He Is Risen

Sunrise after a dark night, the calm after a fierce storm: sometimes experiences fill us with peace and hope precisely because of what preceded them. We know how bad things can get, and so we are grateful they are better. (See 2 Nephi 2:11.)

There’s something powerful about the fact that Jesus didn’t simply go on living. He didn’t ascend into heaven in a chariot of fire like Elijah. (See 2 Kings 2:11.) He didn’t wander off and inexplicably never return, as did Moses and Alma. (See Alma 45:18-19.) His disciples saw Him physically die, and then they saw Him alive again.

“He is not here,” the angels said to the two women who found the tomb empty on Sunday morning, “for he is risen, as he said” (Matthew 28:6; see also Mark 16:6, Luke 24:6). Indeed, Jesus had instructed Peter, James, and John not to tell anyone about their experience on the Mount of Transfiguration “until the Son of man be risen again from the dead” (Matthew 17:9; see also Mark 9:9). And at the Last Supper, He had assured His apostles, “After I am risen again, I will go before you into Galilee” (Matthew 26:32; see also Mark 14:28). Surely they thought that was an unusual turn of phrase. What could it mean that He would “rise again?” They would perhaps only learn to take that phrase literally after the horror of His death was followed by the triumph of His resurrection.

We will all die, and the fact that “the Lord Omnipotent, who reigneth, who was and is from all eternity to all eternity” (Mosiah 3:5) died too gives us hope.

Paul wrote:

If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.

But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.

1 Corinthians 15:19-20

And the prophet Abinadi testified:

If Christ had not risen from the dead, or have broken the bands of death that the grave should have no victory, and that death should have no sting, there could have been no resurrection.

But there is a resurrection, therefore the grave hath no victory, and the sting of death is swallowed up in Christ.

Mosiah 16:7-8; see also 1 Corinthians 15:55

Today, I will remember with gratitude that Christ died and was resurrected. I will be grateful for the assurance that everything bad that I may experience is temporary. There will be light. There will be calm.

Happy Easter!