WE WORSHIP THE RESURRECTED LORD

Azaleas in bloom at Easter near Baltimore

The budding trees, flowering bulbs, and brightly blossoming bushes loudly proclaim that spring has arrived in Maryland. The landscape is bedazzled in 40 shades of green. And as it turned out, all of this beautiful natural splendor arrived as it should have in time for Easter worship. From an earlier era, a thoughtful Martin Luther penned these reflective words: "Our Lord has written the promise of the resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in spring-time."

People around the world associate many different symbols with their celebration of Easter, some of them related to the Son of God while others are not. Much of Christianity seems focused on signs pertaining to Jesus' crucifixion such as His unfathomable suffering at Gethsemane and Golgotha, the crown of thorns, the red robe, or the cross itself. But what is it about Easter that sets it apart from everything else that has ever occurred in the history of mankind on the face of this earth? As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we testify that we worship the resurrected Lord rather than the crucified Christ. Our definitive symbol of Easter is the empty tomb.

Easter says you can put truth in a grave, but it won't stay there.

                                                          - Clarence W. Hall

Since the creation of man, no fact of life has been so certain as death at the close of mortality. When the last of life’s breath is drawn, there is a finality comparable to no other finality. Gordon B. Hinckley, a prophet in this last dispensation has noted, however, that death is not final. Though it seems so when its dark shroud overshadows mortal life, to those who accept the Christ and His eternal mission there is light and comfort, there is assurance, there is certainty.

"Of all the victories in human history," President Hinckley suggests, "none is so great, none so universal in its effect, none so everlasting in its consequences as the victory of the crucified Lord who came forth in the Resurrection that first Easter morning."

And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the testimony, last of all, which we give of him: That he lives! For we saw him, even on the right hand of God; and we heard the voice bearing record that he is the Only Begotten of the Father -  that by him, and through him, and of him, the worlds are and were created, and the inhabitants thereof are begotten sons and daughters unto God. (D&C 76:22-24)

And to Mary Magdalene was given the special privilege of being the first witness to see that Christ had indeed been resurrected on that first Easter morning . . . the tomb was empty!