Christ is Risen! Truly, He is Risen! ePub feed of Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship
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- Christianity
Abstract: There is no more important message than that of the Atonement and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. It’s life-transforming and world-transforming. It is also the most joyous news imaginable. What Jesus did on our behalf leaves us forever in his debt and should put him at the center of our lives.
/* Greek */@font-face {font-family: Noto Sans; local: Noto Sans; src: url("fonts/Noto Sans/NotoSans-Light.ttf"); font-weight: 300; font-style: normal;}
Easter Sunday,” President Russell M. Nelson declared at the commencement of his closing remarks for the April 2023 General Conference, “is the most important religious observance for followers of Jesus Christ. The main reason we celebrate Christmas is because of Easter.”1
And, truly, were it not for the events on and immediately preceding Easter—or what, with Claudia Bushman, I would personally prefer to call Resurrection Sunday2—we would have little if any reason to celebrate the birth of an obscure male Jewish peasant baby in first-century Palestine.
A traditional Easter greeting is popular throughout much of Eastern Christianity. It is often expressed in Greek, but often, too, in the local language. In Greek, it goes like this:
Χριστὸς ἀνέστη!“Khristōs anestē!”3 “Christ is risen!”
[Page 46]To which the expected response is
Ἀληθῶς ἀνέστη!“Alēthōs anestē!”4 “Truly, he is risen!”
Every Easter morning, I receive emails containing this greeting from friends who know Greek.
Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday commemorate the passion (suffering), the death, and the Resurrection of Jesus. They constitute what is sometimes called, in mainstream Christianity, the Holy Triduum (“three days”).
Whenever we partake of the sacrament, the events of these days should be central to our reflections. They should certainly be at the center of our thoughts on Easter Sunday.
“The fundamental principles of our religion,” Joseph Smith said, “are the testimony of the Apostles and Prophets, concerning Jesus Christ, that He died, was buried, and rose again the third day, and ascended into heaven; and all other things which pertain to our religion are only appendages to it.”5
Christ’s act on our behalf leaves us forever in his debt and should put him at the center of our lives. And eventually, even for the rebellious, it will—every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is the Lord (Philippians 2:10–11). In scriptural language, he has redeemed us with his blood, which is to say that he has literally purchased us; he has bought our freedom from slavery to sin and the devil. Whether we acknowledge it or not, we belong to him. Speaking of the eventual impact of his impending crucifixion, the Savior prophesied:
And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. (John 12:32)
So far as I am aware, though, Latter-day Saints are unique in understanding that the Atonement didn’t occ...
Abstract: There is no more important message than that of the Atonement and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. It’s life-transforming and world-transforming. It is also the most joyous news imaginable. What Jesus did on our behalf leaves us forever in his debt and should put him at the center of our lives.
/* Greek */@font-face {font-family: Noto Sans; local: Noto Sans; src: url("fonts/Noto Sans/NotoSans-Light.ttf"); font-weight: 300; font-style: normal;}
Easter Sunday,” President Russell M. Nelson declared at the commencement of his closing remarks for the April 2023 General Conference, “is the most important religious observance for followers of Jesus Christ. The main reason we celebrate Christmas is because of Easter.”1
And, truly, were it not for the events on and immediately preceding Easter—or what, with Claudia Bushman, I would personally prefer to call Resurrection Sunday2—we would have little if any reason to celebrate the birth of an obscure male Jewish peasant baby in first-century Palestine.
A traditional Easter greeting is popular throughout much of Eastern Christianity. It is often expressed in Greek, but often, too, in the local language. In Greek, it goes like this:
Χριστὸς ἀνέστη!“Khristōs anestē!”3 “Christ is risen!”
[Page 46]To which the expected response is
Ἀληθῶς ἀνέστη!“Alēthōs anestē!”4 “Truly, he is risen!”
Every Easter morning, I receive emails containing this greeting from friends who know Greek.
Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday commemorate the passion (suffering), the death, and the Resurrection of Jesus. They constitute what is sometimes called, in mainstream Christianity, the Holy Triduum (“three days”).
Whenever we partake of the sacrament, the events of these days should be central to our reflections. They should certainly be at the center of our thoughts on Easter Sunday.
“The fundamental principles of our religion,” Joseph Smith said, “are the testimony of the Apostles and Prophets, concerning Jesus Christ, that He died, was buried, and rose again the third day, and ascended into heaven; and all other things which pertain to our religion are only appendages to it.”5
Christ’s act on our behalf leaves us forever in his debt and should put him at the center of our lives. And eventually, even for the rebellious, it will—every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is the Lord (Philippians 2:10–11). In scriptural language, he has redeemed us with his blood, which is to say that he has literally purchased us; he has bought our freedom from slavery to sin and the devil. Whether we acknowledge it or not, we belong to him. Speaking of the eventual impact of his impending crucifixion, the Savior prophesied:
And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. (John 12:32)
So far as I am aware, though, Latter-day Saints are unique in understanding that the Atonement didn’t occ...