Yup, I Spoke in Sacrament Meeting

So, I'm pretty okay with speaking to the Young Women in church, but speaking in Sacrament meeting is a little out of my comfort zone. Well, today I spoke in Sacrament. Yup, I did. I quivered/trembled the entire time, but was told it was unapparent, thank goodness. My topic was a heavy one: The Atonement, but I really felt it went well. I spent many hours writing my talk, so if you feel compelled, read my handiwork:
Thanksgiving is a wonderful time of year; it gives us time to reflect on what we are thankful for. I am thankful for many things, but above all I am thankful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Without the Atonement we are unable to return to our Father in Heaven.

The Atonement literally means “at one moment.” But the Atonement did not happen in one single moment. It was a series of events, rather, that gradually built up to the most noble and amazing act ever performed.

It began in Gethsemane…

Matthew 26 states the beginning account of our Savior’s atonement: (36) [He] saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here while I go and pray yonder. And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy. Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me. And he went a little further, and fell on his face and prayed…

Jesus had received all of the sins of the world; every transgression from Adam’s transgression on to future transgressions and even the last sin to take place on Earth. Not a single sin was omitted. Take a moment to ponder the burden that all sins would have on your soul. He surely felt profound grief, overpowering torture, indescribable anguish. All sense of humanity was lessened with such a burden on His back as He was placed below all things. As Jesus prayed, he wept. He pleaded with our Father “O my Father if it be possible let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will but as thou wilt”MATT 26:39

In an excerpt from The Life and Teachings of Jesus & His Apostles this overwhelming moment is described as such:

“It was not physical pain, not 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. No other man could have suffered so…” (page 173)

Sadly, this was not the end of the Atonement…

His disciples slept as he suffered, even after he asked for their support while He prayed, but they proved unable to control their want for sleep

Jesus was then betrayed

falsely accused

condemned

imprisoned

Stripped

Spit on

beaten with a whip that had shards of metal and jagged bone

Made fun of/ humiliated/ taunted

A crown of thorns was driven into His head

Soldiers pierced His hands with nails onto a crossbar and forced Jesus to carry this heavy cross to the spot of His execution

His body was then nailed to the cross also through His wrists and feet

He was in constant agony

He certainly must have experienced the consequences of a failing body, publicly, on the cross for all to see…

He was devoid of comfort

painfully thirsty, and given only a sip of vinegar to drink

Then, the worst part of all, Our Heavenly Father’s support was withdrawn. Jesus was to complete this portion of the Atonement by himself. I’m certain the words he said were held together with internal sobs as he said “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?”

Again from The Life and Teachings of Jesus & His Apostles we are reassured that

“His was to be the choice. His was to be the opportunity. His was to be the challenge to give His life voluntarily. With all of the Father’s support withdrawn, with the pains of Gethsemane recurring, our Savior was left unto himself in order that he alone might complete the atoning sacrifice and have “the glory of complete victory over the forces of sin and death.” (Talmage, Jesus the Christ, p.661.) His was to be the resignation by His own will to give up his own life, a ransom for many, that we through his blood, might be purified and sanctified until we reach a state where we again might enjoy the presence of our Father in heaven.”

All of this.

All of this for you & I.

All the torment that our Loving Brother suffered was to aid in our return to Him and Our Father.

He loves us that much.

Enough to take on that burden and all of the torture without complaining.

In a talk from Elder Wolfgang H. Paul titled Gratitude for the Atonement he relays a story of “a member as he went through the repentance process and discovered the healing process of the Atonement: “The time between transgressing and confessing was terrible. I constantly lived in the knowledge of the terrible thing I had done. I was in a state of deep darkness, depressive and lethargic, first hopeless and tortured by fears, however, never doubting the truth of the gospel and the saving power of the Atonement. I knew that for me there was only one way to get healed.

“To confess to my wife and my children what I had done was the most difficult thing that I ever did in life. Thereafter, the further way of repentance, to confess before my bishop and the stake president, was not so difficult. Finally, I could relieve myself of the burden which I had brought upon myself. I felt relieved with the excommunication and the resulting perspectives.

“What joy it was when I was permitted to be baptized and again could have the Holy Ghost with me. Finally, the promise of the Atonement was fulfilled in the clearest and most beautiful way when my blessings were restored again.

“During the course of years, my wife and I experienced that the Atonement brings relief and healing not only to the sinner, but further than that, it has the power to heal and restore the victim as well. Of this I testify with deep gratitude.” end quote”

As President Joseph Fielding Smith observed: “One of the greatest sins, both in magnitude and extent… is the sin of ingratitude. When we violate a commandment, no matter how small and insignificant we may think it to be, we show our ingratitude to our Redeemer. It is impossible for us to comprehend the extent of his suffering when he carried the burden of the sins of the whole world, a punishment so severe that we are informed that blood came from the pores of his body, and this was before he was taken to the cross. The punishment of physical pain coming from the nails driven in his hands and feet, was not the greatest of his suffering, excruciating as that surely was. The greater suffering was the spiritual and mental anguish coming from the load of our transgressions which he carried. If we understood the extent of that suffering and his suffering on the cross, surely none of us would willfully be guilty of sin. We would not give way to the temptations, the gratification of unholy appetites and desires and Satan could find no place in our hearts. As it is, whenever we sin, we show our ingratitude and disregard of the suffering of the Son of God by and through which we shall rise from the dead and live forever. If we really understood and could feel even to a small degree, the love and gracious willingness on the part of Jesus Christ to suffer for our sins we would be willing to repent of all our transgressions and serve him.”

In D&C 19 we read “For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent; but if they would not repent they must suffer even as I; which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit-and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink- Nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I partook and finished my preparations unto the children of men.”

I am thankful for [insert testimony here]…

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.