Following the Savior's Steps: His Sacrifice

Towards the end of the day on the Tuesday of His last week, after teaching in the temple, condemning the wickedness of the rulers, and prophesying of coming calamities, Christ left the temple and went with the disciples into the mount of Olives overlooking the city (Matt. 24:3).  It was here that He gave what we now call the Olivet Discourse recorded in Matt. 24 and in Joseph Smith-Matthew.  He was answering the questions of His disciples about when the events He had foretold would come to pass both in their day and in the last days.  Immediately following this He gave His final parables while there, those of the ten virgins, the talents, and the sheep and the goats.  As part of the latter teaching He also invited them to render service in this life with these memorable words: “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me” (Matt. 25:40).  After teaching the disciples on the mount of Olives they returned to Bethany, and there are no recorded events of the next day, Wednesday.  Perhaps they rested in Bethany in preparation for what was to come. 

               The “first day of the feast of unleavened bread” mentioned in Matt. 26:17 was the “day preceding the eating of the passover lamb.”  This was Thursday as the disciples prepared to eat the Passover by finding the “upper room” where they could spend the evening with their Master.  It was then Thursday evening (“but the beginning of Friday according to the Jewish calendar”) of this final week when Jesus ate the Passover dinner with His apostles.  Here the Savior instituted the Sacrament, washed their feet, sent Judas off to do his treacherous deed, and gave them the powerful teachings recorded in John 13-16.  He gave them the great intercessory prayer found in John 17 as He pled that they might all be one with their Father.  At some point in that evening “he went forth with his disciples over the brook Cedron, where was a garden,” called Gethsemane (John 18:1, Matt. 26:36).  It was here that the great atoning sacrifice was begun as He “fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt” (Matt. 26:39).  He did indeed partake of the bitter cup for all mankind and so great was His agony that “his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground” (Luke 22:44).  At some point in the night Judas came with his conspirators and “took they him, and led him, and brought him into the high priest’s house” (Luke 22:54).  He was taken before both Annas where He calmly said to them as He was abused: “If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil: but if well, why smitest thou me?” (John 18:23)  He was then taken before Caiaphas the high priest and other leaders and, as Elder Talmage put it, “Jehovah was convicted of blasphemy against Jehovah. The only mortal Being to whom the awful crime of blasphemy, in claiming divine attributes and powers, was impossible, stood before the judges of Israel condemned as a blasphemer.”

               At some point in the early morning Christ was taken before Pilate who declared, “I find no fault in this man” (Luke 23:4).  Pilate sent him to Herod, but Christ “answered him nothing” and Herod mocked Him and sent Him back to Pilate (Luke 23:9).  Pilate gave into the people’s cry, “Crucify him, crucify him” and gave the people their wish to put Him to death.  Christ was led to Calvary, and He was nailed to the cross around 9:00 in the morning according to Mark’s account (“the third hour” mentioned in Mark 15:25).  He also recorded that “when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour,” meaning that from about noon to 3:00 there was darkness as the Savior hung on the cross in agony.  Then “at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” and soon thereafter, having completed His divine sacrifice, “Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost” (Mark 15:33-37).  According to John’s account He declared with finality, “It is finished” (John 19:30).  His perfect life was complete, and He gave it up willingly to fulfill the mission His Father.  As our modern day apostles have testified, “His was a great vicarious gift in behalf of all who would ever live upon the earth.”