And so they took Him with the cross, carried it as long as His broken body could endure the pain of it. Finally they took Him up to the top of the place of the Skull. and there they nailed the nails; first into His hands, then into His wrists, then into His feet and then they swung the cross into position. Two thieves crucified on either side. The earth trembled and the sky grew black, with the ground trembling occasionally, clear up until three o'clock. Over in America the whole continent was in turmoil, as were the islands of the sea.

Toward the end he cried out, "I thirst." And in the sponge they put up vinegar because that was supposed to alleviate the pain a little bit.

He looked down in His agony and He said, "John, behold thy mother. Mother behold thy son." (Apparently Joseph had passed away.) He's just saying, "John, take care of thy mother Mary."

And then they torment Him, they pestered Him, they accused Him of – "Why don't you come down?" – "Why don't you heal yourself?" All of this was written in the 22^nd Psalm. All of it was seen by David. He knew the very words Jesus would say.

And then almost when the agony was beyond bearing, and it was getting toward dusk when they would have to start breaking their legs so they would die faster. Suddenly Jesus looked up and said, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"

The spirit of the Father had withdrawn from this man, he was absolutely alone hanging on that cross, but just for a moment. Then the spirit of God surged back into him to say, that in effect, "My son I'm here. You did it."

He lifted up His face and said, "It is finished. Fathers into thy hands I commend my spirit."

And He departed. At that moment, JESUS BECAME THE CHRIST. And he had done what was necessary to overcome the demands of Justice so we could go back! He did it! And by the power of that great force that was in Him, He now, in three days and nights would have that body lifted, resurrected, purified, and glorified. And it's such a thrilling thing to contemplate Mary Magdalene coming, leaning against the wall of the—we think we found the Tomb. We're not sure, but it fits everything. It's right at the bottom of a hill described by the Saviour. It's the only tomb—and she leaned against it. She knows that somebody has stolen the body And she looks. Maybe it's the gardener and then when she saw that person standing there as she looked through her tears, she said "Laboni (Master), if thou hast borne Him hence, tell me where thou hast laid Him, and I will bear Him away." away."

The person said, "Mary." She looked up and said, "Master." He said, "Touch me not, for I've not yet ascended to my Father who is in heaven, but go and tell the brethren I ascend unto my God and their God." And he was gone.

That's the Easter story. And our Heavenly Father suffered so much that night in Gethsemane, when that Son of His lay on the leaves underneath the olive trees and said, "O, Father, if it be possible, take this cup from me," our Heavenly Father was suffering so much at that moment He wanted at least one of His children here on the earth to know what that was like, that night for Him. And so he said to our great ancestor, Abraham, "I want you to take your best beloved son up to the top of Mount Moriah and I want you to offer him unto me as a sacrifice.

Why? All my life I have taught against human sacrifice. My son in whom ye promised to raise up a seed, mighty like unto the sand of the seashore. My only son and heir? I kill him? And burn him?

And without telling Sarah, he took this young man, probably in his early teens, up to the top of Mount Moriah.

And he said to his son, "My child, 1 wouldn't have had you without a special blessing from God to your mother, and he having sent you to me, now asks that I send you back. Not by disease, or war, or old age, but as a Sacrament unto Him, at the hand or your own father. I now send you to him."

He raised the knife—oh, the anguish of that father! And in Jacob 4:5 of the Book of Mormon it says that was done to symbolize the feelings of the Father and the Son. That was specifically done so that at least one human father would know what the pain and anguish was like that night in Gethsemane as Jesus said, "Oh, Father, all things are possible unto thee, take this cup from me."

Now I close. You may be already beginning to understand this beautiful doctrine, the foundation of which President Kimball was talking about in priesthood meeting; the intelligences of the universe, the fact that their honor of God is what makes Him God, the fact that if he lost their confidence he would cease to be God. These are basic doctrines of the restored Gospel. As it says in Jacob 2, why don't we talk about the atonement more? We talk about the resurrection, why don't we talk about the atonement? I think we all agree we don't talk about the real basis of the atonement. We talk about it as a proven fact without ever reaching out and saying, "Heavenly Father, I think I understand just a little." I think. I understand.

I don't know what it does to you, but it has made me love my Heavenly Father like I've never loved Him before. I've learned to love the Saviour, Jesus Christ, like I've never loved Him before, now that I know what those two wonderful people did for me and you and my children and all the people in this world and the planet on which we live. All these beautiful things that he has blessed us with, would have all been destroyed and lost if those two people hadn't done what they did. I love them for that. And I bear witness to you, my brothers and sisters, from the depth of my heart, JESUS is THE CHRIST. We have a Father in Heaven who loves us. The Atonement is real, the Atonement is effective. The Atonement works, there is a resurrection. There is forgiveness of sin. And though our sins may be as scarlet, if we truly repent, we can be restored and taken back to our Father in Heaven cleansed like white snow, which is Isaiah chapter 1.

And I pray to our Heavenly Father that He'll help us so we wont let Him down, so that we won't betray the Christ that well be good missionaries; that we'll spread this great message to our neighbors, that we'll take every precious child of God, wherever we find him, fellowship him, and follow those thirteen wonderful steps that were outlined here. They're beautiful. That's the way to reach our Father s children. They deserve every blessing and advantage that we can give to them and we must lead wisely and carefully. We mustn't shock them, we mustn't move faster than they are willing to absorb it. But for every soul that is saved, our Heavenly Father will bless us beyond any measure we've ever dreamed of.