The Glorious Day of the Lord

Easter, the Glorious Day of the Lord. On the one hand it has always struck me as out of balance that Christmas gets so much more attention and observance than Easter when the birth of Christ was simply a precursor to the main event. Then again, the LDS are sometimes criticized for not giving Easter as much attention as most of the rest of the Christian world gives it so maybe that's playing into my perception of Easter getting less attention than Christmas. Be that as it may, it's my feeling that most of the Christian world kind of misses the boat on where the emphasis of Easter ought to be.

My understanding is that the Christian world begins the Easter celebration with Lent and Ash Wednesday. Lent goes on for 40 days in commemoration of the 40 day period of fasting Christ went through in preparation for His public ministry. Then comes Holy Week, actually the last week of Lent, and includes  Paschal Triduum, commemorating and celebrating the events of the last week of Christ's life leading up to the crucifixion. For many Christians Holy Week is followed by Eastertide, which goes on until Pentecost, a date that moves around with Easter.

The LDS celebration is much more quiet and focused. Quiet in the way that it is more personal, without the outward show, ritual, and ceremony. To me it seems it is more after the manner that Christ spoke of in the Sermon on the Mount, regarding prayer and fasting.

“But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret ...”

“But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret ...”  

(Matthew 6:6, 17 & 18)

Throughout His ministry, in most of His teachings, Christ seems to have been more concerned with the inward observance, the disposition of the heart, than the outward observance. Christ went so far as to chastise some of His detractors for using traditions and observances to get out of keeping the commandments (Matthew 15:3-6, Mark 7:8, 9). As the Lord told Samuel when he identified David as Israel's King, “for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7)

The LDS observance is also more focused on the events of the two gardens, Gethsemane and the Garden Tomb. It was in these two places that the heart of Christ's mission was culminated. Christ's death, horrific as it was, was only something that needed to happen so the miracle of the Garden Tomb could take place.  

Christ, prior to His death, spent His ministry teaching His Gospel. He knew from the start of His public ministry how His life would end and what possibilities that would open for mankind. He used His ministry to teach us how to take advantage of the atonement. So while the atonement and resurrection were critical, the two most important accomplishment to occur in the history of the world, without having taught the Gospel, so that we would know how to put the atonement to work, Christ would have missed a critical element in His mission.

So the LDS don't focus on the whole Easter season and Christ's agony, suffering, and death. That was significant and important but it wasn't everything. It is more the question the angels asked Mary when she came to the empty tomb; “Why seek ye the living among the dead?” (Luke 24:5). The main point of Easter is not that He died, but rather that He lives again.  This is the focus of the LDS observance of Easter; the atonement and resurrection and how to put them to work. The everyday application of the principles He taught during His ministry. That, combined with deep gratitude for what Christ made possible, is the message of Easter. This is what makes it the Glorious Day of the Lord.

Two hymns sum it up.

The first is “He is Risen” (hymn 199), written by Cecil Frances Alexander:

“He is risen! He is risen!

Tell it out with joyful voice.

He has burst his three days’ prison;

Let the whole wide earth rejoice.

Death is conquered; man is free.

Christ has won the victory.  

“He is risen! He is risen!

He hath opened heaven’s gate.

We are free from sin’s dark prison,

Risen to a holier state.

And a brighter Easter beam

On our longing eyes shall stream.”

The other is “Christ the Lord is Risen Today” (hymn 200), written by Charles Wesley:

Christ the Lord is ris’n today,  

Sons of men and angels say,

Raise your joys and triumphs high,

Sing, ye heav’ns, and earth reply,

Love’s redeeming work is done,

Fought the fight, the vict’ry won,

Jesus’ agony is o’er,

Darkness veils the earth no more,

Lives again our glorious King,

Where, O death, is now thy sting?

Once he died our souls to save,

Where thy victory, O grave?

These celebrations of song sum it up: the work is done, the victory won, death is conquered, and man is free. That is the focus. A Christ who was alive three days after his death, 30 days later, teaching His apostles, and who lives today, still leading those who are seeking and willing to follow Him.