The Tomb Was Empty

To my son,

                Today for Easter we made “resurrection rolls” to help us remember the empty tomb. Just like the marshmallow disappeared in the roll when it was cooked, so too the body of Jesus disappeared in the tomb when He was resurrected. Mary Magdalene was a close friend of the Savior, and she loved Him very much. She was devastated when He died, and she went to the tomb on the Sunday morning after His death to be near where His body was laid. But she was shocked to find that the big stone in front of the tomb had been rolled away and His body was gone. She assumed that someone had stolen His body away. John recorded, “But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping: and as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the sepulchre, And seeth two angels in white sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain.” They asked her why she was crying, and she said, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him.” She turned around, though, and found someone standing behind her. He said to her, “Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou?” She cried to Him, “Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away.” She still thought that someone had taken His dead body. But then He said simply, “Mary.” Hearing her name spoken by Him, she knew that it was Jesus, and He was alive! This was the first time in history that anyone had been resurrected, and she was the first to be a witness that Jesus rose from the grave (John 20:11-16).

I heard a story today about Easter that sums up well this message of the resurrection. I found the story told in a talk in general conference many years ago. Elder Marion D. Hanks said, “As Easter time approaches, let me share with you the tender story of an eleven-year-old boy named Philip, a Down’s syndrome child who was in a Sunday School class with eight other children. Easter Sunday the teacher brought an empty plastic egg for each child. They were instructed to go out of the church building onto the grounds and put into the egg something that would remind them of the meaning of Easter. All returned joyfully. As each egg was opened there were exclamations of delight at a butterfly, a twig, a flower, a blade of grass. Then the last egg was opened. It was Philip’s, and it was empty! Some of the children made fun of Philip. ‘But, teacher,’ he said, ‘teacher, the tomb was empty.’ A newspaper article announcing Philip’s death a few months later noted that at the conclusion of the funeral eight children marched forward and put a large empty egg on the small casket. On it was a banner that said, ‘The tomb was empty.’” The tomb was indeed empty, and I know that Jesus rose again for each of us. Because the tomb was empty, we will all live again after this life and we can be together forever. When you lose loved ones someday in this life, you can take hope in the promise of the resurrection for each of them. That is the glorious message of Easter, and it is even better than the taste of melted marshmallows in resurrection rolls.

Love,

Dad