My second annual Easter blog post

I was sitting in an Easter devotional presented by our stake last night and I remembered one of my favorite poems so I thought that I would share it with my loyal readers. It is by the Spanish poet Antonio Machado and shares my feelings about the Christ that we adore perfectly. If you don’t already know Spanish, learn it because you do live in the United States and it is worth learning if only to read the poetry by Machado and others.

Dijo una voz popular:
Quién me presta una escalera
para subir al madero
para quitarle los clavos
a Jesús el Nazareno?

Oh, la saeta, el cantar
al Cristo de los gitanos
siempre con sangre en las manos
siempre por desenclavar.

Cantar del pueblo andaluz
que todas las primaveras
anda pidiendo escaleras
para subir a la cruz.

Cantar de la tierra mía
que echa flores
al Jesús de la agonía
y es la fe de mis mayores

!Oh, no eres tú mi cantar
no puedo cantar, ni quiero
a este Jesús del madero
sino al que anduvo en la mar!.

This poem is a reminder (as is Easter) that we do not worship a crucified Christ but our Lord lives! His Atonement was completed as he rose the third day bringing us all life.
Today I teach the lesson to the Young Men at church and my goal is to provide some way to personalize the Atonement and show them that while at times it may seem something incomprehensible and distant, it is meant for each of us personally and can provide great relief in times of distress. I will point out three times in which the Atonement is particularly useful: sins, sickness, and stuff.
I will not delve too far into my lesson but I will briefly explain what I mean. First, the Atonement saves us from our sins. We have all sinned. We all need repentance. Isaiah said that “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.” D. Todd Christofferson explained that “whatever the cost of repentance, it is swallowed up in the joy of forgiveness.”
Second, through the Atonement of Jesus Christ we can overcome whatever our sickness may be in two ways. We can, like the many people during Christ’s ministry, be healed or he will give us the strength to overcome that which troubles us.
Lastly, the Lord helps overcome stuff. By stuff I of course mean the vicissitudes of life. We can overcome like the righteous people of Alma who were forced to do many onerous things at the hands of the lamanites in the Book of Mormon. Even through our deepest and darkest affliction, through the Atonement we too will be able to “submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord”