Easter

I have been asked a couple of times and heard the question posed about why the church that I belong to does not use the symbol of the cross on our buildings or books, etc. When I first joined the LDS church 14 years ago, the thought never really crossed my mind. With all my heart, I love the Savior and the gift of the Atonement and the Resurrection is a debt I can never repay. My husband and I discussed the issue and came to our own conclusions which were very close to this article by our church president, Gordon B. Hinckley, from April 2005 Ensign. Whether you are affiliated with the LDS church or not, I would encourage you to read this article in its entirety (I promise that if you are not LDS that it will not make you sprout horns or anything like that). It is a wonderful reminder of what the Easter season truly is about. As it is Easter tomorrow, I would like to leave you all with the following from the article as it says a lot about how I feel.

Following the renovation of the Mesa Arizona Temple some years ago, clergy of other religions were invited to tour it on the first day of the open house period. Hundreds responded. In speaking to them, I said we would be pleased to answer any queries they might have. Among these was one from a Protestant minister.

Said he: "I've been all through this building, this temple which carries on its face the name of Jesus Christ, but nowhere have I seen any representation of the cross, the symbol of Christianity. I have noted your buildings elsewhere and likewise find an absence of the cross. Why is this when you say you believe in Jesus Christ?"

I responded: "I do not wish to give offense to any of my Christian colleagues who use the cross on the steeples of their cathedrals and at the altars of their chapels, who wear it on their vestments, and imprint it on their books and other literature. But for us, the cross is the symbol of the dying Christ, while our message is a declaration of the Living Christ."

He then asked: "If you do not use the cross, what is the symbol of your religion?"

I replied that the lives of our people must become the most meaningful expression of our faith and, in fact, therefore, the symbol of our worship.

The article goes on later to state the following . . .

In light of such declarations, in view of such testimony, well might many ask, as my minister friend in Arizona asked, if you profess a belief in Jesus Christ, why do you not use the symbol of His death, the cross of Calvary?

To which I must first reply that no member of this Church must ever forget the terrible price paid by our Redeemer, who gave His life that all men might live—the agony of Gethsemane, the bitter mockery of His trial, the vicious crown of thorns tearing at His flesh, the blood cry of the mob before Pilate, the lonely burden of His heavy walk along the way to Calvary, the terrifying pain as great nails pierced His hands and feet, the fevered torture of His body as He hung that tragic day, the Son of God crying out, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).

This was the cross, the instrument of His torture, the terrible device designed to destroy the Man of Peace, the evil recompense for His miraculous work of healing the sick, of causing the blind to see, of raising the dead. This was the cross on which He hung and died on Golgotha’s lonely summit.

We cannot forget that. We must never forget it, for here our Savior, our Redeemer, the Son of God, gave Himself, a vicarious sacrifice for each of us. But the gloom of that dark evening before the Jewish Sabbath, when His lifeless body was taken down and hurriedly laid in a borrowed tomb, drained away the hope of even His most ardent and knowing disciples. They were bereft, not understanding what He had told them earlier. Dead was the Messiah, in whom they believed. Gone was their Master, in whom they had placed all of their longing, their faith, their hope. He who had spoken of everlasting life, He who had raised Lazarus from the grave, now had died as surely as all men before Him had died. Now had come the end to His sorrowful, brief life. That life had been as Isaiah had long before foretold: He was “despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. … He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him” (Isa. 53:3, 5). Now He was gone.

We can only speculate on the feelings of those who loved Him as they pondered His death during the long hours of the Jewish Sabbath, the Saturday of our calendar.

Then dawned the first day of the week, the Sabbath of the Lord as we have come to know it. To those who came to the tomb, heavy with sorrow, the attending angel declared, “Why seek ye the living among the dead?” (Luke 24:5).

“He is not here: … he is risen, as he said” (Matt. 28:6).

I would like to leave my testimony that I know that the Savior died for every soul that ever walked the face of this earth and that is irregardless of religous denomination or social backgrounds. He knows each one of us individually and loves each of us more than we can possibly understand and the Atonement and Ressurection is for all. Happy Easter to you all and may God bless each of you.