Download Atonement

Gethsemane and the Atonement
LDS Extensions
“Teach of Me”
April 19, 2009
Time for a Quizzical!!!
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Alma: “[the Atonement] must be an infinite and
eternal ___________ .”
In what garden did the Atonement take place?
Which disciples were near Jesus during the
Atonement?
How many times did Christ appear before Pilate?
True / False Because of the pain He knew He’d
have to bear, Christ avoided visiting the garden prior
to the Atonement.
Time for a Quizzical!!!
6.
Extra credit: Which two disciples were
brothers, and who was their father?
7.
Extra credit: How far away was it described
that the disciples were from Jesus during the
Atonement?
Atonement
How did it feel to Christ during the Atonement?
How did the Atonement work?
How is it possible that he could take upon the sins
of the world?
Preliminary Thoughts…
In some mysterious, incomprehensible way,
Jesus assumed the responsibility which
naturally would have devolved upon Adam;
but which could only be accomplished through
the mediation of Himself, and by taking upon
Himself their sorrows, assuming their
responsibilities, and bearing their
transgressions or sins.
Preliminary Thoughts…
In a manner to us incomprehensible and
inexplicable, He bore the weight of the sins of
the whole world, not only of Adam, but of his
posterity; and in doing that, opened the
kingdom of heaven, not only to all believers
and all who obeyed the law of God…
Preliminary Thoughts…
…but to more than one-half of the human
family who die before they come to years of
maturity, as well as to the heathen, who, having
died without law, will through His mediation
be resurrected without law, and be judged
without law, and thus participate, according to
their capacity, works, and worth, in the
blessings of His atonement.
John Taylor, Mediation and Atonement, 148-150
The Atonement
• We do not know how it was done
• It involved all pains, not just suffering
from effects of sin
Preliminary Thoughts…
Thus, in addition to bearing our sins-the
required essence of the Atonement-the
"how" of which we surely do not
understand, Jesus is further described as
having come to know our sicknesses,
griefs, pains, and infirmities as well.
Another "how" we cannot now
comprehend!
Preliminary Thoughts…
Jesus thus not only satisfied the
requirements of divine justice but also,
particularly in His Gethsemane and
Calvary ordeals, demonstrated and
perfected His capacity to succor His
people and his empathy for them.
Preliminary Thoughts…
The agonies of the Atonement were
infinite and first-hand! Since not all
human sorrow and pain is connected to
sin, the full intensiveness of the
Atonement involved bearing our pains,
infirmities, and sicknesses, as well as our
sins.
Maxwell, “Not My Will, But Thine,” 51
“Agonies of Atonement
were infinite and first-hand…”
•
Alma 34:9
– Must have an atonement or we will perish
• verse 12 & 14
– What is the “last sacrifice”?
• infinite atonement by infinite being
(Jesus)
– Christ suffered for each of us individually in
turn, one by one
A Need for an Atonement:
Process of Creation
•
D&C 29:31-32
– How are things created?
• first spiritually, second temporally
then second spiritually, then temporally
Why?
How is this possible?
A Need for an Atonement:
Process of Creation
Pre-existence  Spirit bodies  physical bodies
first spiritually, second temporally
then second spiritually, then temporally
Death  spiritual bodies  Resurrected physical bodies
A Need for an Atonement:
Process of Creation
•
Resurrection needs the Atonement
– Being born again, spiritually begotten and
resurrected with spiritual blood
– We are not done being created until
exalted
Before Resurrection is possible, overcoming
death must come first. This is only possible
through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
The Gospels and Gethsemane
John 18
Matthew 26
Mark 14
Luke 22
John 18:1-2


Gethsemane, near the brook Cedron, was a
place where Jesus often went to find solace
and retreat
He spent some of this best hours and joys
there, and is now ironically going to experience
the most pain and darkness there from
Atonement.
John 18:1-2
• He who enjoyed a fullness of the spirit was now
devoid of the spirit
• He who was sinless became, as it were, sin for us
• He who deserved least of all to suffer suffered the
most
• He who brought life, the abundant life, was subject
to death and darkness
Matthew 26:36-46
•
Gethsemane = “garden of the oil press”
– Olive Oil  Food, medicine, fuel
• “If it be possible…let this cup pass…”
– Is he trying to get off?
– Did he think there was another way instead
of Atonement?
• yes, He knew there was no other way
Let’s look in John….
Submission or Succumbed?
– John 12:27; 18:11
• “Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father,
save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto
this hour.”
• “Then said Jesus unto Peter, Put up thy sword into the
sheath: the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I
not drink it?”
– “There was no other good enough to pay the price
of sin. He only could unlock the gate of Heaven
and let us in.” hymn#194
• Both Son and Father submitted to the plan!
Jeffery R. Holland
I am a father, inadequate to be sure, but I
cannot comprehend the burden it must have
been for God in His heaven to witness the
deep suffering and Crucifixion of His Beloved
Son in such a manner. His every impulse and
instinct must have been to stop it, to send
angels to intervene—but He did not intervene.
Jeffery R. Holland
He endured what He saw because it was the
only way that a saving, vicarious payment
could be made for the sins of all His other
children from Adam and Eve to the end of the
world. I am eternally grateful for a perfect
Father and His perfect Son, neither of whom
shrank from the bitter cup nor forsook the rest
of us who are imperfect, who fall short and
stumble, who too often miss the mark.
Jeffrey R. Holland, Ensign, May 1999, 14–15
Look again…Matt 26:40
•
Disciples fell asleep
–
•
•
Ignorance?
Wanted support, but his friends were not
there. Christ had to endure it all, at times
without the Spirit or friends, that He may
know how to fully succor us today.
Why isn’t there more written about the
Atonement?
Sleep – a negative thing?
Finite minds can no more comprehend how
and in what manner Jesus performed his
redeeming labors than they can comprehend
how matter came into being, or how Gods
began to be. Perhaps the very reason Peter,
James, and John slept was to enable a divine
providence to withhold from their ears, and
seal up from their eyes, those things which
only Gods can comprehend.
Bruce R. McConkie, Mortal Messiah 4:124
Mark 14:32-34
footnote 33a-b:
Imagine, Jehovah, the Creator of this and other
worlds, “astonished”! Jesus knew cognitively
what He must do, but not experientially. He
had never personally known the exquisite and
exacting process of an atonement before. Thus,
when the agony came in its fullness, it was so
much, much worse than even He with his
unique intellect had ever imagined!
Neal A. Maxwell, Ensign, May 1985, 73
Mark 14:35-36
In that most burdensome moment of all human
history, with blood appearing at every pore and an
anguished cry upon His lips, Christ sought Him
whom He had always sought—His Father. “Abba,”
He cried, “Papa,” or from the lips of a younger
child, “Daddy.” This is such a personal moment it
almost seems a sacrilege to cite it. A Son in
unrelieved pain, a Father His only true source of
strength, both of them staying the course, making it
through the night—together.
Jeffrey R. Holland, Ensign, May 1999, 16
Luke 22:40-46

Angel (verse 43)
 Adam/Michael who brought sin into the
world, is helping Jesus who is trying to take sin
out of the world and us
 The Angel showed compassion.
 What is compassion?
 Even Christ needed compassion
Luke 22:40-46 … Pray Earnestly
Now, here is a marvelous thing. Note it well.
The Son of God "prayed more earnestly"! He
who did all things well, whose every word was
right, whose every emphasis was proper - the
Son of God "prayed more earnestly," teaching
us, his brethren, that all prayers, his included, are
not alike, and that a greater need calls forth
more earnest and faith-filled pleadings…
Bruce R. McConkie, SWBRM 143
Luke 22:40-46 … Pray Earnestly
•
Pray more earnestly
• greater need calls for more earnest and
faith-filled pleadings
“Great Drops of Blood”


Blood, or in reality sweat?
Without the Book Of Mormon, people
think sweat was like blood
Scriptures:
 Mosiah 3:7
 D&C 19:18
“Great Drops of Blood” – Why?
Christ's agony in the garden is unfathomable
by the finite mind, both as to intensity and
cause. The thought that He suffered through
fear of death is untenable. Death to Him was
preliminary to resurrection and triumphal
return to the Father from whom He had
come, and to a state of glory even beyond
what He had before possessed; and,
moreover, it was within His power to lay
down His life voluntarily.
“Great Drops of Blood” – Why?
He struggled and groaned under a burden
such as no other being who has lived on
earth might even conceive as possible. It was
not physical pain, nor mental anguish alone,
that caused Him to suffer such torture as to
produce an extrusion of blood from every
pore; but a spiritual agony of soul such as
only God was capable of experiencing.
“Great Drops of Blood” – Why?
No other man, however great his powers of
physical or mental endurance, could have
suffered so. In that hour of anguish Christ
met and overcame all the horrors that Satan,
"the prince of this world" could inflict. In
some manner, actual and terribly real though
to man incomprehensible, the Savior took
upon Himself the burden of the sins of
mankind from Adam to the end of the world.
Talmage, JTC 613-614
Agony and Pain
•
“Christ's agony in the garden is unfathomable by
the finite mind…” –Talmage
• “an agony”
– Greek phrase  “an agonia” 
» “being in a fight”
D&C 18 – Worth
• How much is a house worth?
• How much is a car worth?
• How much is education worth?
We put a price on materialistic possessions, but what
about the worth of a soul?
How much is it worth?
D&C 18
Why is the worth
of Souls Great?
D&C 18 – Worth of Souls
• Is the worth of souls great in the sight of God, or
despite God?
– Many believe God has no part in our lives
– Is being a good person enough?
• Not everyone has heard the gospel
• Work to your best ability for what you’ve been given.
True effort is the key.
– God sent is only son to suffer and die for us. A
Soul is worth much because of the high cost it
took to redeem it
• We must be worthy of this redemption and gift
Infinite Atonement
• Alma 34:10
– What does it mean to be an “infinite
Atonement”?
• Atoned for before and after time Christ lived
• For all of God’s children, regardless of where
they live
• Even though it is infinite, what must we do to
qualify for the blessing of the Atonement?
Boyd K. Packer
Before the Crucifixion and afterward, many men
have willingly given their lives in selfless acts of
heroism. But none faced what the Christ
endured. Upon Him was the burden of all human
transgression, all human guilt. And hanging in the
balance was the Atonement. Through His willing
act, mercy and justice could be reconciled, eternal
law sustained, and that mediation achieved
without which mortal man could not be
redeemed.
Boyd K. Packer
He, by choice, accepted the penalty for all
mankind for the sum total of all wickedness
and depravity; for brutality, immorality,
perversion, and corruption; for addiction; for
the killings and torture and terror—for all of
it that ever had been or all that ever would
be enacted upon this earth. In choosing, He
faced the awesome power of the evil one
who was not confined to flesh nor subject to
mortal pain. That was Gethsemane!
Boyd K. Packer
How the Atonement was wrought, we do not
know. No mortal watched as evil turned
away and hid in shame before the light of
that pure being. All wickedness could not
quench that light. When what was done was
done, the ransom had been paid. Both death
and hell forsook their claim on all who
would repent. Men at last were free. Then
every soul who ever lived could choose to
touch that light and be redeemed.
Boyd K. Packer
I cannot with composure tell you how I feel
about the Atonement. It touches the deepest
emotion of gratitude and obligation. My soul
reaches after Him who wrought it, this
Christ, our Savior of whom I am a witness. I
testify of Him. He is our Lord, our
Redeemer, our advocate with the Father. He
ransomed us with His blood. Humbly I lay
claim upon the atonement of Christ.
Boyd K. Packer
I find no shame in kneeling down in worship
of our Father and His son. For agency is
mine, and this I choose to do!
“Atonement, Agency, Accountability,” Ensign, May 1988, 72
You and the Atonement
• Nobody could have done the Atonement except
for Jesus
• The Atonement is for ALL types of healing
• He gave Himself up willingly for you
• Forgiveness – not forgiving yourself is like
rejecting the sacrifice Christ did for you
• A video from an apostle…