Golgotha
He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were
our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he
was wounded for our transgressions,
he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace
was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
Isaiah 53:3–5
With all the conviction of my soul I testify that He did please His Father perfectly and that a perfect Father did not forsake His Son in that hour. Indeed, it is my personal belief that in all of Christ’s
mortal ministry the Father may never have been closer to His Son than
in these agonizing final moments of suffering. Nevertheless, that the
supreme sacrifice of His Son might be as complete as it was voluntary
and solitary, the Father briefly withdrew from Jesus the comfort of His
Spirit, the support of His personal presence. It was required, indeed it
was central to the significance of the Atonement, that this perfect Son
who had never spoken ill nor done wrong nor touched an unclean thing
had to know how the rest of humankind—us, all of us—would feel when we
did commit such sins. For His Atonement to be infinite and eternal, He
had to feel what it was like to die not only physically but spiritually,
to sense what it was like to have the divine Spirit withdraw, leaving
one feeling totally, abjectly, hopelessly alone.
Brothers
and sisters, one of the great consolations of this Easter season is
that because Jesus walked such a long, lonely path utterly alone, we
do not have to do so. His solitary journey brought great company for
our little version of that path—the merciful care of our Father in
Heaven, the unfailing companionship of this Beloved Son, the consummate
gift of the Holy Ghost, angels in heaven, family members on both sides
of the veil, prophets and apostles, teachers, leaders, friends. All of
these and more have been given as companions for our mortal journey
because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ
and the Restoration of His gospel. Trumpeted from the summit of Calvary
is the truth that we will never be left alone nor unaided, even if
sometimes we may feel that we are. Truly the Redeemer of us all said: “I
will not leave you comfortless: [My Father and] I will come to you [and
abide with you].”
My
other plea at Easter time is that these scenes of Christ’s lonely
sacrifice, laced with moments of denial and abandonment and, at least
once, outright betrayal, must never be reenacted by us. He has
walked alone once. Now, may I ask that never again will He have to
confront sin without our aid and assistance, that never again will He
find only unresponsive onlookers when He sees you and me along His Via Dolorosa in our present day. As we approach this holy week—Passover Thursday with its Paschal Lamb, atoning Friday with its cross, Resurrection
Sunday with its empty tomb—may we declare ourselves to be more fully
disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, not in word only and not only in the
flush of comfortable times but in deed and in courage and in faith,
including when the path is lonely and when our cross is difficult to
bear. This Easter week and always, may we stand by Jesus Christ “at all
times and in all things, and in all places that [we] may be in, even
until death,”
for surely that is how He stood by us when it was unto death and when He had to stand entirely and utterly alone.
-Elder Jeffrey R. Holland
"None Were with Him" Ensign, May 2009
