He is Risen!

Pilate saith unto them, What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ? They all say unto him, Let him be crucified.

And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;

Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God.

Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre.

There laid they Jesus.

In the end of the sabbath, as it began to down toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.

And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.

And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here: for he is risen.

Until this year, Easter had never really had a profound effect on me. It had always been about Easter eggs and candy. I thought about the Savior, but I never really understood the great thing that he did for us.

I went to the Carl Bloch exhibit in Salt Lake this weekend. Bloch is an amazing artist who is able to put a lot of feeling into his paintings. But the one painting that really stuck out to me, and probably changed my life, is not one that is well known. It is called Down From the Cross. I stood there staring at it for a long time, nearly moved to tears. The painting depicts Jesus being taken down from the cross. It shows the ladders they used to get him down, and it shows them laying him on a white cloth. In the bottom corner of the painting it shows the nails, and the crown of thorns that had been reverently laid on a cloth.  I had never even thought about that part of that whole ordeal. At that moment, Jesus was dead. His spirit had left his body. He had gone through a horrible ordeal, just so we could return to our Father in heaven. I can't even imagine what it would have been like for those men, to have to take down their Savior's body from a cross. I can only imagine their joy when he was resurrected!

So I challenge you this Easter, and all this year, to think about what Christ did for us.

In the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Redeemer, Amen.