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EASTER | Book of Mormon Insights: Revisited · Scripture Central

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My name is Tyler Griffin. And I'm Daniel Smith.
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For today, what we're going to do is, I'll I'll begin by
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walking you through the final week of the Savior's life, kind
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of giving you a a bit of a virtual tour of Jerusalem at the
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time of Jesus through those those different events leading
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up to his resurrection. And then I'm going to be going
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over a somewhat similar, but except with an emphasis on the
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Passover and talking about the connections and the the
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significance of how Passover teaches us about the atonement
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and helps us really better understand why it's so
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significant that Jesus chose the timing to be exactly during the
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time of Passover. What you're looking at is a
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depiction, a a digital recreation of the Temple.
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Herod's Second Temple is what we traditionally call it in
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Jerusalem. Now this is temple mounted is
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the dominant feature of the city of Jerusalem.
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So if we click right here, you can see a bird's eye view of the
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city at the time of Jesus. If you were to take this city
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and pick it up and put it into our modern world, it's just
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under one square mile. For those of you who are
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familiar with with Provo and the campus of Brigham Young
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University, this city would overlay almost perfectly on the
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campus of BYU today, just under a square mile, you'll notice
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Temple Mount is right here on Mount Moriah.
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Mount Zion is higher up than Mount Moriah and the Terropian
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Valley goes in between them with the two valleys on the sides,
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the Kidron Valley and the Hinnom Valley.
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So this is where it all takes place, that final week of
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Jesus's life. Here's the overview.
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Jesus begins the week of the atoning sacrifice.
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With his triumphal entry, he starts over the Mount of Olives.
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So here's the Mount of Olives. Gethsemane is here at the base
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of the Mount of Olives, to the east of Jerusalem.
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On the other side of the Mount of Olives we have Bethany and
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Bethpage. That's where Jesus begins on the
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Sunday Palm Sunday the week before Easter.
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So he rides on the the donkey or the mule down the Kidron Valley,
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which is a beautiful symbol. If you if you want to do some
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study to cross, compare this with First Kings chapter one,
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where David is on his deathbed and he has his son Solomon
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placed on a mule in the Kidron Valley near the Guihon Spring,
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and there he is anointed the King of Israel, the son of David
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as the King of Israel. When Jesus rides down the Kidron
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Valley the people are going to be shouting Hosanna.
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Blessed is he who cometh in in the name of the Lord.
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Blessed is the Son of David. They see him as the fulfillment
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of the prophecy that the Messiah will come as a son of David and
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take the Davidic throne again. So Jesus's week begins with a
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very, very triumphal entry. They are shouting things to him
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from from Psalm 118. It's this praise Psalm, kind of
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the coming of the Lord Psalm. He goes in and if you follow
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Matthew's chronology, he's going to go into the temple and he's
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going to cleanse the temple. If we shift our focus over here
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as an overview of the temple, you're now looking down into the
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court of the women right there, and you turn your view.
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That's the royal stoa. This is Solomon's Porch.
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So all of these porticoes, these covered areas around the outer
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side, outer courtyard of the Temple Mount, people are going
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to be coming in huge numbers to Jerusalem during Passover, which
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is the time that Jesus is here to perform that infinite
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atonement. So there are lots of people here
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thronging the city of Jerusalem from all over the diaspora
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coming in. So when he cleanses the temple,
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we're talking a huge number of people.
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And it's not just a little building, this Temple Mount.
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You could fit 26 American football fields onto Temple
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Mount. It's expansive.
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It's it's big. And he's cleansing the temple
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and then bringing in people who are sick and afflicted and
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healing them. There's beautiful symbolism
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there, and we can go into greater depth on each of these
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stories later on. This is intended just to be an
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overview of this week. It's interesting because Matthew
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has the triumphal entry, then the cleansing of the temple that
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day. Mark, his gospel, has the
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triumphal entry. He comes in and he sees what's
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going on in the temple. Then he goes back to Bethany in
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the next day, when he comes into the temple, he curses the fig
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tree on the way in. Then he goes in and he cleanses
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the temple. So I don't know which one's
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right. They both have beautiful
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symbolic power associated with them.
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Whichever 1 had the timing exactly right on these events,
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but the point is, is that Jesus demonstrates incredible power in
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in both of these miracles. And then he spends Monday
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teaching the people in the temple.
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And it gets kind of fuzzy as to the order of all of the events
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on the specific days. But tradition holds that he's
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teaching in the temple on Monday and Tuesday.
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Some would argue that we don't have anything for Wednesday.
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Others would say, well, there's some of these parables that
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maybe are being taught on the Wednesday at the end of the day.
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That doesn't matter nearly as much as the fact that Jesus is
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now preparing for that final, final event, the infinite
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atonement that he he has covenanted to fulfill for all of
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us. Thursday he goes into the upper
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room. The traditional site is going to
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be somewhere around here up on Mount Zion, but that site was
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built very late in in the calendar early 12th century I
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believe. I can't remember the the
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specifics, but it's it's doesn't date back to the time of Jesus,
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but the site is the traditional site.
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It could have been somewhere down here closer to the pool of
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Siloam. We don't know.
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Anyway, he gathers his apostles for the Last Supper on what we
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would call Thursday. Now, just a really quick note on
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timing for the Jews. When the sunsets, it flips your
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calendar to the new day. So they begin the day at sunset.
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We begin ours at midnight. Very different.
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So for him, the Last Supper takes place at the beginning of
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Friday for him because the calendar flipped when Thursday
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night's sunset. So he's in that upper room.
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They share that Passover meal or a meal that has Passover
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elements, depending on whether you like John's version or
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Matthew, Mark and Luke. The Synoptics version.
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Matthew, Mark and Luke say that it was the Passover meal that
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year. John says that the Passover meal
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was going to be the next day, and there's beautiful symbol
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symbolism. Once again with both of those we
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don't intend to turn this into a battle between the different
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gospel accounts and make you pick pick your your favorite or
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pick a winner. It's let's take their view,
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their lens of Jesus and the events and and enjoy what we can
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and learn what we can from each one.
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When Jesus finishes that Last Supper event with them, he then
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leaves that upper room. They go up the Kidron Valley.
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So from here down to there, up to the garden called Gethsemane
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would be about a mile, a little, maybe even a little bit over a
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mile depending on where he was in the city of a walk.
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Keep in mind, it's Passover, which happens on the first full
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moon after the spring equinox. So this is a full moon tonight
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when Jesus goes goes up that valley and he's on this side of
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the Kidron Brook when he offers his intercessory prayer in John
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17. And then he walks into the
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garden and begins the process of this, this infinite agony, this
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infinite price that needs to be paid for our souls to redeem us.
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Judas brings the band of men. They arrest him here.
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Jesus is then taken back into the city, and he's taken to
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Caiaphas's palace, where he's judged, where he's going to be
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condemned by the the leaders, the chief priests of the people,
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and then turned over to the Romans.
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And so he's going to be judged by Herod after he's judged by
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Pilate. And Pilate judges him again at
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the end and ultimately condemns him.
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He's going to be scourged. He's going to be plated with
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that crown of thorns, then LED away to the crucifixion site,
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probably 70 to 75% of the Christian population in the
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world. When they go to Jerusalem, they
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will go to a place right here called the Church of the Holy
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Sepulchre, where they believe Golgotha was the the site.
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This is their traditional Calvary site, where Jesus was
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both crucified, buried and resurrected.
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Here, to the northwest of the city, there's a group of
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Protestants and and many members of the church who go over to
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Jerusalem. They tended to prefer the
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feeling associated with the Garden Tomb area, which is here
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a little more to the north and a little bit to the West of the
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Temple Mount as the crucifixion site.
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The reality is, is this whole region up here has quarries, and
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we know that Jesus is going to be buried in the tomb of Joseph
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of Arimathea, and it's a brand new tomb that's never had
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anybody in it yet. And so it's probably an active
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quarry site. Well, we've got lots of options.
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We're not just limited to two. There are other things.
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The point is, the Holy Ghost doesn't usually testify of a
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location as much as he testifies of an event.
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And the event that is so significant, the most
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significant event in the history of our world, is that momentous
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occasion on that Sunday morning when Jesus arose from the dead
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and broke the bands of death and rose triumphant from the grave.
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Now what does this have to do with us here now in the latter
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days, as you prepare for Easter this week, we would invite you
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to spare a thought or two at least for the Lord Jesus Christ
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on on each of the days for you and your family and your loved
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ones to to just quietly contemplate what was it that he
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experienced on that day and what did he go through.
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My wife and I taught our children these different events
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and had had pictures of the different stories lined up with
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tape on the wall. And we tried to help our
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children understand the significance of each day.
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And it was a it was a wonderful experience of many years ago
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when one of our sons, Jacob, he was a young child at the time.
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It was actually Easter morning, Sunday morning.
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Our little Jarrett was a baby at the time began crying in his
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crib. It was it was early early Sunday
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morning. I don't know the exact time but
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there the light was just barely starting to come from from the
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east and I went into their bedroom, the boys bedroom to
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comfort little Jarrett and I picked him up and started
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dancing with him to calm him down.
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And I I looked up onto the bunk bed and noticed that my Jacob
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was sitting up in bed, leaning against the wall.
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And it it kind of took me back. I was kind of a little bit
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scared, to be honest with you at first.
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Wait, what are you doing? I said, Jacob, what's going on?
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And he said, Dad, do you think Jesus is resurrected by this
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time on Easter? And I thought, yeah, according
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to John's account, he rose. Well, Mary goes to the tomb
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while it was yet dark. I said, yeah, I'll I'll bet he's
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resurrected by now. And little Jacob said, oh good.
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I wanted to be awake when Jesus was resurrected.
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I wanted to be able to think about that.
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Brothers and sisters, this is this is more than just a a
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scripture story. It's more than just a a fancy
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ideal. This is reality.
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Death has been broken from inside hell and the bands of
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hell and captivity and bondage have been burst from inside.
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Jesus, our Lord and Savior for whatever reason couldn't defeat
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death and hell. That off awful monster as Jacob
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refers to it from up in heaven or even from from on earth just
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in a normal setting. He had to descend into both of
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them and then break them. Break the bands of both death
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and hell for us, and His promise is sure.
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And now our job is can we trust Him as we move forward in faith
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on His covenant path. So our prayer is that the Lord
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will bless you this week as you spare some thoughts for the Lord
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and contemplate what He was going through on each of the
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days leading up to this beautiful event.
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I want you to know that I know that He lives, and He sits
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enthroned in Yonder heavens, on the right hand of our Father.
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OK. So as I talked about a little
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bit earlier, I'm going to talk about the significance of
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Passover as it relates to Holy Week, the events of Holy Week
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and Easter. Now before we do that, I want to
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introduce you into a little bit about the significance of
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Passover as it would have been celebrated the very first time
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during the time of Moses. So keep in mind that Passover is
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by the Jews still celebrated today most significant feast and
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event in recorded scripture. It sets the the setting for the
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entire stage, so to speak, for Israel to come and become a
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people. And so this story is extremely
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significant. So every year when they're
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celebrating Passover, they are remembering these events of the
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story of the Exodus. So let's first talk a little bit
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about the calendar because that will help us better understand
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it. According to the Bible, in
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Exodus, the Lord commanded the people to take a lamb on the
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10th day of the month to be without blemish.
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And then for the next four days, they're to take the lamb into
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their home, to have it. And in essence, I mean, you can
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kind of imagine this, taking this little cute lamb into your
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home. The family has it there.
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The kids begin to learn to love it.
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It lives with them. It's in there, you know, maybe
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sleeping in the same room as the kids, and then all of a sudden
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they have to kill it. So there's this connection
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that's made to the lamb while it's living in the home and then
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on the 14th day, in the the evening just before the 15th.
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And remember that the the Jews, the way that they count their
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calendar is or their day, the day starts in the evening.
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So in essence, in the evening just before the 15th, so
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generally like 2 to 5:00 or so is when they kill the lambs.
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And then just at the start is when they have the Passover and
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they would have the Passover. And the first time that they're
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having the Passover, because this is only happens the first
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time, they don't do this. Every other time they would take
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the blood of the lamb, they would put it on the doorposts,
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and that was to be as a sign to the destroying Angel that it
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would pass by them and not kill the first born of that home.
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And so they are having this meal, and the meal would include
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unleavened bread, bitter herbs, and then also the lamb, and
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according to later Jewish tradition, still today wine as
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well. Now the bitter herbs would
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represent the bitterness, the bondage of slavery, to help them
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remember that connection of being in bondage.
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And then you have the unleavened bread, and that was to represent
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the fact that you have unleavened bread.
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And they had to flee out of Egypt.
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So they're they're leaving in haste so they don't have time to
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let their bread rise. And another thing that we should
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say is unleavened bread was often connected with a symbol of
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incorruption because unleavened bread doesn't mold as much.
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It lasts a lot longer than like leavened bread.
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So there's this symbol of incorruption versus corruption
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with unleavened bread versus leavened bread.
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And then they would also have the lamb.
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And the lamb obviously is connected with the blood that is
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put on the doorpost. One thing I also didn't mention
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is that during this time when they're taken into the home, the
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lamb taken into the home, they would also clean their homes of
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all 11 products because for seven days from the 15th, which
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goes on further here for seven days, they would not eat any 11
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products. So they wouldn't have it in
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their homes and they also wouldn't eat any 11 products.
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So they first had to prepare their home.
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And that's actually what we come up with.
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That's why we have spring cleaning is because of Passover.
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So now let's talk about some of the significance as it relates
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to the events of Holy Week. I have a YouTube channel called
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Messages of Christ, and I have a whole series that I've done on
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each of these events. So if you're interested, I will
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link those down below and also up above to be able to show you
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those videos. If you would like to watch those
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videos, I have a video on each of the different events within
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Holy Week. So you can watch the video for
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Monday, for Tuesday, for Wednesday so you can be able to
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go through. Now we have according to the
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synoptic gospels which would be Matthew, Mark and Luke.
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Jesus comes in on the 10th day, or five days before Passover.
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So Passover is right here. So five days before this is the
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triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Now think about the significance
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of this. Jesus is coming in into
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Jerusalem on the exact same day that all of the Jews are
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beginning to prepare for Passover.
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It hasn't happened yet, but they're beginning to prepare for
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Passover, and specifically five days before on the 10th day of
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the month, they are selecting the lamb that will then be
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sacrificed for the Passover. So what does Jesus do?
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He comes, rides into the city of Jerusalem, and is in essence
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symbolically chosen by the people to be their Lamb of God.
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And then what does he do right after the the episode of the
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Triumphal entry he goes into? His father's house, the temple.
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And he cleanses the temple. And remember what we talked
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about here? What it what is the lamb do.
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The lamb is brought into the home of the people.
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It stays. For the next four days they
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clean the home of all leaven products, which again leaven is
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a symbol of corruption. So Jesus comes into his father's
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house. He cleanses the temple of
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iniquity of from the money changers.
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And then after that we know that the next few days he also spends
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most of his time teaching, at least in the first part of the
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week in the temple teaching. And so again the significant
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aspect, but that the lambs are brought into the homes, Jesus
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comes into his Father's home and teaches.
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We then have that according to the synoptic gospels, which
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would again be Matthew, Mark and Luke, the Passover is the Last
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Supper. So I want you to think about
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this from the perspective of the apostles.
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They have been celebrating the Passover for many years.
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Every single year in the springtime they would be
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celebrating this and the significance that they know
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what's going to happen. It's kind of like when you go to
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sacrament, you know exactly what's going to happen.
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And imagine if you were in the sacrament and all of a sudden
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the Bishop just changed the ordinance of the sacrament.
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That's what it felt like for the apostles when they see Jesus all
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of a sudden change the Passover. For them, the Passover was the
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symbol of redemption, the story of Exodus, and Jesus infuses
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into it the meaning of his atonement and the significance
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of what he will be doing that evening and the next day, and
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then also the resurrection. Now they're having the Passover,
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and as I mentioned, there would be bread and wine as part of it.
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And he takes the unleavened bread, which is a symbol of
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incorruption, and he takes the wine, which is also a symbol of
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joy. And he now makes them into this
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symbol of his atonement. So he's connecting the Exodus
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story with the sacrament. And I want you to think about
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that, that every single time you partake of the sacrament you are
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remembering the story of the Exodus.
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And that just as Israel was redeemed anciently, so you too
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can be redeemed because of the atonement of Jesus Christ.
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And then we have again according to Matthew, Mark and Luke, we
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have that. The timing is that when Jesus is
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in the Garden of Gethsemane, that would be the time it
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because it's in the evening right here just before the 15th.
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And actually the 15th has started because it's now
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sundown. He is suffering in Gethsemane at
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the exact time when all Jews would be celebrating and
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remembering the destroying Angel passing by.
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Think about it, that the blood is put on the doorpost and it's
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the sign of the blood of the lamb that the destroying Angel
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passes by. And so Christ is in Gethsemane
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and because of his shed blood, we are able to have the
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destroying Angel pass by us so that we can live again.
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And then according to John and remember that in the scriptures,
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they're not as concerned about history like we are in the
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aspect that they don't, they don't feel like everything has
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to be exact. If you remember, Tyler and
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Taylor have talked a lot about this of of the Greek perspective
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and the Hebrew perspective. And the Hebrew perspective is
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often very, very symbolic. And so John and we don't know
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who is right. What is it Matthew, Mark and
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Luke? Or is it John but John to be
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able to show the emphasis that Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God,
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He shifts his calendar by one day.
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And what that does is instead of having the Last Supper during
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the Passover, it actually puts the crucifixion during Passover.
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So what that means is, as we talked about, that the lambs
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would be killed just before you would start the Passover meal.
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And so Jesus, what time does he die?
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According to the Gospels, he dies at 3:00 PM, and that would
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be the time when the lambs are being killed in the temple.
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And so Jesus dies on the cross at the exact moment when the
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lambs are being slain. And then we have the Passover
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and this fact that the cross in in many ways you could say it
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literally becomes the door that the blood that was put on the
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doorway that allowed the destroying Angel to pass by.
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Now we have the cross that is it's almost like our gateway,
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the entrance, that the cross, the death of Christ is the way
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that the destroying Angel passes by.
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And just as the blood was put on the doorpost, the blood would
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have come down the cross and marked that cross to say that
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now because of this, this doorway, this entrance, we are
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able to go back into the presence of God.
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Now it doesn't end there. They would have the Feast of
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Unleavened Bread for the next seven days, which we won't talk
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a lot about. But then Christ is resurrected
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and it's interesting He specifically is resurrected.
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According to the Gospel of John, he is resurrected at the same
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time when the first Fruits, which is one of the other.
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There's three main feasts during the springtime, Passover,
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Unleavened Bread and 1st Fruits. And so Jesus is resurrected at
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the same time when what they would be doing is they would
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take the barley because that would be the first harvest of
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the of the spring. They would cut some of the
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barley, bring it into the temple and offer it to the Lord.
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Saying this is our first fruits that we are offering to God, and
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in essence that's what Jesus Christ is.
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He is the first fruits as Paul says.
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He is the first fruits of them that rose from the dead and he
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becomes that symbol of being the very first.
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Now how does this relate to us? I want you to think about the
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significance that every Sunday you partake of the sacrament
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that is directly connected with the Passover and the Exodus
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story. That as you partake of that
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bread and really wine, though we do water today, but it would
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have been wine, that you are remembering the Passover meal.
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And notice that the bitter herbs, remember we talked about
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bitter herbs. They're not there.
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They're gone. They're missing.
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And to me that's a beautiful symbol, that the bitterness of
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the Exodus story, the slavery, the bondage is taken away
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because of the Lamb of God, and instead it's replaced with the
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cup of wine, the cup of joy, the cup of redemption.
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And that is what we can do every Sabbath day as we partake of the
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sacrament, is we have this beautiful opportunity to
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remember that we, just like ancient Israel, are redeemed
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from the destroying Angel of death and sin.
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And that powerful message that just as the ancient Israelites
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were freed from bondage, so too can we think about the Book of
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Mormon, that it always makes that connection.
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There's time and time again where they say, remember,
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remember your forefathers, remember the story of the
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Exodus. Remember Nephi uses.
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He says because of this, we will have the same power, and that's
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what you're doing. Every Sabbath is remembering
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that because that story took place and the Lord was willing
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and able and powerful enough to free them, he will also free
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you. And that is the power and the
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beauty of this message of Passover and the events of Holy
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Week.