Conquerors Through Him

In the most recent general conference Elder Stevenson spoke about some of the ways we are striving, as a Church, to focus more on the Savior Jesus Christ. One of those ways is through more intentional worship of the Savior as a part of Easter. He said, “In recent First Presidency messages concerning Easter, we have been challenged to ‘celebrate the Resurrection of our living Savior by studying His teachings and helping to establish Easter traditions in our society as a whole, especially within our own families.’ In short, we have been encouraged to move to a higher and holier celebration of Easter.” When I was growing up, Easter was celebrated and recognized, but it was far less emphasized than Christmas. It was a single-day event with baskets, candy, and church. I could not have even told you what Palm Sunday or Good Friday was. Now we are striving to celebrate and remember the Savior’s final week, atonement, and resurrection during the weeks leading up to Easter. In recent years in our family we have watched a series of short messages about Easter each day of the week leading up to Sunday with suggestions for family activities related to the Savior.  One of those was to die Easter eggs a deep red through a special process using onion peels, after which they are used in a testimony-sharing evening. So last night I was touched to see my five-year-old and seven-year-old at the counter joyfully peeling onion skins off together and collecting them as a part of this activity. As I watched them, I heard the younger one singing Lauren Daigle’s song, Rescue, trying to mimic the smoky-sounding voice and explaining to her brother how the song was to be sung. The powerful lyrics include these, which for me could be the Savior speaking to us: 

I will send out an army to find you

In the middle of the darkest night

It's true, I will rescue you

There is no distance

That cannot be covered

Over and over

You're not defenseless

I'll be your shelter

I'll be your armor 

We celebrate Easter because He did rescue us, and we know that His atonement and resurrection broke the bands of death and hell to redeem each of us. The word rescue is not really a scriptural one, but perhaps it has the same meaning as redeem, which is very much a word used to describe the Savior’s mission towards us. I love this declaration the premortal Christ gave to the brother of Jared: “Behold, I am he who was prepared from the foundation of the world to redeem my people. Behold, I am Jesus Christ. I am the Father and the Son. In me shall all mankind have life, and that eternally, even they who shall believe on my name; and they shall become my sons and my daughters” (Ether 3:14). He was prepared from the beginning to redeem—to rescue—each of us, and we celebrate at Easter how He did and continues to do that today.

                In describing some of the activities that he has seen members of the Church participate in recently for Easter, Elder Stevenson said this: “These remembrances include activities with children and youth and often incorporate interfaith choirs…. Such activities mirror the multitudes in the city of Jerusalem whose voices joined together to praise the Savior during His triumphal entry.” The interfaith choirs referred to perhaps include the performances of Rob Gardner’s oratorio Lamb of God which have become popular. This music has become an important part of our own Easter season. I was grateful to be able to enjoy the music again today with my parents as we attended a presentation at their stake center of the music put to art representing the Savior’s life. The song that perhaps best represents how we should feel about the resurrection of the Savior is Gloria (My Savior Lives). The song is portrayed through Mary Magdalene, the first to see the Risen Lord. Some of the lyrics include these: 

Sing, o my heart

Sing thy rejoicing

Morning has dawned and will stretch forth her wing

No more the night

Holds thee his captive

Jesus is risen, my Savior and King 

Israel, rejoice

Sing all creation

Jesus is risen with life in His wings

Raise up your voice

Sing our salvation

Now more than conquerers through Him, our King 

That is the glorious message of Easter: Jesus is risen with life, and through Him we can conquer all. Perhaps Elder Wirthlin said it best in his unforgettable talk two decades ago: “Each of us will have our own Fridays—those days when the universe itself seems shattered and the shards of our world lie littered about us in pieces. We all will experience those broken times when it seems we can never be put together again. We will all have our Fridays. But I testify to you in the name of the One who conquered death—Sunday will come. In the darkness of our sorrow, Sunday will come. No matter our desperation, no matter our grief, Sunday will come. In this life or the next, Sunday will come…. Because of our beloved Redeemer, we can lift up our voices, even in the midst of our darkest Fridays, and proclaim, ‘O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?’” No matter what our struggles and pains are in this life, because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ we can conquer them all.