Hans-Micael: My faith and values

Passover and the atonement

Sacrament Meeting Address Sunday, 4/14/2024

The subject of my talk is the day Christ was handed over to the Jewish authorities. I invite you to ponder the following: “Why was this day of Jewish Passover week and that night of the Garden of Gethsemane so different from other days and nights?”

Jesus knows that this Passover He will go up to Jerusalem one last time to fulfill His earthly ministry. He has tried several times to make the disciples understand that although he has power as God on earth, his Kingdom is not earthly.

Today I will read from the Gospel of Luke chap. 13 (originally in Danish from the Chistian the 3^rd published in 1550) But here from the New Testament A translation for Latter-Day Saints.

“The feast of Unleavened Bread, which is called the Passover, drew near. And the chief Priests and scribes sought how they might kill Jesus, but they feared the      people. Then Satan entered Judas called Ischariot, who was one of the number of twelfe. And he went and spoke with the chief priests and officers how he might deliver him to them.” “The day of Unleavened Bread came on which the Paschal lamb must be sacrificed.” “And when the hour came, he reclined to eat with the apostles, and he said to them, “I earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. I tell you that I will not eat it again until it is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God.”

The First Supper instituted by Christ was not part of the Jewish tradition, but the meal helped to observe one of the most important holy festivals, when all Jews throughout the Hellenistic and Jewish world were to gather in Jerusalem. The spread of the testimonies of the people who were present was of immense importance for the spread of Christianity among Jews and Gentiles. 

We therefore gather every Sunday because we want to renew our covenants, but also to remember and honor the 12 disciples (witnesses) who gathered around a final Passover meal on this new Christian Day of Atonement, which replaced the Jewish sacrifice of atonement in the Holy of Holies with their teacher and Master Jesus. They were surrogates for us and became witnesses for all who were not present to partake of the sacrament.

I have found a quote about the Jewish sacrifices in the holy places of the temple that has inspired me greatly: “Atonement means ‘covering.’ The purpose of the sacrifice was to repair the broken relationship between humans and God by covering up the sins of the people. On this day, the high priest would remove his official priestly robes, which were brilliant robes. He bathed and put on a pure white linen robe to symbolize repentance.” (Learn religions). The sacrament today is a promise of forgiveness and a reminder that sin and repentance come through trust in God’s love and faith in Christ. Of the sacrifice we learn in Paul’s letter to the Hebrews we learn: “The sacrifice is a reminder of sins.” A sacrifice like Christ gives a new form: “Behold, I have come—in the scroll it is written about me—to do your will, O God.”

As a consequence we become one with Christ and with each other when we do God’s Will.

An important part of the Passover rituals was the reading from the Pentateuch, reminding everyone of the covenants, deliverance from bondage in Egypt, and the Law of Moses. We still celebrate Moses, remember God’s punishments for Pharaoh and the liberation of the people of Israel, the restoration of the Abrahamic covenant (now the covenant of Moses and the law of Moses).

This extraordinary Jewish Passover, which started so beautifully with the entry into Jerusalem, was also the end of Jesus’ time with the disciples and offered a sanctification (anointing) as well as preparation for his suffering and death. The entry into triumph ushered in the days leading up to Jesus’ trials and suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane. Passover was his last opportunity to show the world who he was. Not least in the Lord’s Temple—His Father’s house.

It was on Temple Square with teaching and teaching that he challenged the Jewish world, and it was here that he had his final confrontations with the fairground and money changers, his rebuke of both the Pharisees and the Saducees.

These are the days when Christ conclusively shows with what legitimacy (authority) and right He teaches. Namely, about the Celestial Kingdom, why we are taught the difference between Caesar’s treasure and the temple treasure with the poor widow’s sacrifice!

We also hear about humility: that we should be like Chris. The disciples asked the question: “Lord which of us is greatest!”  Christ answers them, “the oldest among you shall be as the youngest, and the leader as he who serves.”

We also hear of the disciples’ discouragement, weakness and betrayal, guilt and shame, that they had to resist temptation, denial, and that despite all adversity they could overcome their fears. But nothing was hidden from Christ. In Math. 26:30 He prophesies, “In this night you will all forsake Me!” The stage was therefore set! Once Christ had surrendered to His role as a scapegoat in the Garden of Gethsemane, His Atonement became inevitable for us.

In church, we celebrate the birth of Jesus and embrace the great love for people that this unique event entails. But it is Passover/Easter that is the most important event of our modern church. It bridges the gap between our preexistence and eternal life and fulfills the promises of the Plan of Salvation.

I would like to refresh our understanding by quoting from the Church’s reference work: “The plan of salvation is the fulness of the gospel. It includes the Creation, the Fall, the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and all the laws, ordinances, and teachings of the gospel. Moral agency, the ability to choose and act for ourselves, is also central to Heavenly Father’s plan. Because of this plan, we can be perfected through the Atonement, receive a fulness of joy, and live forever in God’s presence.”

Our family relationships can therefore continue through the eternities.

Everything depended on this particular Easter, that Christ our High Priest and the Son of God should suffer and die. So he could open the gate to eternal life. Mosiah 3:11 “For behold, his blood also atones for the sins of those who have fallen by Adam’s transgression, who died without knowing God’s will concerning him, or who have sinned in ignorance.”

God became human because His time of service was necessary for His suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane. How could he take upon Himself all our pain if He did not have the empathy that comes from His love for us that comes from living among ordinary people. Jesus was a perfect human being who could contain and feel all our weaknesses, sins, and frailties. Nothing was hidden from him. In His ministry, in all the many testimonies of wonders, healings, and teachings, we find parables in our scriptures, all pointing to our Heavenly Father and the power of Heaven over which Jesus had power.

This was the Jesus they found hard to believe when he told them time and time again that his time with them would be very short. The power that made Peter unable to understand that Jesus was going to die!

However, the Passover meal was shaken when Jesus announced that he would be betrayed that night. In fulfillment of another prophecy in Psalm 41:10, “Even my friend, whom I trusted, and who ate the bread with me, has lifted up his heel against me.”

Christ knew that this night was a crucial trial—atonement—and He goes with the disciples to the Garden of Gethsemane. (Oil presses the garden).

Christ knew that His preparation was spiritual, that He should surrender completely to the task assigned to Him by the Great Council.

(The three witnesses Peter, James, and John) Luke 22:39-46 “Then he broke up and went as usual to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed.  When He came out there, He said to them (the three), “Pray not to fall into temptation!”  And he moved away from them a stone’s throw away, fell to his knees, and prayed, “Father, if thou wilt, take this cup from me. Yet, not my will be done, but thine.”  Then an angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him.  In his anguish, he prayed even more urgently, and his sweat became like drops of blood falling on the ground.  After rising from prayer and returning to the disciples, He found them asleep, overcome with grief, and He said to them, “Why are ye asleep? Arise, and pray not to fall into temptation.””

The great tension that caused Jesus to ask the disciples to be vigilant. Not in the face of mortal danger, but of temptation. That is, that they did not allow themselves to be tempted by the dark powers that gathered around Christ. This was enough to make the disciples anxious, frightened, and shaken, and their fear of the future probably reflected the fear of death that gripped Christ.

How, then, are we to judge their efforts on this night today? I would say that they were very human and not equipped to face the evil that Christ fought against. It was the last resort of the mind and spirit that they fall asleep during the exertion to which they were subjected.

However, this has not stopped the disciples from feeling guilt and shame for their lack of vigilance. But they do not hide this shame and guilt—on the contrary, it became an important element in their testimony of this last night with Jesus.

Precisely because that night in Gethsemane was so terrifying, the testimonies we have of this day and night become all the more valuable. It was a fulfillment of prophecies from both the Old and New Worlds. Testimonies that are confirmed again and again through revelation and our prophets.

Testimonies from our scriptures:

Jesus called Himself the Son of Man, whom we know from Daniel’s prophecy. So in Gethsemane, Jesus already had a complete knowledge of what was to come after His sacrifice and suffering.

We meet the Son of Man in Daniel 7:13-14 “In the night visions I saw this: With the clouds of heaven came one who looked like a son of man; He came to the old of days and was brought before him. Lordship, honor, and kingdom were given to him; All peoples, tribes and tongues served him. His dominion is an eternal dominion which shall not perish, his kingdom shall not perish.”

We get an idea of the suffering Christ had to endure in the prophecies of the Old Testament and the Book of Mormon, of the three synoptic gospels, and of our modern prophecies in the Doctrine and Covenants, but it is only when we realize that it is also about us/you personally today that you understand how little we can really comprehend. Christ was to contain on this night the history of the whole world and the sins and sufferings of all people.

In Alma 34:14, Almulek testifies of the Law of Moses pointing to a great and final sacrifice that justifies God’s people according to the Law.

In Isaiah 53:3- The suffering servant of the Lord is the sacrificial lamb and the scapegoat who makes amends for our sins, “but he bore the sins of the many, and took the place of sinners” (Isaiah 53:12) “But it was our sicknesses that he took, it was our sufferings that he bore; and we counted him as one afflicted, beaten, and afflicted by God.
But He was pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our sins.
He was punished that we might have peace, by His wounds we were healed.
We all wandered about like sheep, we turned our separate ways; but the Lord let all our guilt fall upon him.”

But there is also comfort and hope to be found in Isaiah 53:11: “After his suffering he sees light, he saturates by his insight.”

It was difficult for Jesus’ contemporaries and even for his disciples to understand that the highness and majesty inherent in the concepts of “Son of Man” and “Messiah/Krisus” (the anointed King) were to be expressed in a suffering form in the Garden of Gethsemane and later death on the cross. Math. 26:24 “The Son of man passes away, as it is written about him, but woe to that man,  by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It was better for that man if he had never been born.”

I Alma 7:11-13 “And he shall go about suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word may be fulfilled which reads: He will take upon himself the pains and sicknesses of his people. And he will take upon himself death, that he may loosen the bonds of death which bind his people; and he will take upon himself their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy as to the flesh, that he may know, as for the flesh, how to succor his people according to their infirmities. Behold, the Spirit knows all things; yet the Son of God suffers according to the flesh, that he may take upon himself the sins of his people, that he may erase their transgressions according to his power of deliverance; and behold, that is the testimony which is in me.”

I Mosiah 3:7+11 “And behold, he shall suffer temptations and bodily pains, hunger, thirst, and exhaustion, yes, more than men can endure without causing death; For behold, there comes blood from every pore, so great shall his anguish be upon the wickedness and abominations of his people. For behold, his blood also atones for the sins committed by those who have fallen at Adam’s transgression, who died without knowing God’s will concerning them, or who have sinned in ignorance.”

Our modern prophets have also spoken of the Plan of Salvation in D&C 18:10-11: “Remember that the worth of souls  is great before God; for behold, the Lord, your Redeemer, suffered death in the flesh; so  He suffered the pains of  all men, that all men might repent and come unto Him.”

We can also find teaching in D&C 19:16-19 “For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they  should not suffer if they will  repent; but if they will not repent, they must suffer, as I do; which affliction caused me, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble with pain, and to bleed from every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit—and I desired that I  should not drink the bitter cup, but abstain—yet,  honored be the Father, and I drank and completed my preparations for the children of men.”

Jesus Christ is our eternal High Priest, and it is also in this sense that He undertakes to be an atoning sacrifice in the Garden of Gethsemane, which thus became the Holy of Holies of the Temple, where Christ takes all our sins upon Himself. Finally, Christ is taken captive and His last words that night were: “Day after day I have been with you (on Temple Square) without you raising a hand to me. But this is your hour and darkness has power!”

We witness today that Christ, our High Priest, is risen and has overcome death. Hebrews 7:15-26 ” (15) “Christ became High Priest on the model of Melchizedek. (16) After all, he did not become a priest by virtue of a law requiring one to come from a particular tribe, but by virtue of the eternal and indestructible life he represents…. the high priestly service Jesus performs will never end. After all, he lives forever. (25) Because He lives forever and always prays fervently for us, He is able to lead all people who desire to come unto God through Him to perfect salvation. (26) It is just such a high priest that we need, one who is holy and without sin, untainted by evil and exalted above all heavens.”

I testify of this in the name of Jesus Christ