Bishop's Office

He is Risen
by Adam B. Jones

I love to watch my little girls hunt for colorful eggs on Easter morning. But for me, personally, Easter has real meaning when I picture what it will be like to see my father once again in the Resurrection. I last saw him when I was three, and like anyone who has lost a loved one knows, there is nothing in this world that could complete us more than seeing our loved ones again. There IS no greater message than the message that One has overcome death, and there IS no greater promise than the promise that we will be in the flesh with those we love once again. This is the message of joy we can share as we celebrate Easter-- the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and what it means to us personally.


The Prophet Joseph Smith helps us understand some of the blessings we will enjoy when we are resurrected. He said:

“Those who have died in Jesus Christ may expect to enter into all that fruition of joy when they come forth, which they possessed or anticipated here.
So plain was [my] vision [of the resurrection], that I actually saw men, before they had ascended from the tomb, as though they were getting up slowly. They took each other by the hand and said to each other, “My father, my son, my mother, my daughter, my brother, my sister.” And when the voice calls for the dead to arise, suppose I am laid by the side of my father, what would be the first joy of my heart? To meet my father, my mother, my brother, my sister; and when they are by my side, I embrace them and they me.
All your losses will be made up to you in the resurrection, provided you continue faithful. By the vision of the Almighty I have seen it.
The expectation of seeing my friends in the morning of the resurrection cheers my soul and makes me bear up against the evils of life. ”(Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, compiled by Joseph Fielding Smith (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1938), pp. 295–296).

We truly have reason to rejoice over the Resurrection that is to come. It will affect every one of us. It is more than we can comprehend that all who have lived will live again and yet we know it’s true. We have record of the One who overcame death and made this possible. We have a whole day to celebrate, marvel, and worship Him who overcame death. President Spencer W. Kimball says this about the Resurrection of Jesus Christ:

“Only a God could bring about this miracle of resurrection. As a teacher of righteousness, Jesus could inspire souls to goodness; as a prophet, he could foreshadow the future; as an intelligent leader of men, he could organize a church; and as a possessor and magnifier of the priesthood, he could heal the sick, give sight to the blind, even raise other dead; but only as a God could he raise himself from the tomb, overcome death permanently, and bring incorruption in place of corruption, and replace mortality with immortality. …
“No human hands had been at work to remove the sealed door nor to resuscitate nor restore. No magician nor sorcerer had invaded the precincts to work his cures; not even the priesthood, exercised by another, had been brought in use to heal, but the God who had purposefully and intentionally laid down his life had, by the power of his godhead, taken up his life again. … The spirit which had been by him commended to his Father in Heaven from the cross, and which, according to his later reports, had been to the spirit world, had returned and, ignoring the impenetrable walls of the sepulcher, had entered the place, re-entered the body, had caused the stone door to be rolled away, and walked in life again, with his body changed to immortality, incorruptible—his every faculty keen and alert.
“Unexplainable? Yes! And not understandable—but incontestable. More than 500 unimpeachable witnesses had contact with him. They walked with him, talked with him, ate with him, felt the flesh of his body and saw the wounds in his side and feet and hands; discussed with him the program which had been common to them, and him; and, by many infallible proofs knew and testified that he was risen, and that last and most dreaded enemy, death, had been overcome. …
“And so we bear testimony that the being who created the earth and its contents, who made numerous appearances upon the earth prior to his birth in Bethlehem, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is resurrected and immortal, and that this great boon of resurrection and immortality becomes now, through our Redeemer, the heritage of mankind” (The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, ed. Edward L. Kimball [1982], 17–18).

I echo these words, that He Lives! Christ has overcome death and promised us that we, too, will live again.

I’m sure that on Easter morning I will enjoy watching my little girls hunt for colorful eggs. But the real joy and peace will be deep as I get to explain to them what happened years ago on Easter Morning that will allow them to live with Candice and I forever and even be there as I reunite with my own father once again.