Alright, hello everyone and welcome to Redeemed Through His Blood.
In this podcast we highlight the hope, healing and redemption that is available to all of
us through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
My name is Scott Durfee, it's my pleasure today to introduce my partner in this project,
our teacher, David Durfee.
Good morning everybody.
Good to have you here, Dave.
Getting a couple of real quick housekeeping items before we dive in today's topic, which
we are both very excited about.
We've been sitting here in preparation and probably have spent more time talking amongst
ourselves or talking between each other about the things that we're going to be talking
about and just so much excitement and joy about the things that we're going to be talking
about today.
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If you'll share those with us, we'll do our best to make it the best experience we possibly
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So go to Facebook, go to Instagram, go to both of those, find us there.
He redeems us.
It's redeemed through his blood, rather.
It's redeemed through his blood.
You'll be able to find us there at both of those as well.
Great stuff there.
Sherry's been putting out some great little topics, little great little blurbs that we've
and quotes and so on.
So enjoy that, participate with us there.
Tell your friends.
Last episode, we covered a lot of really important stuff as we started talking about the events
of the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
And as we moved into the events of Jesus Christ, we're going to do a little bit of recap on
that here in just a few minutes.
But as we moved into the events of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we start to unfold a great
panoramic view of what's happening in the lives of those that are participating.
And more importantly, and most importantly, the life of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
So, Dave, as we start diving into and in preparation for today's topic, in today's topic, I think
we're going to move to Golgotha and be dealing mostly with the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
But before we do that, would you mind just kind of summarizing and recapping some of
the things that were important from last episode?
Thank you, Scott.
Last time we talked about that sacred, holy experience of Jesus in Gethsemane.
And spoke much about how this infinite Atonement, what that means, and how it had to be a sacrifice
of blood.
And we spoke a lot about the blood that Jesus begins to spill and sacrifice for all the world.
And I've thought about that this past week a little bit, Scott, and it's just been impressed
upon my mind how often we sing about it in our sacrament services and how often we read
about it, how often we talk about it.
But sometimes we don't fully understand and appreciate what he did like we should.
And sometimes we read the words, we say the words, we speak about it, we sing about it,
and we sometimes don't let it go into our hearts.
And as I was singing the hymns this past week in sacrament meeting, that was impressed
upon me.
And I started to kind of review some of the sacrament hymns that we sing.
For example, hymn number 184, upon the cross of Calvary.
And verse one says, upon the cross of Calvary they crucified our Lord and sealed with blood
the sacrifice that sanctified His word.
So notice the phrase, and sealed with blood the sacrifice.
Then in reverently and meekly now, very next hymn in the hymn book, reverently and meekly
now let thy head most humbly bow.
Think of me thou ransomed one, think what I for thee have done.
With my blood that dripped like rain, sweat in agony of pain.
With my body on the tree I have ransomed even thee.
Again the reference to the blood.
In verse one, hymn number 186, again we meet around the board of Jesus our redeeming Lord,
with faith in His atoning blood our only access unto God.
That's an interesting phrase, with faith in His atoning blood.
We speak of faith in Christ, we speak of faith in the name of Christ, and sometime we should
do an episode on the difference between those two.
Faith in Christ and faith in the name of Christ, because they're not the same thing.
No, they're not.
In fact we've got a lot of really great stuff that we can talk about when it comes to the
name.
We need to do that sometime.
But this is a unique and interesting phrase which I love, with faith in His blood, faith
in His atoning blood.
Well Scott, let's go through a few more as an example.
If you don't mind maybe reading for a minute.
Let's go over to hymn number 192 and read the second verse.
hymn number 192 which is, He died, the great redeemer died.
And why don't you read verse 2.
Come saints and drop a tear or two, for him who groaned beneath your load.
He shed a thousand drops for you, a thousand drops of precious blood.
And verse, Scott, one more maybe.
193 verse 1, I stand all amazed.
Yeah this is, might be my favorite hymn, I stand all amazed at the love Jesus offers
me, confused at the grace that so fully He proffers me.
I tremble to know that for me He was crucified, that for me a sinner He suffered, He bled and
died.
Oh it's wonderful that He should care for me, enough to die for me.
Oh it is wonderful, wonderful to me.
I had to throw that verse course in there because I think that's so.
We can all hear the music in our head as you read those.
And I just, I love the next hymn in the hymn book is there is a Green Hill far away and
in verse 4 it reads, Oh dearly dearly has He loved and we must love Him too.
And trust in His redeeming blood and try His works to do.
Well there's a lot to think about in that verse.
Trust in His redeeming blood is similar to having faith in His blood.
And the very next one, and I'll make this the last one, but there's others.
The last one that we'll read is one of my favorite sacrament hymns, How Great the Wisdom
and the Love, written by Eliza Arseneau.
Love this.
And she, such a great poet and hymn writer, verse 1, How great the wisdom and the love
that filled the courts on high and sent the Savior from above to suffer, bleed and die.
It wasn't enough that he suffer.
He had to bleed and it wasn't enough that he just suffer and bleed.
Today we'll talk about his death.
The very next first line of the next verse or stanza there, His precious blood He freely
spilled, His precious blood He freely spilled.
I love that.
His life He freely gave, a sinless sacrifice for guilt, a dying world to save.
Well the theology, our theology in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, while
we sing it, while we read it, while we understand to some degree what it means, I don't know
that we fully focus on it enough, Scott, which is it was a bloody sacrifice.
It was, it's His blood that as we spoke last time cleanses us, heals us, strengthens us,
ransoms us.
Such an important point of doctrine when we speak about Jesus Christ and His Atonement
and thus really the title of our podcast.
And Paul speaks about it, maybe we can turn to the scripture too.
Yeah, let's do that.
Is that okay?
Yeah, I think we should.
Just wrap this up then we'll move on.
Yeah, we're getting ready to dive into the scripture.
Just let me just really quickly add this.
So last week, which would be episode nine, go back there and go through the events of
Gethsemane and relive some of the things that we talked about in preparation.
You don't have to listen to the whole thing, but if you'll just take a few minutes and
go through and listen to the most poignant parts of last week's episode in preparation
for this week, because it really is a building one on the other.
These events run together.
They don't stand alone completely.
I mean, they are their own events, but they don't completely stand alone.
One is dependent on the other.
So Golgotha, where we're going today is really dependent on Gethsemane.
Gethsemane was really dependent on the life of the Savior.
And so as you see these things start building one on the other, it might be a good exercise
to go back and just kind of refresh.
Yeah, thank you, Scott.
Well, I mentioned being cleansed, being healed, being strengthened, ransomed.
Paul in Romans chapter five, verses eight and nine, the, again, the attributes of Christ's
blood and the power of his blood in our lives.
But God commended his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for
us much more than being now justified by his blood.
We shall be saved from wrath through him justified through his blood.
We've talked about being cleansed because of his blood, being healed through his blood,
being strengthened by his blood.
Now Paul says in Romans that we are justified by his blood and over in Hebrews, this is
Hebrews chapter 13 verse 12, many scholars believe Paul wrote Hebrews, many some think
that he didn't.
I think he did.
So I think that the author of this is Paul again in Hebrews chapter 13 verse 12.
It reads, wherefore Jesus also that he might sanctify the people with his own blood suffered
without the gate or outside the gate, which is Golgothon.
Actually, Golgothon, guess how many were both outside the walls or gate of Jerusalem.
So Paul teaches us two other principles of the power of the blood of Christ.
The blood justifies us and it sanctifies us.
Scott?
Last week, I think it was last week, we just made real quick mention of what it means to
be justified.
And I just kind of want to touch on that real quick again, Dave.
Justification.
So we should all be probably semi familiar with justification on a Word document.
We have computers and we hit the justification.
And what does that mean when we justify a document?
What that means is we bring it into complete and proper alignment, right?
That means that anything that's just a little bit off gets brought back.
Anything that's a lot off gets brought back.
And so this justification through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, through his blood, as we've
been talking about, what that really does is it brings us back in alignment.
We talk about broken heart, we talk about contrite spirit, we talk about, and I've mentioned
these and I told you I probably would do it in all of our podcasts.
You know, the steps from recovery.
You know, I can't, he can't all let him.
That's basically the Reader's Digest version of it.
So what we are doing here as we're participating in our putting on the Atonement of Jesus Christ
through the administration of the Holy Spirit, which we've talked about in past episodes as
well.
But what we're really doing here is we're doing that as we are reaching this justification
through the blood of Jesus Christ, which brings us back into complete and proper alignment
with him.
Well, I really like that analogy, Scott.
In the Jewish law, and according to the meaning of justification in the Scriptures, it's kind
of a legal term.
It's a court term that you are justified before the judge.
And justified would then mean that you were absolved.
That you were, and I think in the spiritual meaning of the term, that you are forgiven.
You are forgiven.
You are justified of sin.
Sanctification, being sanctified in my way of thinking of it, as described in the Scriptures,
is that I am strengthened.
I am made holy.
I am enabled to keep the commandments.
And so I think justification means in the Scriptures, I love your analogy of being in alignment
because that's great.
But it literally means in the Gospel sense that I'm forgiven of sin and sanctified means
I have become holy.
Right.
So the justification comes before the sanctification, doesn't it?
I think it does.
Yeah.
Yeah, I do too.
Okay.
So today as we move on from the suffering of the Christ in Gethsemane and bleeding from
every pore and the important symbols of that, we move to what happens after.
And even before Golgotha, he suffered and blood was shed.
I didn't make this point, I think, strong enough last week.
I'm not even sure I said it at all.
But as a result of bleeding from every pore, Scott, Jesus would have experienced what is
called in the medical terminology, hematidrosis, if I'm saying that right, which literally
means he is blood, that bloody sweat, and that his capillaries, if he bled from every
pore, his capillaries, some veins, some arteries possibly, would have burst.
And blood oozing from every pore would have meant that his whole body, Scott, was bruised.
It means that he would have been dehydrated.
The loss of blood and fluids from every pore would have made him extremely hydrated.
Dehydrated.
Yes, thank you.
And he, any even, I think, touch would have been painful.
Would have been painful.
A kiss on the cheek from a betrayer would have caused him physical pain.
Anything after Gethsemane, any suffering after Gethsemane, was intensified because of Gethsemane.
Exponentially intensified.
Not even human comprehension.
We can't even begin to comprehend how intense that experience was.
I mean, the suffering of even the, my wife became dehydrated when we were in Egypt.
She became deathly ill.
I didn't understand, I don't think at the time how close I came to losing her.
And she was hallucinating.
She was so nauseous.
She was so sick.
She was, it was really, really painful for her.
And I haven't experienced that, but those who have experienced dehydration knows how
painful that is and the illness that has come from that.
And I think that this idea of being bruised, bleeding from every pore, is really expressed
in Isaiah when he says, he is despised and rejected of men.
We read this last, what's the reference on this?
I'm reading it from the Book of Mormon.
It's, Benadig quotes Isaiah.
So I'm reading in Mosiah 14, verses three through five.
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 has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.
Yet we, we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted.
Verse five, 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.
So this idea that everything after Gethsemane is intensified is important because of what
happened in Gethsemane.
And so here we go, this is where we start moving now into Golgotha.
This is where we start moving now into what happened on the cross and kind of a culmination
and completion of the painful part of the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
And as we do this, you know, I think, Dave, there's, there's been a few situations in
my own life over the last few days where these things are so important to us.
And if we are careful about our observations of our own lives, often we can see we're heavenly
fathers allowing us to get glimpses of or a deeper understanding of or to have more
empathy towards a certain concept or situation.
And that certainly has been the case with me around what is going on in terms of the
events of the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
Just real quickly, in summary, because of a position that I hold, I've been participating
in several challenges.
But there's victory in all of that so far because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and
the ability of good saints, good people everywhere to internalize and understand the love and
the hope and the peace.
And I say peace because much of this is unresolvable.
Much of what I'm referring to will not be able to be resolved in this life.
There's just challenges and we go back to the effects of the fall and we realize and
we remember we talk about a spiritual and a physical death and everything that we experience
and suffer and challenges us in in this life, everything, whether it's emotionally or physically
or otherwise, is a direct result of that fall.
And as we start living our lives and as we go through our lives, we get real poignant,
real bright neon light reminders sometimes of how fallen we are because that's what life
is.
And as we get those reminders and as I, and as I invite others that I work with in various
capacities, I had a young man call me from another state recently who had been in attendance
to our institute class that we teach at BYU YSA Stake and he was just struggling.
He got in a new position.
He's going to be doing something really cool this summer and he was really doubting himself.
He was down on himself.
He was beating himself up.
He was just not, he just didn't feel right.
And he's dealing with some, some organic issues, mentally issues.
He's dealing with some OCD and some depression and some anxiety types of things.
And as we had this conversation the other day, he and I and talked about, and we both helped
each other remember who we were and we talked about if we can just not just remember who
we are, but remember what he did and who he is.
And I think as we focus on that and as we start focusing on the intense emotion and
the things that not only are about to take place because to me it feels like physically
the intensification of what's happening to Jesus Christ during this period of time is
just getting ridiculously off the charts.
Beyond anything that any of us could even begin to comprehend.
But as we put our minds there, as we put our hearts and our souls there, and I challenged
us in our last episode as we started getting into this, you know, in episodes two and three
we really talked about learning who we are and we talked about knowing him and how we
have to spend time in doing that.
Last week I challenged us to spend time here in Gethsemane and to spend time here at Golgotha
with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
And as we do so, consider the things that are troubling us because what we're about
to see is that no matter how bad the pain that we're feeling as a result of whatever
fallen state, whatever it is that we're feeling particularly fallen about right now, as a
result of the fall, if we'll put ourselves there at Gethsemane, there at Golgotha, and
participate in getting to know him there, our relief will come like it did to my friend
who called me the other day.
So that's great insight.
Thank you, Scott.
And what it brings to my mind is that I used to ask my students when we would read the
verses, all of the verses, I think there are six in the New Testament and there's twenty
something in the Book of Mormon, where Christ says, come unto me.
I used to ask my students, so when he says, come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest.
Right?
Matthew 11.
Where is he?
If he's saying, come unto me, where is he?
He's inviting you to come where?
And they would say, first answer would be heaven.
I'd say, yeah, that's good.
That's awesome, but you're not going to die and go to heaven right now.
Can you come unto him here?
Where is he?
And they would say temple.
And that's a great answer.
They would say the mountains.
And I'd say, yeah, I love that.
You can definitely go to Christ in the mountains.
They would give lots of different answers and I loved all of them.
Yeah, you bet.
And then somebody would eventually say, he wants us to go to Gethsemane.
And I would say, there it is.
When he invites us to come unto him, it can be all those places for sure.
But the one that I think is most life changing and impactful in our lives is that when he
says, come unto me, this is a direct invitation to go to Gethsemane and to witness his suffering,
to follow him through the mockery of a trial, to see him betrayed and to see him in the house
of Caiaphas where they spit on him.
I think that's, I don't know why, but that one gets me to spit upon him and to slap him
and to disgrace him and to beat him up.
He wants us to see that.
When he says, come unto me, he wants us to see his suffering, to go to the cross when
he says, come unto me.
He's inviting us to go to the cross.
And as we do that today, I hope that will help our listeners to be able to view these
things in their minds, to not just appreciate them more, but from time to time, I think
daily and maybe moment by moment, as Jesus says, look unto me in every thought, that
we will think about Jesus and that we will keep his suffering before us as we celebrate,
of course, his life.
It's the living Christ that's the greatest symbol of our faith, the resurrected living
Christ.
But after Gethsemane and his betrayal and a mockery of a trial where he is spit and slapped
upon and he's taken early in the morning, probably on Friday morning, early in the morning to
the Antonio Fortress where Pilate lives, the governor.
And then he goes through another mockery of a trial there, Scott.
He's disgraced by, I think, the offer that Pilate makes to the Jews, knowing it's the
feast of the Passover, the week of Passover, and he can offer one prisoner to go free.
And Pilate can't find Jesus guilty of anything.
So he offers Barabbas or Barabbas as they say it in Hebrew.
Barabbas who was a murderer, Mark and Luke say he was a murderer.
Definitely a bad criminal.
I think Pilate intentionally picked the most hardened, hated criminal of Jerusalem and
offered him to let him go free because he found Jesus to be guiltless.
And then the people choosing Barabbas over Jesus.
I think that's interesting, just that name.
Let's just Barabbas, right?
So let's go there for just a second, just pause for a second while we're talking about.
And let's just take this into consideration.
As we go through the Scriptures, there's so much in terms of symbolism.
There's so much light and shadow and all of that going on.
Here's something to consider.
Barabbas, the word Barabbas, Bar means son of, right?
And Abba means what again?
It means father.
We talked about that last week.
In fact, you even said that in the Garden of Gethsemane, Christ called out Abba.
Right, daddy.
Daddy.
It is a intimate term for fathers.
It's a very intimate term for fathers.
So here we have the son of God or father, Barabbas.
Son of Abba father or master is literally what it means.
Son of father being set free so the son of God can set us free.
Yeah.
Yeah, the irony.
Yeah, really interesting, I think.
The irony of that.
So eventually the Jews began to chant, speaking of Jesus, crucify him, crucify him.
Pilots tried to get off the hook by sending him to Herod because Herod's in town.
Herod is the governor of Galilee and Pilate finds out Jesus is a Galilean being from Nazareth.
So he sends him to Herod, the governor of Galilee, who this is the son of the Herod who killed
all the babies when Jesus was born.
And Jesus won't speak to him.
This is the only individual we know of who asks Jesus a question and Jesus won't respond.
I think that says something maybe about the disdain that Jesus has for the family of Herod.
Herod.
Maybe I shouldn't say that, but for their actions at least, I think Jesus even loved.
Herod had John the Baptist put to death.
Yes, yeah.
Herod and Pilots.
So there was some feelings perhaps around that?
There's a whole family of Herods.
Herod's kind of a title.
I got you.
And so there's a whole family of them.
This is Herod Antipas and there was Herod Philip and Herod the Great as the father.
Anyway, he doesn't speak and they strip him there in front of Herod and put on a purple
robe to mock him.
And they send him back to Pilate.
And finally Pilate comes to the end of what he considers his options and washes his hands.
This is a tragedy.
I remember President Hinckley giving a quite a strong talk towards the weakness of Pilate,
the wickedness of Pilate in offering Jesus to the Jews.
But he finally turns Jesus over to the Jews and tells the Roman soldiers who he has power
over to scourge him and to crucify him following the wishes of the Jews.
So they scourge him, they strip him and they scourge him with 39 lashings of a catamnitell
sort of whip with iron or sharp pieces of bone tied into the end of this whip.
And that in and of itself would kill some people.
Oh yeah.
And that's because of the pain involved in the loss of blood.
Well you think about that.
Those bones or that flint or those pieces of metal or whatever it was that was tied into
that catamnitell would lay the body open.
I mean it would lacerate and just could lay you wide open.
And after suffering that for some time the cross was laid on his back and he started
to walk towards Golgoth outside the walls of the city.
And of course we know that he collapses.
I think what he's been through this is just before 9 a.m. and at 9 p.m. the night before
us when he went to Gethsemane.
So in 12 hours he has suffered incomprehensibly and no wonder he collapses on the way to Golgotha.
And as someone comes forth I'd like to think he volunteered and came forth.
Seems as though maybe the Roman soldiers grabbed him as one of the spectators and made Simeon
carry the cross the rest of the way.
And they get to Golgotha and the Romans executed thousands of people by crucifixion.
Jesus isn't the only one.
He was one of thousands.
This was a form of torture as well as a tool of death.
And at 9 a.m. they crucified Jesus.
They nail him with these long nails in his hands, in his wrists.
So there's four nails and then one nail through both of his feet.
One really long sharp nail through both of his feet.
Five nails.
And I only mention that because five has kind of become a symbol for Christians in regards
to the crucifixion and the atonement.
And when I see the number five I think about that.
Yeah, it's interesting.
Yeah.
Five is kind of a symbolic number of the suffering of Christ.
And he's nailed on the cross at 9 a.m. place between two thieves.
I think about their significance in that.
The humiliation and going to the depths has some conversation with them makes we know
Jesus made seven different comments from the cross.
Some of the ones that are the most touching to me or forgive them father for the they
know not what they do.
I love the one where he calls Mary fourth and John and he says, behold, speaking to
his mother, Mary, behold, my son.
And to John, he says, speaking of Mary, behold, my mother, his, his interest even on the cross,
Scott was not a self interest.
Right.
His interest was, was one of thinking of others, taking care of others, telling the talking
to the thieves and anyway, so it's on the cross where he suffers from 9 a.m. when he's
crucified until 12 noon.
And at 12 noon, this is when again, all hell breaks loose.
Yeah, literally, right?
And guess, 70 re occurs.
And this is, I'm, that's a quote from Elder Talmadge and Elder Mcconkey that on the cross
when 12 noon, when it goes dark, that guess, 70 re occurs intensified.
And so you think about this from 12 noon until 3 p.m. when he dies and there's an earthquake
at 3 p.m. when he dies, that all of guess, 70 and all the sins and sicknesses and infirmities
and spiritual death, basically, right spiritual death is pressed upon him as it was in guess,
70 intensified.
He cries out at 12 noon, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me?
And now for three more hours all alone, he suffers again as he did in guess, 70.
It's worse.
And one reason it's worse intensified is because there's not an angel there on the cross to
strengthen him.
In guess, 70, he had Michael Adam there to strengthen him.
And here he is utterly quoting Elder Holland, utterly and completely all alone.
And for three more hours that goes on.
I, I was so thrilled, Scott, when President Nelson said these words in October, 2018,
he's teaching about the suffering and the torment of Jesus Christ and President Nelson
in his talk called the correct name of the church said, Jesus Christ was brutally reviled,
mocked, spit upon, and scourged.
In the Garden of Gassemony, our Savior took upon him the pains, sins, and all of the anguish
and suffering ever experienced by you and me and by everyone who has ever lived or will
ever live.
Think about the infinite nature of the atonement as we spoke about last week.
And then he says this, under the weight of that excruciating burden, he bled from every
poor.
All of this suffering in guess, 70 was intensified as he was cruelly crucified on Calvary's cross.
And even Jesus himself, Scott, chooses throughout the scriptures to focus more on the cross
than he does upon Gassemony.
It seems like, I think for some time now, we've kind of focused our thoughts and our conversations
when we speak of his suffering to be in Gassemony.
I don't think that's really accurate and I don't think it's really pleasing to the Lord
as much as he suffered there.
Yeah, I would definitely agree with that.
He focused on the cross and we need to focus more on what happened on the cross and understand
that throughout the scriptures.
In the Doctrine and Covenants, for example, the book of the Restoration, in the Revelations,
there's only one place he refers to Gassemony in that section 19.
Six times in other sections, Revelations, he focuses on the cross and he says over
and over again, I was crucified for the sins of the world.
When he is in the Americas in the book of Mormon and he's getting to make his final
departure, Scott, and he's with his 12 disciples, the 12 apostles in the Americas.
In 3 Nephi, chapter 27, he says that he chooses to focus on the cross.
Yeah, let's do that.
Can we read that verse?
Yeah, yeah.
And while you're doing that, don't forget your train of thought there because I just
want to point a couple of things out.
Who was at the cross?
And this is important, we talked a few minutes ago about earlier in this episode, we talked
about we need to go there.
He said, come to me.
That's Gassemony, that's Golgotha, that's the atonement experience.
Who was there?
So let's just take a real quick consideration of who was at the cross.
We know we had men there, we had women there, we had Jews there, we had Gentiles there,
we had educated there.
Roman soldiers there.
Roman soldiers were there, the slaves, servants.
We had different races were there.
We had educated, noneducated, we had religious, we had those that were not religious.
We had those that believed, those that didn't believe.
So wait a minute, I think I just described the human race.
We were represented there.
Somebody like us was there.
And we literally can go there ourselves.
And I think it's important that we do that, we go there ourselves.
We don't know what happened when it went really dark.
I mean that darkness would have been intense.
And I'll bet that people really became confused at 12 noon and I don't know how many stuck
around, I'm sure some did.
But I think about the chaos that may have caused and the fears that may have come upon
the people when it went dark at 12 noon.
And it was dark from 12 noon until 3 p.m. Scott and at 3 p.m. of course.
Well maybe before I, let me read this first.
Yeah, read this first and we'll get to that.
So this is Jesus to his 12 disciples in the Americas, 3rd Nephi, chapter 27, verse 14.
And my father sent me, he says, that I might be lifted up upon the cross.
And after that I had been lifted up upon the cross, that I might draw all men unto me.
That as I have been lifted up by men, even so should men be lifted up by the father.
So this cross and what happens on the cross, Scott, is such a Jesus at least, chooses to
focus on that being the epitome, the climax, zenith of his suffering is what happens on
the cross and especially again the last three hours from 12 noon until 3 p.m.
And at 3 p.m. I believe there was an earthquake.
There's the chronology here, not everyone's in agreement with chronology.
But at 3 p.m. when he cries, it is finished.
I believe there was a great earthquake.
The rocks were rent.
There was great confusion then.
The veil was rent.
The veil of the temple was rent.
Torn, it was a heavy, it wasn't any small curtain.
That veil would have required several men to lift it.
Yes, yes.
And it was rent from top to bottom representing really that the atonement was made, the reconciliation
between God and man was made, was complete.
And Jesus cries out, into my hands, into thy hands I commend my spirit.
Anyway that is the death of Jesus.
When you talked about the earthquake, let's be clear, the earthquake isn't what's in
question, it's the timing of the earthquake.
Isn't that correct?
Yeah.
Okay, so we know there was an earthquake.
I think, Scott, let me just say, Mother Earth has a spirit.
We learned that in the Pearl of Great Price.
And even Mother Earth has to turn away from this suffering in the last moments of his
suffering just before he dies.
Mother Earth has to turn, and I think there's this internal struggle in the earth that causes
this massive earthquake.
Well you think about it, you know, Jesus Christ is the light and the life of the world.
Creator of it.
And everything in it is subjected to him.
And everything was created spiritually before it was created physically, so we know the
spirit is there.
If Jesus Christ is the light and the life of the world and he has the ability to have
that effect there on Mother Earth, why can't that effect be placed here?
I have a quote, and this is what he says.
His heart, excuse me, let me start over.
This is by Spurgeon, an old Bible scholar.
I don't know much about him, but this is what he says.
Protestant minister, preacher.
Okay, this is what he says.
He says, Men's hearts did not respond to the agonizing cries of the dying redeemer.
And let's think about that, that still applies today.
You know, maybe still men's hearts in many occasions, and maybe when I say men's hearts,
I'm talking about me and you.
And when I say me and you, I'm talking about you.
All of you who are listening, male, female, young, old, it doesn't matter.
But if men's hearts did not respond to the agonizing cries of the dying redeemer, but
the rocks responded, the rocks were rent, he didn't die for rocks yet.
Rocks were more tender than the hearts of men for whom he had shed his blood.
Interesting, you know.
And as we go there and as we think about, okay, why is that the case?
Remember the one thing that we have that Heavenly Father doesn't own is our agency.
And it's our agency that will align us with Mother Earth, with the rocks who actually felt
the effects of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, or it's our agency that will preclude us from
doing that.
And so there's wherein lies our choice, our free agency to embrace and heal or to ignore
and stay in our misery.
Yeah, I love that quote and your insights on that, Scott.
Thank you for sharing it.
Finally, as we probably wrap this up and think of his last few moments on the cross, I think
it's important for us to not only remember what happened, and we'll start in the next
episodes, begin to talk about why it happened and the effects of the Atonement.
We're kind of winding up, not yet.
We need to talk about that.
Well, we can tie in some of the effects when we get into the Garden of Guess.
Well, next time we'll probably talk about the death and resurrection of Jesus, which
is part of the Atonement and the continued events of the Atonement.
So as we finish up the events of the Atonement, we're going to soon move into the effects
of the Atonement.
But I think there's another question, not just what happened or why it had to happen,
or what it covered, but who caused it?
I think this is the ultimate humbling question, Scott, to ponder, is who really caused it?
I remember when Mel Gibson made his movie The Passion, there was a great, oh, there
was a real internet divisive debate going on about he kind of, at least the interpretation,
I never saw the movie.
But the interpretation that I guess was kind of put on it, the spin that was put on it,
was that the Jews had crucified him and caused the death of Jesus.
And I can understand how that plot could be good in a movie and how he could take that
position.
But some said, no, the Romans caused the death of Jesus.
And it's gone back and forth, I think, for hundreds of years.
Who killed Jesus?
This is so precious that Nephi captured in 1 Nephi chapter 9, 7 and 9.
I'm going to read verses 7 and 9, Scott.
In what chapter?
In 1 Nephi chapter 19.
Nephi captures this and he had seen this in his vision in 1 Nephi chapter 11.
But he says here, For the things which some men esteem to be of great worth, both to the
body and soul, others said it not, and trample under their feet.
They, even the very God of Israel, do men trample under their feet?
I say trample under their feet?
But I would speak in other words.
They set him at naught, and they hearken not to the voice of his councils.
Verse 9, And the world, because of their iniquity, shall judge him to be a thing of naught, wherefore
they, meaning the world, scourge him, and he suffereth it.
And they, the world, smite him, and he suffereth it.
Yea, and they, the world, spit upon him, and he suffereth it.
Because of his loving kindness, and his long suffering towards the children of men.
I read those verses, and I know I played a role in this, unfortunately, sadly, I played
a role all of us did in the suffering of Jesus Christ.
Nobody could cause that.
He was willing to suffer it.
For me, for you, for all of those, as President Nelson said, for everyone who ever has, or
who is living, or who will ever live upon this earth, were the ones that caused the
suffering of Jesus, and he willingly, and for joy, he did it out of joy.
Because he loved us, was willing to do that for us.
So who caused the suffering?
Yea, we did.
The world.
Yea.
Me and you.
And that's where my focus needs to be, is what did I do?
You know, as I'm thinking about, and that's my invitation for all of us, right?
Think about it, this week, it's going to be a difficult one.
It really is difficult to consider, because it requires transparency, and inner honesty,
the likes of which very few of us ever have the courage or the wherewithal to dive into.
But literally, we should be asking ourselves, you know, if we truly want to heal from whatever
it is we're seeking healing from, if we truly want to repent, which is literally to turn
away from that which is not like Him, and turn towards Him, and embask in His light,
enjoying the peace and harmony of the Spirit that comes with that, if we're really going
to experience that, these things are important.
If we're going to overcome our addictions, if we're going to move past the divorce, if
we're going to move past those things that from the fall tip us over, the death of a
loved one, the unexplained separation of relationships, etc.
It requires a deep consideration from all of us.
You know, we need to ask ourselves.
I'm going to ask myself again, and I do this, I participate in this exercise regularly,
as a personal inventory, but where do I scourge Him?
Where have I smitten Him?
Where in a not a literal sense, but a figurative sense, do I spit on the teachings of the principles
of the life of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ?
And it's important for us to have those considerations, Dave.
It takes real understanding, I think, of the suffering of Jesus to be able to really
experience, Scott, the broken heart and contrite spirit required for each of us to repent.
It takes that level or depth of humility.
And too many times in my own life, I have had to cry out, I am so sorry.
I am so sorry for the suffering that I have caused my Savior and Redeemer and tried to
express that to my Heavenly Father and to my Savior, you know, the level and depth of
my sorrow and my depth and level of my gratitude to know that He was willing to suffer and
die just for me.
And in my concluding, my part on this episode, Scott, I just want to briefly testify in the
name of Jesus Christ that I know that what we have talked about in regards to the Atonement
of Jesus Christ thus far is true.
I know with an eye of faith I have seen the suffering of Jesus in Gethsemane, the suffering
throughout his life, the suffering in his temptations, the suffering of bleeding from
every pore, the suffering of betrayal, the suffering of abuse, the suffering on the cross
when he experienced spiritual total darkness.
And I testify that I know that these things are true.
And I pray that all of us with an eye of faith will ponder these things daily, that when
we partake of the Holy Sacrament, that we will remember these things and ponder these
things and express more often and with greater humility and gratitude what we know, and that
we will repent, which we'll talk more about in future episodes as well.
So that's my prayer and my testimony of what we have said and what I know to be true.
And I say it in the name of Jesus Christ.
Thanks so much, Dave.
You know, there is absolutely nothing.
The things that we are talking about are paramount to absolutely everything conceivable, even
everything inconceivable.
There are paramount importance because without the things that we're talking about here,
without the Atonement of Jesus Christ, without the fall, without understanding who we are,
who's we are, the infinite nature of the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
Where it's stretched into pre-mortal life and stretches in from there into eternity,
you know, without beginning, without end, really.
So important yet is so easy for me.
And I know I'm not alone because I'm not the only natural man around here.
But it's so easy for me sometimes to get distracted, to forget, to be focused on something that
is besetting me, to focus on whatever it is the effects of the fall are having on me that
day or that moment or that time in my life.
If I can focus and maintain my focus on the things that we're talking about now, the events
of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and move that focus as we do that into the effects,
the healing effects, literally the balm of Gilead.
As we start moving into the balm and the healing and the effects of the Atonement of Jesus
Christ, we bring with us our hope, we bring with us our healing, we bring with us our
ability to share in ways that are acceptable, in loving ways to those that we love, the
hope and the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which is centered on His Atonement,
on the ability for us to be healed from everything and anything.
And literally anything that the fall, that this life can put upon us.
I just want to end with this.
We started the podcast today by reading words from a few hymns.
I'm going to read the words from, there is a green hill far away.
This is 194 in the hymnal, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints hymnal, page 194.
There is a green hill far away without a city wall where the dear Lord was crucified,
who died to save us all.
We may not know, we cannot tell what pains he had to bear, but we believe it was for
us.
And I might say it was for me.
He hung and suffered there.
There was no other good enough to pay the price of sin, he only could unlock the gate
of heaven and let us in.
Oh dearly, dearly has he loved.
And we must love him too and trust in his redeeming blood and try his works to do.
Great day.
We are grateful that you've been here with us.
I must also testify of the truthfulness of the changing effects of the atonement of Jesus
Christ.
I've lived it.
I'm constantly living it.
It has made my life into much, much more than I could have ever made of it myself.
What I made of it myself was an absolute train wreck.
When I invited him back into my life, when I began to notice where my scourging, where
my smiting, where my spitting upon him was actually literally and figuratively taking
place, once that discovery was made, a solution was put back into place to me.
My life has never been the same.
And I'm grateful for that today.
And I invite, if you are struggling in any way, this hope, this promise is universal.
It's universal.
It's infinite and it's universal.
It's for all of us.
Please remember, he redeems us at gmail.com.
Send us your comments, your stories, your questions.
We will entertain those that we can here on the podcast.
And also remember to visit our social media pages.
They are the same name as the podcast.
Redeem through his blood on Facebook as well as Instagram.
We want to give a special thanks to Shari Curtis for helping with our social media.
Thank Ann Matthews for our piano music and our music.
We want to thank Taylor Durfee who has helped us with our logo.
And finally, Mr. Joseph Brickie who has graciously allowed us to use his beautiful artwork as
part of our logo.
We look forward to being with you again next week.
Please remember that he loves you.
Please remember that he is deeply aware of every detail of your life.
Please remember that he is not surprised by anything that is going on in your life and
he is not mad at you.
He invites you to fill his love.
We invite you to do the same.
We look forward to being with you next week.
Until then, take care.