He Is Risen

This Easter Sunday, all Christians, brothers and sisters in the Lord, honor and celebrate the Resurrection of our Redeemer, Jesus Christ. His Resurrection and His Atonement are the most powerful, far-reaching, and sacred events in all human history.

Jesus Christ and His Resurrection are at the very core of the doctrine of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Prophet Joseph Smith, the first prophet of the Restoration, who saw and spoke with God the Father and His Beloved Son, taught, “The fundamental principles of our religion are the testimony of the Apostles and Prophets, concerning Jesus Christ, that He died, was buried, and rose again the third day, and ascended into heaven.” As an Apostle called of Jesus Christ, I bear my testimony to all the world of that truth.

Jesus Christ is “the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob,” “the Almighty God” of the Old Testament, “the light of the world” of the New Testament, “the Messiah” and “Savior of the world” of the Book of Mormon and other latter-day revelation. He came, was crucified, and rose again.

After three days in a borrowed tomb, Jesus Christ broke the bands of death imposed by the Fall. With His Resurrection, He secured salvation from physical death for us, all of God’s children throughout the ages. That includes the just, who herald Him as the Son of God, and the unjust, who will someday recognize Him as “the King of kings,” for it is prophesied, “Every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess” that Jesus is the Christ.

When Mary and other faithful women approached the Garden Tomb to care for the body of their Lord, they found two angels, who announced, “He is not here, but is risen.”

Those glorious words, “He is risen,” have sparked religious ceremony, gratitude, faith in Jesus Christ and His promises for centuries. President Dallin H. Oaks has testified: “The resurrection is a pillar of our faith. It adds meaning to our doctrine, motivation to our behavior, and hope for our future.”

Jesus Christ is more than a mortal first laid in a manger, more than a friend, teacher, rabbi, minister, or prophet. He is the Only Begotten Son of the Father. And by divine design, His Resurrection by His own godly power reunited His body and His spirit. What a majestic and monumental event in Father in Heaven’s eternal plan.

The resurrected Jesus Christ first appeared to Mary and with tenderness spoke her name. He appeared to His Apostles, saying, “Handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.” He walked with two of His disciples, on the road to Emmaus, who pleaded, “Abide with us.” The risen Lord, “Endless and Eternal,” appeared to hundreds in the Holy Land.

Accounts in the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ also bear witness of Him resurrected. A gathering at a temple in the New World, in the land Bountiful, heard a voice from the heavens saying, “Behold my Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, in whom I have glorified my name—hear ye him.”

Then they beheld “a Man descending out of heaven; and he was clothed in a white robe; and he came down and stood in the midst of them.” And “he stretched forth his hand.” I love the image of Him stretching forth His hand. He said, “Behold, I am Jesus Christ, whom the prophets testified shall come into the world.”

That outstretched hand was well known in His earthly ministry. His hand rescued Peter as he began to sink in the choppy waves of the Sea of Galilee. His hand motioned for the crippled man at the Pool of Bethesda to “rise … and walk.” His hands washed the feet of His disciples, and His hands “took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it,” initiating the sacrament “in remembrance of” Him. He promised the prophet Isaiah, “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: … for I am thy God: … I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.” That promise is for all of us.

He stood before them resurrected and said, “Arise and come forth unto me, that ye may thrust your hands into my side, and also that ye may feel the prints of the nails in my hands and in my feet, that ye may know that I am the God of Israel, and the God of the whole earth, and have been slain for the sins of the world.”

The multitude of 2,500 souls “went forth, … and did see with their eyes and did feel with their hands, and did know of a surety and did bear record, that it was he.”

He invited “their little children” to be brought to Him and took them “one by one, and blessed them, and prayed unto the Father for them.”

This scene of Him resurrected, reaching out with hands once nailed to a cross, touches me deeply.

Some years ago at a general conference, I spoke of our grandson Paxton, who was born with a very rare chromosomal deletion. His parents would have carried him to the Savior when He called for all “afflicted in any manner” to come that He might heal them.

Paxton lived three treasured years. He could not speak, crawl, walk, or run after his brothers. But little Paxton’s hands reached out to ours and to our Savior with love and affection.

I remember the first time Paxton’s father and I gave him a priesthood blessing that, as it says in the scriptures, “the works of God should be made manifest in him.” They were. He brought immense joy to our family. Families with such a precious member know what a privilege it is to be blessed with one with special needs. Associating with Paxton, our whole family gained an increased, deep, and abiding trust in the Lord. Then God reached out and took him home.

The words of the psalmist say it all: “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.”

That joy is, as the Savior said, “Because I live, ye shall live also.”

I know Paxton’s tender “spirit and [his] body shall be reunited again in … perfect form.” By the power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, his joy will be in not only a resurrected body but one that is resurrected whole and perfect. All who live or ever have lived who come unto Christ and live His gospel will feel joy beyond any earthly expression as we reunite, resurrected, with our Father in Heaven and Jesus Christ and with our parents, grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, and ancestors.

May we be at peace, brothers and sisters, for the Lord has promised, “Where I am, there ye may be also.” May we believe the Lord’s words in Isaiah: “I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands.” May we testify of Him by the way we live and what we love. May we feel to our very souls these stirring words: “He is risen! He is risen! Tell it out with joyful voice” and “let the whole wide earth rejoice.”

As a special witness of the name of Jesus Christ—the King of glory, the Messiah triumphant, the Bright and Morning Star, and on this Easter morn, the Resurrection and the Life—I bear my witness of Him in reverence and in gratitude in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.