme sacrifice of His Son might be as complete as it was voluntary and solitary, the Father briefly withdrew from Jesus the comfort of His Spirit, the support of His personal presence. It was required, indeed it was central to the significance of the Atonement, that this perfect Son who had never spoken ill nor done wrong nor touched an unclean thing had to know how the rest of humankind—us, all of us—would feel when we did commit such sins. For His Atonement to be infinite and eternal, He had to feel what it was like to die not only physically but spiritually, to sense what it was like to have the divine Spirit withdraw, leaving one feeling totally, abjectly, hopelessly alone.”

“My other plea at Easter time is that these scenes of Christ’s lonely sacrifice, laced with moments of denial and abandonment and, at least once, outright betrayal, must never be reenacted by us. He has walked alone once. Now, may I ask that never again will He have to confront sin without our aid and assistance, that never again will He find only unresponsive onlookers when He sees you and me along His Via Dolorosa in our present day…  may we declare ourselves to be more fully disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, not in word only and not only in the flush of comfortable times but in deed and in courage and in faith, including when the path is lonely and when our cross is difficult to bear.”