... I was listening to a
talk given in Spring of 2014 by D. Todd Christofferson, called The Resurrectionof Jesus Christ, where he talks about Jesus telling His apostles and
disciples for almost three years that he would be tried by unrighteous men and
then die, but then would be resurrected.
"Despite what the Savior had
repeatedly said of His death and subsequent rising again, they had not
understood." Even Mary Magdalene, who was the first to see the Risen Lord, walks into
the tomb where Christ's body laid and saw the napkin and linen clothes folded
and wrapped together "in a place by itself" and her initial
gut-wrenching reaction is, "They have taken the Lord's body."
Just thinking about their
reactions (neither John nor Peter understand or fully believed [these are two
from the original first presidency!] till John finally understands and writes that “he saw, and believed,”) after seeing the seeing
the empty tomb, whereas all the others, to that point, “knew not the scripture,
that [Jesus] must rise again from the dead.”
My reaction to
Elder Christopherson's talk was to ask myself, what, if any, or how many things
am I just not understanding because I have had no experience with that thing or
possibility of it happening.
Christ's resurrection was completely and totally unprecedented.
How many things in the Latter-Days, though, are going to
be unprecedented? How many things are we all not
understanding right now--for three years the Lord was telling His disciples and
apostles that He would be resurrected after He was killed, right? How
many thousands of years was it known that He would atone for our sins and then
be killed (Isaiah 53)? In many chapters in the book of Isaiah and also in the Book of Mormon (not to mention the New Testament and the Book of Revelations) it
talks about the last days, and yet, do we really believe the scriptures?
It was a matter of
the quality of experience with the Resurrection (and not the quantity...), as
it had never been done---ever---anywhere! Is there, then, something
comparable to the Resurrection (no, there is not, as it is half of the effect
of the Atonement, which is not comparable to anything...), or at least, if not
to the Resurrection itself, just to the incomprehensible idea that was so vital
to each of us. Is there something so crucial to our salvation and yet
misunderstood?
JPS
