enveloped His disciples as Jesus suffered and died on the cross

and His body was placed lifeless in the tomb.

Despite what the Savior had repeatedly

said of His death and subsequent rising again,

they had not understood.

The dark afternoon of His Crucifixion,

however, was soon followed by the joyous morning

of His Resurrection.

But that joy came only as the disciples became eyewitnesses

of the Resurrection, for even the declaration of angels

that he had risen was at first incomprehensible.

It was something so totally unprecedented.

Mary Magdalene and a few other faithful women

came early to the Savior's tomb that Sunday morning,

bringing spices and ointments to complete the anointing begun

when the Lord's body was hastily laid in the sepulchre

before the approaching Sabbath.

On this morning of mornings, they

were greeted by an open sepulchre, the covering

stone having been rolled away,

AND TWO ANGELS WHO DECLARED: "Why seek

ye the living among the dead?

He is not here, but is risen: remember

how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee, saying,

The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men,

and be crucified, and the third day rise again."

"Come, see the place where the Lord lay.

And go quickly, and tell his disciples

that he is risen from the dead."

As bidden by the angels, Mary Magdalene looked into the tomb,

but it seems that all that registered in her mind

was that the body of the Lord was gone.

She hurried to report to the Apostles

and, finding Peter and John, said to them,

"They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre,

and we know not where they have laid him."

Peter and John ran to the place and verified that indeed

the tomb was empty, seeing "the linen clothes lying ...

and the napkin, that was [wrapped] about his head, ...

together in a place by itself."

John apparently was the first to comprehend

the magnificent message of resurrection.

He writes that "he saw, and believed,"

whereas the others to that point "knew not the scripture,

that [Jesus] must rise again from the dead."

Peter and John left, but Mary remained behind, still

in mourning.

In the meantime the angels had returned and tenderly

asked her, "Woman, why weepest thou?

She saith unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord,

and I know not where they have laid him."

At that moment the resurrected Savior,

now standing behind her, spoke.

"Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou?

She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir,

if thou have borne him hence, tell me

where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away."

ELDER JAMES E. TALMAGE WROTE: "It

was Jesus to whom she spake, her beloved Lord, though she

knew it not.

One word from His living lips changed her agonized grief

into ecstatic joy.

'Jesus saith unto her, Mary.' The voice, the tone,

the tender accent she had heard and loved in the earlier days

lifted her from the despairing depths into which she had sunk.

She turned, and saw the Lord.

In a transport of joy she reached out her arms to embrace

Him, uttering only the endearing and worshipful word,

'Rabboni,' meaning My beloved Master."

And so this blessed woman became the first mortal

to see and speak to the resurrected Christ.

Later that same day He appeared to Peter in or near Jerusalem,

to two disciples on the road to Emmaus,

and in the evening to 10 of the Apostles and others,

appearing suddenly in their midst,

saying, "Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I

myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit

hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have."

Then to further convince them "while they yet believed

not for joy, and wondered," He ate broiled fish and honeycomb

before them.

Later He instructed them, "Ye shall

be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea,

and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth."

Beyond these confirmed witnesses in Jerusalem,

we have the incomparable ministry of the risen Lord

to ancient inhabitants of the Western Hemisphere.

In the land Bountiful, He descended from heaven

and invited the assembled throng, some 2,500,

to come forward one by one until they had all gone forth,

thrusting their hands into His side

and feeling the prints of the nails in His hands

and in His feet.

"And when they had all gone forth

and had witnessed for themselves,

they did cry out with one accord, saying: Hosanna!

Blessed be the name of the Most High God!

And they did fall down at the feet of Jesus,

and did worship him."

Christ's Resurrection shows that His existence

is independent and everlasting.

"For as the Father hath life in himself;

so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself."

Jesus said: "Therefore doth my Father love me,

because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.

No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself.

I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again."

The Savior is not dependent on food or water or oxygen

or any other substance or power or person for life.

Both as Jehovah and Messiah, He is the great I Am,

the self-existing God.

He simply is and ever will be.

By His Atonement and Resurrection,

Jesus Christ has overcome all aspects of the Fall.

Physical death will be temporary,

and even spiritual death has an end,

in that all come back into the presence of God, at least

temporarily, to be judged.

We can have ultimate trust and confidence

in His power to overcome all else

and grant us everlasting life.

"For since by man came death, by man

came also the resurrection of the dead.

For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ

shall all be made alive."

In the words of Elder Neal A. Maxwell:

"Christ's victory over death ended the human predicament.

Now there are only personal predicaments,

and from these too we may be rescued

by following the teachings of him who

rescued us from general extinction" (unquote).

Having satisfied the demands of justice,

Christ now steps into the place of justice;

or we might say He is justice, just as He is love.

Likewise, besides being a perfect and just God,

He is a perfect, merciful God.

Thus, the Savior makes all things right.

No injustice in mortality is permanent, even death,

for He restores life again.

No injury, disability, betrayal, or abuse goes

uncompensated in the end because of His ultimate justice

and mercy.

By the same token, we are all accountable to Him

for our lives, our choices, and our actions, even our thoughts.

Having redeemed us from the Fall,

our lives are in reality His.

He declared: "Behold I have given unto you my gospel,

and this is the gospel which I have given unto you--that I

came into the world to do the will of my Father,

because my Father sent me.

And my Father sent me that I might be lifted up

upon the cross; and after that I had been lifted up

upon the cross, that I might draw all men unto me,

that as I have been lifted up by men even so should men

be lifted up by the Father, to stand before me, [and]

to be judged of their works."

Consider for a moment the significance

of the Resurrection in resolving once

and for all the true identity of Jesus of Nazareth

and the great philosophical contests and questions of life.

If Jesus was in fact literally resurrected,

it necessarily follows that He is a divine being.

No mere mortal has the power in Himself

to come to life again after dying.

Because He was resurrected, Jesus cannot have been only

a carpenter, a teacher, a rabbi, or a prophet.

Because He was resurrected, Jesus

had to have been a God, even the Only Begotten

Son of the Father.

Therefore, what He taught is true; God cannot lie.

Therefore, He was the Creator of the earth, as He said.

Therefore, heaven and hell are real, as He taught.

Therefore, there is a world of spirits,

which He visited after His death.

Therefore, He will come again and "reign personally

upon the earth."

Therefore, there is a final judgment

and a resurrection for all.

Given the reality of the Resurrection of Christ,

doubts about the omnipotence, omniscience,

and benevolence of God the Father--who gave His Only

Begotten Son for the redemption of the world--are groundless.

Doubts about the meaning and purpose of life are unfounded.

Jesus Christ is in fact the only name or way

by which salvation can come to mankind.

The grace of Christ is real, affording both forgiveness

and cleansing to the repentant sinner.

Faith truly is more than imagination

or psychological invention.

There is ultimate and universal truth,

and there are objective and unchanging moral standards,

as taught by Him.

Given the Resurrection of Christ,

repentance of any violation of His law and commandments

is both possible and urgent.

The Savior's miracles were real, as is His promise

to His disciples that they might do the same and even greater

works.

His priesthood is necessarily a real power

that "administereth the gospel and holdeth

the key of the mysteries of the kingdom,

even the key of the knowledge of God.

Therefore, in the ordinances thereof, the power of godliness

is manifest."

Given the reality of the Resurrection of Christ,

death is not our end, and though "skin worms

destroy [our bodies], yet in [our] flesh

shall [we] see God."

President Thomas S. Monson tells of a Robert Blatchford who,

100 years ago "in his book God and My Neighbor, attacked

with vigor accepted Christian beliefs,

such as God, Christ, prayer, and immortality.

He boldly asserted, 'I claim to have proved everything I set

out to prove so fully and decisively that no Christian,

however great or able he may be, can answer my arguments

or shake my case.' He surrounded himself with a wall

of skepticism.

Then a surprising thing happened.

His wall suddenly crumbled to dust.

...

Slowly he began to feel his way back

to the faith he had scorned and ridiculed.

What had caused this profound change in his outlook?

His wife [had] died.

With a broken heart, he went into the room

where lay all that was mortal of her.

He looked again at the face he loved so well.

Coming out, he said to a friend: 'It is she,

and yet it is not she.

Everything is changed.

Something that was there before is taken away.

She is not the same.

What can be gone if it be not the soul?'"

Did the Lord in reality die and rise again?

Yes.

"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;

and all other things which pertain to our religion

are only appendages to it."