CHRIST OFFERED THE GREATEST SACRIFICE FOR ALL

Jesus spent his last few hours of freedom with his disciples in the upper room of home and then in the darkness of the Garden called Gethsemane.

As he taught his disciples that one last time during mortality, he prayed with them, sang with them, washed his disciples’ feet and instituted the first sacrament of bread and wine. He combined all the power of a master teacher to reinforce in them the most important concepts of his earthly mission.

However, what Jesus was about to do, starting yet that evening, was more important than the concepts he taught. "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends," Jesus taught (John 15:13). But then he actually went out and did it!

As they completed their last supper together, Jesus took his disciples out into the night, across the brook Cedron to a garden where he frequently sought his Father in prayer. Leaving the other disciples at the edge of the garden, he proceeded with Peter, James and John.

"My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death," he told them (Matthew 26:38). Jesus then "fell on the ground and prayed that if it were possible the hour might pass from him. … Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless, not what I will, but what thou wilt" (Mark 14:35-36).

This is where his sacrificial ordeal began, many believe. In response to his prayer, "there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him," but that did not stop the great spiritual pain Jesus was suffering.

I don’t believe the agony we see at this time was caused by fear of dying. Jesus was prepared for that. Indeed, he had practically forced the hand of the Jewish leaders with his speech earlier that week declaring that they were hypocrites and comparing them to whited sepulchers – beautiful on the outside but inside filled with corruption and dead men’s bones.

To the contrary, I believe the pain Jesus felt was a spiritual death that came upon him as he accepted the guilt of all mankind. The pain was unfathomable, as God withdrew his presence completely from his only begotten Son. Jesus had to suffer much more than just physical death in order to appease the demands of justice to pay for our sins.

Despite the presence of the angel, the Scriptures say: "Being in agony, he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground" (Luke 22:43-44).

Bruce R. McConkie describes the scene: "In this garden called Gethsemane outside Jerusalem’s wall, the greatest member of Adam’s race, the one whose every thought and word were perfect, pled with his Father to come off triumphant in the most torturous ordeal ever imposed on man or God. There, amid the olive trees – in the spirit of pure worship and perfect prayer – Mary’s son struggled under the most crushing burden ever borne by mortal man. … Upon his suffering servant, the great Elohim (the Father), there and then, placed on him the weight of all the sins of all men of all ages who believe in Christ and seek his face. …This was the hour when all eternity hung in the balance. So great was the sin-created agony laid on him who knew no sin that he sweat great drops of blood from every pore, and ‘would,’ within himself, that he ‘might not drink the bitter cup.’ … From creation’s dawn to this supreme hour, and from this atoning night through all the endless ages of eternity, there neither had been or would be again such a struggle as this."

And this was just the beginning of Jesus’ suffering.

Christ was then betrayed by a friend, arrested as a common criminal, put through a rigged trial, spit upon, slapped, mocked, tempted to call down the angels of heaven, crowned with a ring of sharp thorns pressed into his skull, "scourged" with a multi-lashed whip with pieces of bone attached to the ends, digging into his back, and then forced to carry his heavy cross to the site of execution.

Satan knew that this was the most important event in all human history. If he could stop Jesus from fulfilling his mission, he could win the eternal struggle between good and evil. God’s plan of salvation would be destroyed. God’s children could not return to his presence because there would be no perfect sacrifice to suffer vicariously for their sins.

The Roman executioners inflicted the greatest pain they knew to inflict. They drove nails through Jesus’ hands and feet, crushing nerves and tendons. To keep the flesh from ripping away, they drove additional spikes through his wrists, where some of the most sensitive nerves reside.

Jesus was lifted up on the cross, naked and humiliated. His weight tore the spikes further through his flesh.

With just a few more hours to stop God’s plan, Satan’s servants passed by wagging their heads and taunting Jesus: "Thou that destroyest the temple and buildest it in three days, save thyself. If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross" (Matthew 27:40).

Jesus could have called down legends of angels and saved himself, but he did not – for our sake.

Finally, after hours of pain and agony, he cried out: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"

Some see this as a moment of doubt and weakness, but I believe in this moment the Father again withdrew his presence so completely that we cannot comprehend the spiritual pain that was combined with the physical torture. Christ had to make that last and great sacrifice alone.

Doctors have testified that the watery substance that poured out when the soldiers speared Jesus in the side is evidence that he died NOT directly from the wounds and torture but literally of a broken heart.

After all the pain the Jews and the Romans could inflict upon him, I believe it was the weight of our sins that provided the final impetus to death. The soldiers did not kill Jesus. You and I did!

We cannot truly love Jesus with all of our heart, with all of our mind, with all of our soul and with all of our strength unless we can somehow comprehend the magnitude of his love for us. And we cannot comprehend his love without comprehending his sacrifice.

May we meditate concerning these things, praying for a spiritual comprehension and confirmation of Christ’s sacrifice, and may we then truly come unto Jesus with our own heart broken and our spirit contrite, ready to truly take upon ourselves his name and his mission. This I pray in his most sacred name, Amen.