“An Apostle’s Easter Thoughts on Christ”
The “Easter Message—None Were with Him,” in which Elder Jeffrey R. Holland describes the Savior’s solitary journey to overcome sin and death and testifies of the resulting blessings to all mankind.
When Elder Holland originally gave this talk at the past 179th General Conference, I was taken back by the profound insight that he had given me concerning Christ’s Atoning Sacrifice…
The profoundness of this Easter Message is that Christ was in the end completely “Alone”. This is that he was absent the presence of God the Father. He was to experience not only a “Physical Death” but also a “Spiritual Death”.
By this, He is the only One with the capacity to know and understand ALL of man’s sorrows. The only One that can comfort us in our darkest moments of life and through our repentance, make us whole…
The Good News is that He Lives! And because of his Infinite Atonement we too may have Eternal Life. God our Father is a God of Love and is no respecter of persons. Meaning, He offers Life Eternal to any and all that will accept the invitation to “Come Unto Christ”…
This I know and so bear my personal witness of The Living Christ, in the Name of our Savior, even Jesus Christ… Amen
UPDATE
Some Have Asked if a Download is Available or DVD…
I Know the Church will produce a DVD at some point, but not certain of a download. However, the original talk is posted below with a link to the full text version and a down load link for the talk “None Were With Him”, by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland on a MP3…
None Were with Him
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland
Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
Trumpeted from the summit of Calvary is the truth that we will never be left alone nor unaided, even if sometimes we may feel that we are.
Thank you, Sister Thompson, and thanks to the remarkable women of this Church. Brothers and sisters, my Easter-season message today is intended for everyone, but it is directed in a special way to those who are alone or feel alone or, worse yet, feel abandoned. These might include those longing to be married, those who have lost a spouse, and those who have lost—or have never been blessed with—children. Our empathy embraces wives forsaken by their husbands, husbands whose wives have walked away, and children bereft of one or the other of their parents—or both. This group can find within its broad circumference a soldier far from home, a missionary in those first weeks of homesickness, or a father out of work, afraid the fear in his eyes will be visible to his family. In short it can include all of us at various times in our lives.
To all such, I speak of the loneliest journey ever made and the unending blessings it brought to all in the human family. I speak of the Savior’s solitary task of shouldering alone the burden of our salvation. Rightly He would say: “I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me. . . . I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold [me].”
As President Uchtdorf so beautifully noted earlier, we know from scripture that Jesus’s messianic arrival in Jerusalem on the Sunday preceding Passover, a day directly analogous to this very morning, was a great public moment. But eagerness to continue walking with Him would quickly begin to wane.
Soon enough He was arraigned before the Israelite leaders of the day—first Annas, the former high priest, then Caiaphas, the current high priest. In their rush to judgment these men and their councils declared their verdict quickly and angrily. “What further need have we of witnesses?” they cried. “He is [worthy] of death.”
With that He was brought before the gentile rulers in the land. Herod Antipas, the tetrarch of Galilee, interrogated Him once, and Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor in Judea, did so twice, the second time declaring to the crowd, “I, having examined him before you, have found no fault in this man.” Then, in an act as unconscionable as it was illogical, Pilate “scourged Jesus, [and] delivered him to be crucified.” Pilate’s freshly washed hands could not have been more stained or more unclean.
read the full text version here…None Were with Him. (includes notes of references)
audio download here … http://broadcast.lds.org/genconf/2009/04/40/GC_2009_04_409_HollandJR___eng_.mp3
(The entire talk is exceptional and really worth the time to listen to on audio with Elder Holland’s powerful delivery.)
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