The Hardest Thing That Ever Was Done

Today we celebrate Palm Sunday to commemorate the Savior’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem at the start of His last week in mortality. Matthew recorded what happened as He approached the city: “And brought the ass, and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they set him thereon. And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way; others cut down branches from the trees, and strawed them in the way. And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest” (Matthew 21:7-9). So He rode into the city on a donkey, and this had been prophesied: “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass” (Zechariah 9:9). The scripture help explains the significance of this act: “The Savior’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem fulfilled the prophecy that the Savior would ride a colt into Jerusalem as the promised Messiah and King of Israel. He entered Jerusalem in the pattern of ancient kings. As the Savior rode on a colt to the temple mount, the people shouted, ‘Hosanna.’ Hosanna is a Hebrew word ‘that means “please save us” and is used in praise and supplication.’ The people laid their clothes and palm branches along the Savior’s path. This was the custom to welcome a new king. Their actions indicated that they ‘recognized Christ as the long-awaited Messiah.’” Knowing the great miracles that He had done, the people recognized Him as their king and worshipped Him as He entered the city. But they probably did not understand that though He was a king, He was entering the city to perform the greatest act of service ever known.

               Recently my eight-year-old asked me to look up what the hardest record ever to break is. I looked up which Guiness world records are likely never to be beaten, and one website lists those it believes “are simply too hard, if not impossible, to ever break.” Here are a few of those: 

·        Robert Wadlow in 1940 was measured as 8 feet 11 inches, three feet taller than the average man. He is the tallest man in recorded history and has been so for close to a century.

·        Michel Lotito was awarded the title for the strangest diet. He was a French man known as Monsieur Mangetout (Mister Eat All). He had the very unusual ability to be able to eat metal without it harming him. During the course of a two-year period, he ate an entire Cessna 150 airplane!   

·        Kevin Fast from Canada also set a record related to airplanes. He pulled an airplane weighing nearly 417,000 pounds over 28 feet in less than two minutes. That certainly seems like a record that would be hard to beat!   

And yet, despite how difficult these would be to break, none of these were the hardest thing ever done. That, of course, was done by Jesus as the children sing in the beloved Primary song Gethsemane: 

The hardest thing that ever was done,

The greatest pain that ever was known,

The biggest battle that ever was won—

This was done by Jesus!

The fight was won by Jesus! 

He took upon Him the sins of all mankind, and He described it in these words, “Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit—and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink” (Doctrine and Covenants 19:18). He bled from every pore, of which the human body has about five million. Jacob described His suffering this way: “And he cometh into the world that he may save all men if they will hearken unto his voice; for behold, he suffereth the pains of all men, yea, the pains of every living creature, both men, women, and children, who belong to the family of Adam” (2 Nephi 9:21). We do not know how many people “belong to the family of Adam” but it surely is more than 10 billion, making His sacrifice for us all truly the hardest thing that ever was done.

               Those who celebrated the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday certainly did not comprehend the supernal triumph of the mission He would perform. But today we remember Him on Palm Sunday knowing that He suffered in Gethsemane, died on Calvary, and rose triumphant from the grave. He was the first to ever rise from the dead, breaking the bands of death for us all. Because of Him, we can do what would have otherwise been impossible for us all: overcome death and sin to return to live in the presence of our Father in Heaven. As the Living Christ states, “God be thanked for the matchless gift of His divine Son!”