Easter Talk

Last week, I lead a writing workshop in my commonwealth class that focused on Audience. I mentioned a church talk I gave on Easter 2009 and that while children were my target audience, I also wanted it to be meaningful to the adults there. We also talked about how writing or speaking to a younger audience on a deep subject can be very powerful as you put complex thoughts into simple terms.
Remembering this talk reminded me that I have been meaning to put talks I have given, lessons I have taught, and workshops I have spoken at on my blog for easy access and as a Book of Remembrance for my family,so here is where I will start.
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Easter 2009
In some churches, during the service the minister calls all the children up to the front to gather around the pulpit to hear a special children’s message just for them. When I was invited to speak this Sunday, I was asked to direct my talk to the children here today and I immediately had the picture in my mind of all the primary children gathered around me. While I won’t ask them to leave their seats, I want them to know that I love them and this talk is just for them. The added bonus for me is that the children are far less intimidating to give a talk to than the adults.

When I was a little girl I loved Easter! I loved getting a fancy new dress and sometimes a hat and gloves. When I woke up on Easter morning, my first thought was to look for my basket that the Easter Bunny had filled with goodies and hidden somewhere in the house. One year I found it hiding in the oven! I always received plenty of chocolate bunnies and candy and sometimes a cuddly stuffed animal. These are fun memories, but I didn’t really know the true meaning of Easter. When I was a little girl, I didn’t go to church so I didn’t know that Easter was a day to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the great gift he gave to all of us. Now that I’m a mom, I still think its fun to have Easter baskets and to color Easter eggs, but now I have some new traditions to help our family remember Jesus and his resurrection.

In our house we have some plastic Easter eggs. Each egg contains a small symbol that tells the story of the events leading up to Jesus’ atonement and resurrection.
The first egg has a small donkey. On Palm Sunday, Jesus came to Jerusalem riding on a donkey. The people went to meet him and were very excited! They treated him like the King that he was and they lay their robes on the ground for the donkey to walk on and waved palm leaves in the air. It was a joyous time!

In the next egg is a small cup. Jesus was Jewish and every year around this time, there is a special celebration called Passover. During Passover there is a special feast. During this feast the story is told about the Jewish slaves in Egypt in the time of pharaoh. The pharaoh was very cruel to the slaves. God sent Moses to free the Israelite slaves. The pharaoh was very stubborn and despite the Lord sending many plagues to the Egyptians, he would not let the people go. The Lord told Moses that He would send a sickness and the oldest child in every family would die unless pharaoh let the people go free. The Lord told Moses what to do to save the Israelite children. Each family must get a lamb. The lamb had to be perfect. This lamb needed to be sacrificed -killed- and the blood of the lamb put on the front door of their homes. If a house didn’t have the lamb’s blood on their door, the sickness would come and the oldest child would die. But, if the house did have the lamb’s blood, the sickness would Pass Over. This is why it is called Passover and it is to remember that they were saved and set free. So, after Jesus came to Jerusalem on the donkey, it was time for the Passover feast. Jesus and his apostles met for Passover dinner and this was the very first sacrament meeting. Jesus blessed some bread and passed it to the apostles. He told them to eat and remember his body and that he would die for them. Then he poured some wine into a cup (we use water now), and he blessed it. He told the apostles to drink and think about his blood that he would bleed for them.

The next egg has a flower for the garden of Gethsemane. After the Passover dinner, Jesus went to the garden to pray. While he prayed, he felt every sadness, every pain, and every sin of the world that already happened or was yet to come. He suffered greatly but he took this upon himself so we can live again. In the Book of Mormon, King Benjamin said, “7 And lo, he shall suffer temptations, and pain of body, hunger, thirst, and fatigue, even more than man can suffer, except it be unto death;
In the garden, Jesus became our redeemer because he paid the price for our sins.

The next egg has a nail. After Jesus was done praying in the garden, wicked men came and took him away. They arrested him and unfairly tried him. Roman soldiers were cruel and hurt Jesus. They put a crown of thorns on his head and made fun of him and they spit on him. They nailed his hands and feet to a wooden cross and they crucified him. He suffered for many hours. Through all of this, Jesus prayed and asked Heavenly Father to forgive them. When it was finished, Jesus’ spirit left his body and he died. His friends were very sad. The sky went dark, there was a big earthquake and rocks broke into pieces. Even the earth was sad that Jesus had died.

The next egg has a rock or small stone and a small bit of linen. After Jesus died, his friends took his body and wrapped it in linen cloth. They put him in a tomb that belonged to his friend Joseph. A tomb is a place where people are buried. This one was dug out of solid rock and it looked like a cave. They rolled a big rock over the entrance of the tomb and left. Some roman soldiers stood guard to make sure no one took Jesus’ body.

The last egg I have is empty. Jesus was in the tomb for 3 days. On the morning of the third day, as the sun was coming up, two angels came from heaven and moved the rock away from the entrance of the tomb.
A good friend of Jesus, named Mary Magdalene, came to the tomb and saw that the rock was moved. She was frightened that someone had stolen Jesus’ body or it was moved someplace else. When she looked into the tomb, she saw the angels. They asked her, ‘Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, he is risen.” She turned and saw Jesus standing there. At first she thought he was the gardener! But when he said her name, she knew it was Jesus. He was alive again! He was resurrected. The empty egg represents the miracle of the empty tomb.

Jesus is alive again! This is why we have Easter-to celebrate the victory over death that Jesus Christ, our savior, bought for each one of us. Because of Christ’s atonement, we all will be resurrected.

Gordon B. Hinckley said, “None so great has ever walked the earth. None other has made a comparable sacrifice or granted a comparable blessing. He is the Savior and the Redeemer of the world. I believe in Him. I declare His divinity without compromise. I love Him. I speak the name of Jesus Christ in reverence and wonder. He is our King, our Lord, our Master, the living Christ, who stands on the right hand of His Father. He lives! He lives, resplendent and wonderful, the living Son of the living God."