Follow Him: A Come, Follow Me Podcast - Easter Part 1 • Dr. Anthony Sweat • Apr. 3 - Apr. 9

Episode Date: March 29, 2023

How does understanding Holy Week help us to understand the Savior’s love? Dr. Anthony Sweat examines the last week of Jesus’s life and the efficacy and power of the Atonement can have in our lives.00:00 Part 1–Dr. Anthony Sweat02:13 Introduction of Dr. Anthony Sweat06:01 Celebrating Holy Week08:52 Passover and deliverance10:58 Dr. Anthony Sweat and painters as prophets11:36 the Triumphal Entry12:37 Who is Jesus?20:53 Faith in Jesus, not outcomes23:06 The women seemed to understand Jesus would die23:44 Hank and John both share personal stories of difficulties and faith27:17 Triumphal Entry moments in our lives30:39 Learning the character and mission of Jesus34:58 Last Supper, the Sacrament, and covenants37:14 Joseph Smith’s revelation Doctrine and Covenants 27 39:38 Jesus in Gethsemane43:35 “It is finished”46:37 Dr. Anthony Sweat shares personal experience serving as a Bishop48:27 Story of a difficult decision52:47  End of Part I- Dr. Anthony SweatShow Notes (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese): https://followhim.coFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/followhimpodcastInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/followhimpodcastYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/FollowHimOfficialChannelThanks to the followHIM team:Shannon Sorensen: Executive Producer, SponsorDavid & Verla Sorensen: SponsorsDr. Hank Smith: Co-hostJohn Bytheway: Co-hostDavid Perry: ProducerKyle Nelson: Marketing, SponsorLisa Spice: Client Relations, Editor, Show NotesJamie Neilson: Social Media, Graphic DesignWill Stoughton: Video EditorKrystal Roberts: Translation Team, English & French Transcripts, WebsiteAriel Cuadra: Spanish Transcripts"Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise" by Marshall McDonaldhttps://www.marshallmcdonaldmusic.com/products/let-zion-in-her-beauty-rise-piano

Welcome to Follow Him, a weekly podcast dedicated to helping individuals and families with their Come Follow Me study. I'm Hank Smith, and I'm John, by the way. We love to learn, we love to laugh. We want to learn and laugh with you. As together, we follow him. Hello my friends, it is Easter at Follow Him. My name is Hank Smith, and I'm your host,

and I'm here with my victorious co-host, John, by the way. Hello, John, welcome to Follow Him. That phrase never came up in track and field in high school for me, so thank you. Hey, you're welcome. Victorious. The reason they bring up that word, John, is because we're studying Easter this week. It's our Easter lesson.

And the title of this week's lesson is Ograve, Where Is Thy Victory? And when I read that, I thought, that's John. John is a victorious person. You're the only one, but thank you. I'll take it. You got it. John, I have some news over on our website, follow him.co. Up on the right hand side, there's a link called video submissions. And if you go there and you click video submissions, you can upload a video. We want to hear how the Come Follow Me curriculum has made a difference in your life. You may even make it on the show or under our social media accounts. So we would love to have these videos. They need to be less than 60 seconds. You come on, You fill out a little form. You select a file. Those of you who were maybe born

in the 1900s, you might need a child or a grandchild to help you out with this. But we would love to hear from you. So go to follow him.co, click on video submissions and we will be sorting through the videos we get. Also, if you're one of the first 20 people to upload a video, we're going to send you a follow him hat. John, do you have a follow him hat? I don't know if do I do. I'll show you one. You have a follow him hat. I have a couple follow him hats. Go over to follow him.co and upload your video. We want to hear from you. John, studying Easter this week, we needed a scriptural expert and we needed someone we could have a lot of fun with because it's Easter and we need to have a lot of fun on Easter So tell everyone who's joining us. Well, we're glad to have Dr. Anthony swept back with us again

He's been on the program before and we always have a good time with our friend Anthony Let me just briefly reintroduce him to some of you. He received a BFA in painting and drawing from the University of Utah, and his masters in PhD in curriculum and instruction from Utah State University. And before joining the religion faculty at BYU, he taught for 13 years in seminaries and institutes.

He's the author of several books and articles related to the teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Letterday Saints His research centers on factors that influence effective religious education And I love to talk about this with Anthony as a practicing artist his painting center on previously under presented important aspects of church history To promote visual learning. Anthony and his wife, Cindy are the parents of seven children. They reside in Springville, Utah. So if you want to see some of Anthony's art,

there's a book he wrote called Repicturing the Restoration. Also, he's been very helpful in my family, my kids that have gone to the temple. I got this form, the Holy Inputation. And recently, he just wrote a follow up called the Holy Covenants. And another one we've got Christ in every hour. So he's a great author and a good friend. And we're glad to have Anthony back. Thanks for being with us again. I think so much, John. Hey, because it's just a blessing to be on

your show, blessing to be your audience, your guests, but above all, just grateful to be with two friends like you that I love dearly with my whole heart and soul. And even if this weren't being recorded or filmed, I couldn't think of anything better to sit down and just talk about Jesus and scriptures with you too. I just love you both. This is going to be a lot of fun. I have a couple things to say. Anthony didn't ask us to do this. I was just as John was giving the bio. I looked up Anthony Sweat.com. There's some paintings there. You can look through. You can even order some. There's some books you can look through. So we'd encourage everybody to go over to Anthony Sweat.com. Anthony's probably shaking his head saying,

it wants you to do that. I am. I'm nervous because my website will probably crash because it's not that good. So we've had crash. It's not very good. So we've never had that many visitors. The other thing I wanted to talk about was a book that Anthony is part of. This book is really special to me. It's called Look unto Him. Those of you who are watching on YouTube, you can see it right here. I was working with the incredible Eva Timothy, who was doing the art for this book.

And the Lisa was doing some of the writing too. I think it's on the third page, Lisa. This book is dedicated to my assistant Lisa Spice. It would never have seen the light of day without you. In the middle of writing this book, I went through some really difficult times. It was right during the pandemic. My brother passed away from COVID in December

and then my father passed away just 90 days later and I found myself unable to write. I was dealing with a lot of things as you do when loved ones pass away and I wasn't going to reach the deadline. So I called on my friends John by the way, Al Caraway, Jody Moore, and Anthony Sweat. And they came to the rescue and helped me finish the chapters in this book and we got it out on time. You can see the great art by even Timothy so to both of you I don't know if I've ever said thank you from the bottom of my heart for saving me on this project. Well thanks for inviting us to be a part of it that was fun to write and be with ava's art is amazing and just fun to be with you to connect with you in there. and just fun to be with you two connected with you in there. Yeah.

Shout out to Al Caraway and Jody Moore for coming to their rescue as well. Look unto him finding the love of Christ in our lives. Anthony, we are going to be talking Easter this week, as we were talking before we recorded. How many chapters could we read for you? I think the exact chat was 531. Yeah, yeah, there's 531 chapters we could read

about the Savior and His life and his resurrection. So we're going to kind of hand it over to you and say, what do you want to do? Where do you want to go with this wonderful week, this Easter lesson? Yeah. I mean, obviously, we need to center in on Jesus's death and his resurrection, his conquering of the grave and of death. That's what we're celebrating. As you said, I mean, this is a joyful week. This is a wonderful week.

And I think maybe up front, too. It's great that I love that, you know, the first presidency sent out these letters of making Easter Sunday really special. I don't know about you guys, but it seems like growing up, Christmas was always a big deal. And Easter was just kind of like, oh, yeah, you get a little Easter basket.

We go to church like normal. I love that it seems to be a greater emphasis of growing emphasis. If I can say it that way, to make really Easter is our triumphal celebratory. It is the great, Hosanna. It's the great victory over death and sin that we're making it or trying to make it as great as emphasis as Christmas and as birth that we celebrate his death and his resurrection and his triumph in our Sunday services and our sacrament and with our families that day. So I hope up front that every listener in their own way can really praise the Lord in

my own personal scripture study was who can glory too much in the Lord, who can say too much in his name. That's Amin, right? That's Amin, yeah, on their missions and I just hope individuals and families can gather together with their loved ones and on Easter Sunday, just glory in the Lord and talk about his name, praise him, celebrate him, rejoice in him, prophesy of him, teach of him, unabashedly, unashamed without reservation, and turn Easter Sunday into a celebratory, just great day of celebrating our Savior. That's my biggest hope up front. Beautiful. In the manual, there's a link. Well, not in the paper manual. If you have a book copy, don't try to click on the link. Well, not in the paper manual. Don't try to, if you have a book copy, don't try

to click on the link. But on my phone here, there's a link to easter.com and to Christ.org. So I just clicked on it here and there's all sorts of resources to celebrate. Like you said, to praise the Lord. And prepping for this, I did the same. And being totally honest, I wasn't aware of that website. It's great. There is great stuff on there. So again, it's easter.com into Christ.org. They have some wonderful things that are laid out about Holy Week that we'll talk about. So there's some really cool things from the church

to help you and your individual lives try to make this a great special week too. Anthony, I'm excited for that Easter Sunday that's been kind of set as we're a sacri-meeting only and we're gonna come and focus in on the Lord's life I don't remember that when I was a kid. I don't remember that either, but it's exciting. I love it Hey, to get us rolling here. I love this opening paragraph in the Come Follow Me manual Since during the last week of the Savior's life many Jews around him were participating in the traditions of Passover

They prepared meals saying songs and gathered together to remember the deliverance of the House of Israel from slavery to the Egyptians. Families listened to the story of the destroying angel passing over the homes of their ancestors who had marked their doors with the Lamb's blood. Amid all these celebrations so rich with the symbolism of deliverance, relatively few were aware that Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, was about to deliver them from the slavery of sin and death through his suffering, his death and his resurrection. Even so, there were those who recognized Jesus as their promised Messiah, their eternal deliverer. From that time onward, disciples of Jesus Christ have borne witness to the world that Christ died for our sins, that he was buried and he rose again the third day. Anthony, how do you want to start focusing in on the scriptures here? That's a beautiful intro because it is so rich in symbolism, this deliverance. The last week of his life is on this Passover celebration

when everybody gathered. I want to kick off when he comes into Jerusalem for Passover. I think there's also something really symbolic when all the people rush to meet him, to see him as he's riding in prophesied on the cult or the donkey, depending on how you want to phrase it. And everybody spreads out, the palm leaves, puts clothes down, you've seen the great Harry Anderson painting that was in our manuals, and we go to Matthew 21 for those who are listening. Anthony, do you do that as an artist?

I could never name the artist, but do you name them every time? You're like, oh man, every time. I can't help, but the second I picture the triumphal entry, I just, I picture Harry Anderson, I picture Walter Reigns, great painting, Kirk Richards has a great painting. So grateful for these masterful artists that bring it to life for us visually as well. Yeah, as you said that, I thought,

I've never said that before. My first profits were painters. By profits, I mean, little p-profits. They taught me the word because when the enzyme would come to my home every month, I'd sit down and devour it and I didn't devour the words, I devoured the images. I learned the gospel visually before I ever learned it, written. And it was Harry Anderson and Carl Bloch, Simon Dewey, all the great, CCA Christian

sent with Church History, Tom Lovell, Arnold Freeberg, of course, Minerva Tykart. These were the artists that really, they opened up Jesus's world to me visually before I ever did spiritually and with the written words. It's fun. It's fun to get into your head. Yeah. Let's just read Matthew's version, Matthew 21. Okay. And go to verse 8. And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way, others cut down branches from the trees and straw them in the way, and the multitude that went before and that followed cried saying, Hosanna to the Son of David.

This recognized that phrase, the Son of David that you've talked about on this show. Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord Hosanna in the highest. I mean, can you just imagine this scene and what a scene that would have been. But to me, the phrase that I want to kind of set it on as a theme as we talk through this Easter is verse 10. And when he was come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, who is this? Who is this? And I think that's a great question to ask ourselves personally, right up front. Who is this to me? Who is Jesus to me? And as you look, even in verse 11, and the multitude said, this is Jesus, the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee.

I think there's a fundamental human question that we all have to ask ourselves, is Jesus a superhero? Is he someone who comforts just the grand comforter? Is he a great moral teacher? Is he a great moral teacher? Is he a myth? Is he a legend? Is he a prophet? Is he a philosopher? Or is he the son of the highest? Is he my iridima?

Is he my lord? Is he my god? And I just love that question. Who is this to me? In speaking of art a little bit, I had a really fun experience where I was blessed to have a painting of mine that I did that was shown in the Church's recent international art competition at the Church History Museum

downtown. And when I went to take it there to drop it off, the painting that I did was in collaboration with a few of ancient scripture colleagues that we work with, I was really indebted to Matt Gray for giving me a bunch of historical insight into maybe what would have the first century Galilean Jew from Nazareth have dressed like and typically looked like. I'm the first to say that I have no idea what mortal Jesus would have looked like, but I did this painting based off what he and then our colleague Daniel Bessera modeled for me and it got accepted into the show and when I dropped it off I took it in and the missionaries who were doing the intake I carried it in and this

missionary says oh let me see it and I turned it around and showed it to her and her first question was she said who's that and I said oh that's And she goes, that's not what Jesus looks like. And I couldn't help but Teaser, I said, I didn't know you knew he looked like. You don't invite to be a great story too. If there's this girl one time in a class, and she was drawn to picture and a teacher said, who you're drawn?

And she said, I'm drawn a picture of God. And the teacher said, oh, well, honey, nobody knows what God looks like. And she looked at her paper and looked at the teacher and said, well, they do now. But when that happened at the Church History Museum, it was kind of a metaphor to me of how people see Jesus differently. And some people, they see him one way and some another way. And I'm not claiming that my way of depicting him or seeing him is right. But one of my favorite books that I've read outside of the LDS canon is by a Christian author,

his name's Philip Yancy. And he wrote a beautiful book called The Jesus I Never New. He decided to take, he grew up as a Christian, and if I could summarize his book, he said, if I had to just forget all of the myths or the felt bored stories that I grew up hearing about Jesus, and if I just read Jesus from the scriptures, what would I learn about him?

Who is he? And he approached it as a journalist that way. And the conclusions and the way he writes is just so beautiful. And again, it's just this idea of who is this to me? Who really is Jesus? Is that who he is? And the reason why I think it's so powerful on this last week is we celebrate his life is because he's going to go into this last week with throngs celebrating him and he's going to go out of this last week with nobody standing by him, even his own

apostles will run away from him. Listen to what Elder Holland said about this, quote, a very great multitude thronged to meet him saying, Hosanna to the son of David, blessed to see that come in the name of the Lord. And then at the end of the week, Elder Holland says, where were all those people now? Can one lose that many friends in seven days? And I think one of the reasons why is because people imagine Jesus or they want him to be one thing, but he turns out to not be what they want him to be. For example, on the first week, and there's a great on the church's website, if we want to start getting into the last week of his life, one of the very first things Jesus does

is he cleanses the temple. And Jesus could have come into Jerusalem, gone over to the Antonia fortress, and wiped out the Romans. And he doesn't do that. The very first thing he does is he cleanses the temple. And it shows that Jesus, he's not going to be the kind of Messiah that the people necessarily wanted him to be. He's going to be the kind of Messiah that his father told him to be.

He's here to cleanse hearts, not to cleanse Romans out of the city. He's here to make God's house a holy house, not to make our houses perfectly comfortable. And I think this is really important for us as we reflect on who Jesus is around Easter. Is again, we say, who is He to me? Who is this? And I was even commenting to somebody recently when we say our prayers in simplistic prayers, it's like, man, are we really praying for God's will or are we just praying to be in the Garden of Eden? You know, everything is blessed me to be safe, blessed, no bad things to ever happen, blessed, nobody to ever get sick,

blessed, nobody to ever get hurt, blessed me to do, get a's on all my exams, blessed me to succeed at my job, blessed everything to be fine all the time. Like even my own kid, when they say their prayers, I think the phrase, blessed that we can all be happy and all be safe is said about a hundred times per prayer. And it makes me wonder where I'm like, the point of life isn't to be back in Eden. The point of life is to learn to be celestial. I'm probably soap-walking a little bit too much here right now up front, but I think people

might lose their faith when Jesus doesn't turn out to be who they want him to be, which is a deliverer from metaphorical Rome or making life the external life perfect. And what he wants to do is make our internal life holy through his holiness. It's so crucial for us. Elder Nilei Maxwell said, how can you and I really expect to glide naively through life as if to say, Lord, give me experience, but not grief, not sorrow, not pain, not opposition, not betrayal, and certainly not to be forsaken. Keep from me, Lord, all those experiences which may be what thou art, then let me come and

dwell with thee and fully share thy joy." And he says later in that same talk, we plead for exemption more than we do for sanctification, don't we, brothers and sisters? Yes. Yes. Well, on. It's like he was a prof at there. Yeah.

Here comes Jesus into Jerusalem. I'm ready for him to be crowned king. Give me a wonderful life. And he comes in and starts cleansing the temple, which that's a great point, Anthony, that we're gonna find out later. He doesn't meet a lot of what they'd hope to or expected Yeah, and Philip Gancy in that book that I mentioned he says Jesus seems to have a different set of priorities than we do

When we see the artwork of the triumphant entry I've always wondered about that and when I've seen movies depicted if The actor portraying Jesus in those movies, sometimes I feel like I can see that he's gracious and he's smiling, but he knows they're cheering for a Messiah that's different than what I'm really coming to do. And it's kind of like he knows this fickle crowd is expecting one thing. And as you said, Anthony, but the end of this week, you will all have left. I don't know. That triumphal entry kind of has a sad note to it because he knows, well, you feel this

way now, but wait, because I'm not the Messiah that you're expecting me to be. I love what you said here about the road to Emeas and the disciples. Well, we had expected that it would be him who would deliver Israel and Jesus like Jesus has to tell him not Christ to have suffered for sins and tries to know your expectations were wrong again. Yeah, there's that great general conference story with the family that had the child that was sick and they said our faith is in Jesus Christ not in outcomes. I think as we progress in our own spirituality and really coming into Christ and really hearing His voice, our prayers go from make everything in my life perfect to

help me internally to become more holy, help me to become more like the help to change my heart, help to mold my character, help not deliver me from the difficulties of life, but deliver me from sin. We shift from, this is everything I want to, what is it that you want for me? And I think those who stay with Christ, the disciples who do testify of Him and are there with Him and rejoicing Him and love him. They've made that shift from the external delivery from the Romans and the automatic meal maker, bread deliverer, heal my broken bones. They've had an experience with the Lord where he's healed their hearts and changed their

lives and made them more God-like people, that they can therefore testify of his divine grace and of his divine sonship, not just as an external miracle worker. I can't remember who said this, but I've just latched onto this phrase because I find it to be instructive is that God is more interested in our growth than he is in our comfort and kind of prayers you're talking about are all make us comfortable, but like no, I'm more interested in your growth than I am in your comfort and that growing can be uncomfortable. As they're crying out, Hosanna, save now and he's saying, I think he's probably thinking I am going to save you now. I am going to be crowned king. It's just not going to be the way you think it's going to be. It's going to be better.

Is this true? You guys write up until the end, even Peter, getting out of sword. All right, here we go. He's going to redeem Israel right now and let's start this battle. And Jesus is like, put up your sword. That's not the kind of Messiah I am am and yeah, and it seems that all

these gospels were written after the fact after and when they're oh, okay. Yeah, he did say that didn't he? He did say he was gonna suffer and die. Yeah, he did say that and but at the time they seem to not kind of get it except for some of the women, they got it. She has done this for my burial. They seem to hear that part. And John the Baptist too, behold the Lamb of God. There seems to be some people who understand. I don't want to turn interviewer, but I would love to ask you to, how that shift has happened from

make my life comfortable to make my life holy. You're assuming that it has happened, which is still work in progress. When my brother and my father passed away and doing with, I don't want to say permanence, but with the mortal permanence of this, something I would love to not have happened. And then yet it here happened, and there's nothing you can do about it. Those are the moments where you can either turn and be upset and be angry, or you can submit, and you can say, I believe in the plan. I believe in what do you want from me at this point, not necessarily why did you do this to me? That seems to me to be

at least a point in my life where I had to make a decision if I was going to align myself with the Lord and his will or kind of we were going to butt heads and I was going to say no this is what I want to have happened and that was a good shift. It was a good shift for me. It wasn't necessarily pleasant. I wouldn't call it the most pleasant of experiences, but it was sanctifying, as Elearmaxeville would say. You guys probably heard me talk about donating a kidney

to my oldest brother and up until a moment just before that surgery, David is a brilliant electrical engineer, totally different skill set than I have. And he had invented this device, which would digitally separate the volume level of a general conference speaker from the translator and digitize it and shoot it to a satellite.

And the church wanted these things yesterday, you know. Elder Rex Pinnigr came to give us both a blessing. And we thought he's gonna heal David because they want this. And my dad was gonna give him a blessing. And we thought dad's gonna heal him. And then what would know? Here comes Elder Rex Pinnigr.

He's gonna heal him because they want this thing so urgently. And he put his hands on my brother's head. He's gonna heal him because they want this thing so urgently. And he put his hands on my brother's head and he said, your body will not reject the new element. Among other things, I just remember that phrase. And I thought, oh, I guess we're doing it. And then he blessed me and said, you will be perfectly all right. Now you guys can look and judge about that.

But anyway, what a blessing for my family to go through that. It's a great lesson for me that the first principle of the gospel is not faith in what you want. The first principle of the gospel is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. I had heard that before, guys, but this time I really got it. And the closeness that brought to my family going through that was might not have happened in the same way and it really helped me to think there's a difference between faith and what I want and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. So that's where I would say that was an event that helped me say.

He's got this and you can either have what you want or you can have something better if you'll put your faith in Him. Yeah, thank you guys. Let me just back to that phrase, who is this? Who is this in my life? You know what that reminded me too of Anthony is the Christmas Carol. What child is this? I mean, What child is this? I mean, that same, what angels, what wise man, who is this? What child is this? And now, here he comes, who is this? We all have to answer that question. So I'm glad you're you're emphasizing it today. Yeah. Anthony, I'm so glad you brought this up because we all have these moments in our life, these triumphal entry moments, I think, where we're so excited, the future looks so good. And we think, I know exactly what's going to happen and how perfect this is going to

be. And then, and then the Savior dies. And how devastating that must have been for a lot of these people. I wonder if they're after his death thinking a week ago, a week ago, just a week ago, I was cheering and I was ready to, I was ready to be free. And here it's all changed. We all have moments like where everything changes. Elder Bednar tells a story about a, and both of you will remember this, he tells a story about a young couple who had been married for three whole weeks, approximately three weeks

after their temple marriage. The names are John and Heather. John was diagnosed with bone cancer. Can you imagine that that turn of through marriage? Wonderful. And how great the future is going to be. And then just three weeks later, this turns, well, you can look this up. Anybody we can put in our show notes. It's called accepting the Lord's will and timing. And he talks about John and Heather. I won't tell the whole story here, but I do want to read one part that everyone will probably recognize. It's when Elder Bednar goes to give John a blessing, and he says, I asked him a question. I had not planned to ask him. Nor have I ever previously considered

the question. That's a cool moment right there where Elder Bednar says, the spirit gave me this question. John, do you have the faith not to be healed? If it is the will of our Heavenly Father that you are transferred by death in your youth to the spirit world to continue your ministry, do you have the faith to submit to his will and not be healed? And it goes on to talk about John and Heather's response to that. That's not what they were hoping for. response to that, that's not what they were hoping for. They were hoping for Elder Bednar to come and heal John, but they ponder the question and he said, John said to me, I think this is at a later point, Elder Bednar, I do not want to die. I do not want to leave Heather, but if the will of the Lord is to transfer me to the spirit world, then I guess I am good

with that. Later on, John writes in his journal, going through the chemotherapy and having the cancer go away and then come back. He talks about the Savior calming the waters. And he says, in that moment, as I read that story, I asked myself, do I really believe this? Do I really believe he calmed the waters that day? The answer is, I do believe. And because I know he calmed the waters, I instantly knew he could heal me up until this point. I had a hard time reconciling the need for my faith in Christ with the

inevitability of his will. I saw these as two separate things. And sometimes I felt the one contradicted the other. Why should I have faith if his will ultimately is what will prevail? After this experience, I knew that having faith, at least in my circumstance, was not necessarily knowing that he would heal me, but that he could heal me. I had to believe that he could, and that whether it happened was up to him. As I allowed these two ideas to coexist in my life, was up to him. As I allowed these two ideas to coexist in my life, focused faith in Jesus Christ and complete submission to his will, I found greater comfort and peace. Just a fantastic story, and I hope everyone can get a chance to go read the whole article if you haven't ever read it. Thank you both for sharing your personal stories and those other stories.

Everybody listening right now has their own stories, their own tensions right now on levels that probably we can't even understand. But there's always this tension of what is my will and what is God's will. And who do I want Jesus to be and who is Jesus? Who is this? And learning to come to know Him and submit ourselves to his divine will and ways. Even right now, I'm teaching a really fun doctrine and covenants class at BYU. And teaching the doctrine of covenants, there's nothing new in that. We've been doing that for decades. But what we're

doing that's a little different is we're just studying the text only in the whole semester. doing that's a little different is we're just studying the text only in the whole semester. And I've set it up with my students, I've taken doctrine and covenants, section 19 verse 23 as kind of our foundational verse, where the Lord says in that verse, learn of me, listen to my words, walk in the meekness of my spirit and ye shall have peace in me. And I tell him, what your challenges is, you're reading this text, is to really learn who is Jesus, what is his divine character and nature and mission, learn of me, really learn of who he is saying he is, not who we want him and making him up to be. Listen to my words. What's he teaching? What's he saying? What does he want us to understand? Walk in the

meekness. What is he wanting us to therefore do? How does he want us to behave? And then what's he promising? And then you can have peace in me. That's been a great forefold approach to study the doctrine, covenants, and in my own personal family, my wife and I were using that to study the New Testament right now, as we go through these chapters. And maybe on this Easter lesson, as you go through the last week of Jesus's life

and you look at Holy Week, ask yourself those four questions. What am I learning about who he is? What is mission is? What is he really wanting to understand? What does he want me to do? And what is he really promising that I need to hear and submit myself to?

Fantastic. What do you want to do next, Anthony, as we continue on with our Easter lesson? I'm grateful that the curriculum manual has a really good breakdown of Holy Week. And we were joking around before we turned the camera on that some people might break these days down differently. And that's fine.

I think what we do know is Jesus had a last week of his life. Yeah. And that's the important part. That's the important part. So let's not get lost in the weeds here. And they break down some of the things he does. Like on Monday, he cleanses the temple as we've been talking about. On Tuesday, he teaches in Jerusalem and that's when he curses

the fig tree and he tells the disciples if they can have faith, they'll move mountains. This is Matthew 21 to 23. Let me give some of the parables about the two sons and the servants and the king's son. Kind of like, are you accepting me back to this question? Or are you rejecting me and rejecting my invitation? A lot of people call this day the day of debate because he's going back and forth with Pharisees and Sadducees and Herodians. Yes. On Wednesday, as the manual says, continued teaching Matthew 24 and 25. This is when he gives the, you know, all of that discourse you can call it, all the signs of his second coming.

These ones seem to shift like, you want my kingship, are you preparing for when I will return to come and deliver us from all the effects of the fall in the millennial reign? So this is where he gives, you know, cheap in the goats, the parable of the talents. And I really do like the parable of the 10 virgins as well, because in there back to this, who is he? And do we know him? You know, we've all read the, when the five foolish versions who come and bang on the door, and he says, I know you not, that the Joseph Smith translation changes it to ye know me not. So there almost seems to be this continued teaching in Matthew 24 to 25 is all on second coming and have you come to know me? Are you ready to receive me as your king

when I do come in that form? Let's just go to Thursday, which is when they will celebrate the past over and it's Christ suffering in the garden of Gesemini. And let's read the Matthew version there in Matthew 26. I'll start in verse 26, Matthew 26, 26. So they're gathered obviously to celebrate the Passover, the feast of unleavened bread as they call it, remembering their flight from Egypt and their deliverance. So symbolic. And as they're eating that unleavened Passover bread, verse 26, as they were eating, Jesus

took bread and blessed it and break it and gave it to the disciples and said, take eat. This is my body. And he took the cup and gave thanks and gave it to them. They would pass this cup around saying, drinky all of it. For this is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. Well, just one thing that I want to call attention to here is I love as we're celebrating Easter and he's instituting this. Remember what I'm going to do for you in the Book of Mormon version of this when he institutes a sacrament. I love that he

emphasizes that they should remember his body which I have shown unto you. Almost like we're not just celebrating his death when we're remembering his body and his blood. We're remembering his resurrection. When we partake of this sacrament, we're celebrating his sacrifice for us, but also his conquering and triumph for us. I just love how the Book of Mormon in a subtle little phrase to remember this body, which I have shown unto you. Remember my resurrection.

Remember that I have conquered sin and death, not just that I'm suffering and dying, but that I've suffered for you to cleanse you and that I've conquered death for you to resurrect you. I just love that emphasis that the Book of Mormon puts on the sacrament there. What a great insight. During the sacrament I can be thinking of, the Savior's torn flesh, yes, but also his resurrected body. Doesn't the doctor in Covenants point towards a future feast as well? Oh, yeah. In doctrine covenant section 27, when Joseph Smith is preparing this sacrament for when some people are being confirmed, and he goes off on this

revelatory soliloquy that the time is gonna come when the Lord says, I will drink of the fruit of the vine with you again on the earth. Then he lists with all these people, and then he says, and with all those whom the Father have given me out of the world. Now that's us.

We can imagine on this last week of Jesus' life being one of the apostles with him as the institutes of sacrament. But Quini imagine for one moment being when he comes at this great last supper, this great last sacrament with all those whom the Father had given him out of the world. And that we, partake of the. And remember his body and blood with him right there. I can't even imagine that day. So beautiful. To have someone over for dinner, when we extend an invitation like that, we love them, we accept them, we want them in our

home. And I know that in the New Testament, the same sort of thing was true to sit and eat with someone meant something and I always think of the sacrament that way. This is remembering the last supper and the Lord is saying come and eat this with me. I want you here. Yeah, I want you with me. You know how the Pharisees just say this man eats with publicans and sinners and Jesus wanted them to eat with them too and he wants us to eat with him and that the sacrament is an invitation that way come and sit at my table.

And for him to come again, like you said, Anthony, that's hard to imagine, isn't it? Yeah. But it will happen. I have faith that that day will happen. It's going to be marvelous. So Anthony, what I'm seeing here is this sacrament can be looking at the past, looking at the Savior's sacrifice, looking at the present, he is resurrected,

he's a resurrected being. We can remember that during the sacrament, and then also looking to the future, this future feast that will have with him, literally with him. I love that past, present, and future. I love that he says in there, and with Maroni, that just touches me that he got that job to take over for his father, finish the book of Mormon and that the Lord says and with

Maroni. What that room is going to be there too. Must have done for him. After Jesus institutes this sacrament, we know he prophesies that one will betray him. And then he is going to go into Gethsemane, this garden that's just across the Kydren Valley on the other side of the temple, there, onto the Mount of Olives. And there is an oil press there where they likely are pressing oil, maybe even likely for the temple. And Jesus is going to go into this garden area by gardens, likely this garden of olive trees. So symbolic of the press as we've seen, Gethsemane, which literally means the place of the press. And there he's going to pray and suffer.

One of the things that I want to focus on is in his prayer, back to who is he. I'm going to read the Luke version, Luke 22, starting verse 39, and he came out and went as he was want to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples also followed him. When he was at the place, he said unto them, pray that he enter not into temptation. And he was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast and kneel down and prayed, saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me, nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done. That prayer is so powerful because even our Lord who is perfect and who did no sin and who did no wrong.

I think as we're talking about this idea up front of who is this, as I say, and like we pray to have everything be basically back and eat and fix me from all the external difficulties. It's easy to say that. It's hard to experience it. And we all know this. I actually find comfort in Jesus' most trying moment as he's preparing to give his life for us. That he's even saying, I don't want to have to do this. Is there another way? Can you remove this?

Can you stop this? He even feels those feelings. So, in mortality, when we're going through this, can you stop this? He even feels those feelings. So that in mortality, when we're going through this, and we're saying things like, I don't want to suffer this or experience this or lose this person. Please take it away. Please take it away. Even Jesus feels that way. But I think the key that we can learn from him here as we celebrate Easter. And as we ask ourselves, who is this, is that he caps his prayer off with not my will but thine be done. That is Jesus from the beginning, from the pre-mortal life.

Father, thy will be done and the glory be thine forever. All the way up to the end of his life. That phrase thy will be done seems to be the phrase that defines him so much so that when Jesus resurrects and appears to the people of Nephi in the Book of Mormon, listen to his introduction in 3 Nephi 11-11. I mean, this is a curious introduction. He could have said almost anything for his biolline to them. But this is what he says, quote, behold, I am Jesus Christ, whom the prophets testify shall come into the world.

I have drunk out of that bitter cup, which the Father hath given me, and have glorified the Father in taking upon me the sins of the world, in the which I have suffered the will of the father in all things from the beginning. That's so fascinating to me that that's his introduction to the Nephites. Is what defines me is that I am willing to drink the bitter cup. I am willing to do the will of the father from the beginning to the end. And as you and

I are learning to be Christ like, I think that might be the greatest definition of being Christlike is learning how to submit to the will of the Father in our own personal bitter cups. You mentioned that, Anthony, the Thy will be done from the premortal existence. And now, right here in Gethsemane, I want to share with our audience. If you go to Matthew 27, 50, Jesus when he had cried again with a loud voice yielded up the ghost. In other of the

gospels, he says, it is finished. And for years, I thought his last words, it is finished. I just figured, I guess it was my,. It's focused on his own suffering. That's what I would have been focusing on. And the footnote, the JST on Matthew 2750, he cried of a loud voice saying, Father, it is finished. Thy will is done. It sounds like it refers to doing the father's will. So I just wanted to mention what you just said there because even then Even then he was not thinking about his suffering. He was thinking about I'm doing the father's will and It thy father's thy will is done. So that's a great little footnote 50 a on Matthew 27 there I love it. Thanks for sharing that and we'll talk a little bit maybe later on in the show

about when it is finished because I think Easter is also a microcosm of a macro work that God is going to finish through Jesus. I love to just the idea of that word. I mean, President Monson walking around downtown probably 60, 70, 80 years ago saw a sign that said, finishers wanted to remember that story about furniture and saw another meaning in that and gave that wonderful talk and conference about finishers wanted. And here's Jesus saying, he's the author and the finisher of our faith. Marona and Paul call him. And here he just said, it is finished. Thy will is done.

I finished doing what I said it would do in his October 2020 general conference talk, let God prevail, which I think all of us are familiar with. President Nelson says, the question for each of us is the same. Are you willing to let God prevail in your life? Are you willing to let God be the most important influence in your life? Will you allow his words, his commandments and his covenants to influence what you do each day? Will you allow his voice to take priority over any other? Are you willing to let whatever he needs you to do? That's this moment, right, in guess how many? Are you willing to let

whatever he needs you to do to take precedence over every other ambition? Are you willing to have your will swallowed up in his? I loved that talk and I loved the idea of missionaries going out to gather Israel to find others who are willing to let God prevail. I thought was such a wonderful idea. It's so well said, so hard to do. So difficult to do. It is. Even in my own personal life right now, I've mentioned that I'm serving as a bishop right

now. And it is challenging. If I can right now. And it is challenging. If I can use that word, it is challenging. I find myself sometimes on Sundays waking up and just going like, here we go. I made the comment to somebody that they said something about putting in this long, full day on Sundays. And to be totally honest, you know, at first I resisted it. It was difficult. And I might even say that I had some hard or difficult feelings because of it. But what I've been working on lately just back to this learning to submit,

I'm trying to learn this lesson myself to say, hey, I'm happy to put a eight to ten hour day in of long meetings and work and dealing with difficult issues and trying to help people and point them to Christ and not having my will be done on a Sunday or lots of other days, but to having God's will be done. And to learn to quit resisting and instead try to be more accepting and just to be a better servant of the Lord. You know, just even recently one of my kids said something to me as I say and something, I'll be home at three or four or whatever time I was going to be home and and they're like, okay and I had to make sure that I said to my son when he asked me this, I just said, and dad's happy to serve

Jesus this way just so you know. But it's taken me a while to get there and I'm still trying to get there. These aren't easy lessons. They're easy to say they're hard to do and the story I'm sharing is and again I recognize nothing compared to the difficulties of of what a lot of listeners are working through trying to submit their will to gods and to do so. Even when it's difficult, even when he say, take this away from me. This is hard. It makes me want to tell the, I am the gardener here, right? He'll be brown. Is the gardener? Yeah. Franklin D. Richard says, as a young man, I was offered an appointment to the United States Naval Academy. This was an honor and a real temptation. However, in my early life, I decided that I would go on a mission. I

could see now if I accepted the Naval Academy appointment, I probably would not be able to serve as a missionary. So there's this moment. What are you going to do? He said, after prayerful consideration, I declined the appointment. And I received a call to serve in the Eastern States mission. I will be eternally grateful for the call I received because it was in the mission field that I learned to love the gospel, learn the power of faith, and felt the happiness and peace that come when one is responsive to the whisperings of the Holy Spirit. It has been a guide to me throughout my life. Just another story we could probably sit here for a couple of hours and just tell stories of

people giving their will over to God, something they love, something they want, and letting it go. But maybe that's just a great thing as we're on this subject for every listener. This is a lesson we all have to learn is how do we, and President Nelson's words, let God prevail. How do we submit our will to his? It's been said that everything we have in this life is a gift. King Benjamin says, down to our very breath. Lending you breath. You're borrowing it. Yeah. And the interesting thing about consecration And the interesting thing about consecration is we're dedicating our lives to God. In essence, we're saying, I will be done in my whole life. Another Maxwell again said that perhaps the only thing we have that's truly ours is our will.

That really is one of the mortal tests of life, is learning to know God and then learning to submit our will to His. As Jesus is exemplifying and as we're celebrating Easter here, I think it's a great celebration of Jesus showing us how that's done, despite the difficulty of it. So, well, but He's showing us, He let God prevail there, showed us how to do it. Please join us for part two of this podcast.