Christos Anesti, brothers and sisters! He is Risen!
Welcome to our guide for celebrating the first five days of our Latter-day Lent. These first six days will be focused on how absolutely essential the physical, bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is to our faith and the joy knowing these truths brings to our lives.
Day 1
Scripture: The Apostle Paul explained how essential the Resurrection is to the Christian faith in this way:
Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
1 Corinthians 15:12-18
Latter-day Prophets: In 1838, the Prophet Joseph Smith was asked to summarize the fundamental principles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He wrote:
The fundamental principles of our religion is the testimony of the apostles and prophets concerning Jesus Christ, ‘that he died, was buried, and rose again the third day, and ascended up into heaven;’ and all other things are only appendages to these, which pertain to our religion.
The Elder’s Journal. July, 1838
Everything about the Restored Gospel – the First Vision, the Book of Mormon, the Priesthood, the temple, the Endowment, sealings, the Spirit World, exaltation, all of it – are appendages to the singular, central, and absolute great truth: The Atonement of Jesus Christ is an actual, historical fact. His suffering, death and Resurrection actually happened and are essential to our lives now and forever. And more than anything else in the world, the Restored Gospel is proof of that divine and holy truth: Jesus the Christ is Risen and active is the world today!
Hymn: #198 That Easter Morn (link to church Hymns website)
Below is a YouTube video playing the music for the hymn instrumentally with lyrics so you can sing along.
Activity:
Day 2
Scripture: Jacob, the brother of the prophet Nephi and a future prophet himself, explains how essential the Resurrection of the Lord is to us now and forever:
O the wisdom of God, his mercy and grace! For behold, if the flesh should rise no more our spirits must become subject to that angel who fell from before the presence of the Eternal God, and became the devil, to rise no more.
And our spirits must have become like unto him, and we become devils, angels to a devil, to be shut out from the presence of our God, and to remain with the father of lies, in misery, like unto himself; yea, to that being who beguiled our first parents, who transformeth himself nigh unto an angel of light, and stirreth up the children of men unto secret combinations of murder and all manner of secret works of darkness.
O how great the goodness of our God, who prepareth a way for our escape from the grasp of this awful monster; yea, that monster, death and hell, which I call the death of the body, and also the death of the spirit.
And because of the way of deliverance of our God, the Holy One of Israel, this death, of which I have spoken, which is the temporal, shall deliver up its dead; which death is the grave.
And this death of which I have spoken, which is the spiritual death, shall deliver up its dead; which spiritual death is hell; wherefore, death and hell must deliver up their dead, and hell must deliver up its captive spirits, and the grave must deliver up its captive bodies, and the bodies and the spirits of men will be restored one to the other; and it is by the power of the resurrection of the Holy One of Israel.
2 Nephi 9: 8-12
Latter-day Prophets: In 2000, Apostle Dallin H. Oaks taught about the universal nature and blessings of the Resurrection:
Many living witnesses can testify to the literal fulfillment of these scriptural assurances of the resurrection. Many, including some in my own extended family, have seen a departed loved one in vision or personal appearance and have witnessed their restoration in “proper and perfect frame” in the prime of life. Whether these were manifestations of persons already resurrected or of righteous spirits awaiting an assured resurrection, the reality and nature of the resurrection of mortals is evident. What a comfort to know that all who have been disadvantaged in life from birth defects, from mortal injuries, from disease, or from the natural deterioration of old age will be resurrected in “proper and perfect frame.”
Resurrection
When we are resurrected every weakness, disability, handicap, infirmity, illness, and injury will he banished as we are raised into an utterly perfect and immortal body to never die again. This is the essential gift of everlasting life that Christ has given all of us. Without it, we would be damned to an endless and eternal Hell, like Satan and his angels. With the Resurrection, we have the potential to become gods and goddesses like our Father and Mother in Heaven. (D&C 132:15–20)
Hymn: #193 I Stand All Amazed (link to church Hymns website)
Below is a YouTube video playing the music for the hymn instrumentally with lyrics so you can sing along.
Activity: Easter Paper Chain
Create an Easter Paper Chain to hang in your home.
List a blessing of the Restored Gospel or something you are thankful for on each link.
Day 3
Scripture: In agony at the loss of his home, his family, and everything he had ever worked to achieve, the man Job cried out to the Lord Jehovah, “If a man die, shall he live again?” (Job 14:14) To this question that has plagued all humans through all of history, the Lord Jesus Christ gives us answer, “Because I live, ye shall live also.” (John 14:19)
Latter-day Prophets: In April 1986, Apostle Howard W. Hunter explained why this truth should be something of which we boldly testify:
Even with the logic of nature’s regeneration and even with the testimony of that empty garden tomb, there are still those who feel the grave is a final destination. But the doctrine of the Resurrection is the single most fundamental and crucial doctrine in the Christian religion. It cannot be overemphasized, nor can it be disregarded.
Without the Resurrection, the gospel of Jesus Christ becomes a litany of wise sayings and seemingly unexplainable miracles—but sayings and miracles with no ultimate triumph. No, the ultimate triumph is in the ultimate miracle: for the first time in the history of mankind, one who was dead raised himself into living immortality. He was the Son of God, the Son of our immortal Father in Heaven, and his triumph over physical and spiritual death is the good news every Christian tongue should speak.
The eternal truth is that Jesus Christ arose from the grave and was the firstfruits of the Resurrection.
An Apostle’s Witness of the Resurrection
Hymn: #136 I Know That My Redeemer Lives (link to church Hymns website)
Below is a YouTube video playing the music for the hymn instrumentally with lyrics so you can sing along.
Activity:
He Is Risen Chalk Art: Use sidewalk chalk in front of your home to draw pictures of Jesus and scenes from the scriptures. Among the things you write and draw, include the caption “He is Risen!” and draw the Empty Tomb outside your home, sharing the message with everyone who walks by.
Here are three different ways you can make chalk at home if you choose. I suggest the cornstarch methods.
Day 4
Scripture: This interaction between Martha, grieving for the death of her beloved brother Lazarus, and the Savior teaches the eternal truth the Christ is Life itself and absolutely necessary for our spiritual and physical eternal life:
Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”
Jesus said to her, “I am the Resurrection and the Life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”
John 11:20-27
Latter-day Prophets: In 1994, Elder Carlos E. Asay, on of the Presidents of the Seventy, told this story illustrating the truth that because of Christ, death is not a final destination, but simply a temporary stage of existence, thanks to the Atonement of Jesus Christ:
A few years ago, I walked the halls of a care center. Most of the occupants were infirm individuals who were timeworn and anxious to go elsewhere. In passing one of the rooms, I heard a weak cry for help. The door was slightly ajar, so I entered with the hope that I might help someone in distress. Once I was inside, my eyes were met by a pleading look from a sweet, elderly woman in a wheelchair. She stared at me for a moment and asked, “Can I die? Can I die?”
Her tender look, soft voice, and delicate features melted my heart. The woman obviously was suffering physical pain and wanted to be released from a wasted body. She longed for the companionship of loved ones who had preceded her in death.
I don’t recall exactly what I said on that occasion. But I did attempt to reassure the woman that she could and would die in the Lord’s appointed time. I also tried to reassure her that she would live again, free of the infirmities that now troubled her.
…I cannot go back to that sweet old woman in the wheelchair who begged, “Can I die?” She has already crossed the bridge between earth and heaven—the bridge we call death. She now knows better than I that dying and living again are established facts. She knows of a certainty that “death is not a period but a comma in the story of life” (Amos John Traver), for she has gone back home and is cradled in the arms of God’s love (see 2 Ne. 1:15).
Whether young or old, we need not “look upon death with any degree of terror, for [our] hope and views of Christ and the resurrection; therefore, death [is] swallowed up to [us] by the victory of Christ over it” (Alma 27:28). He is our Redeemer; he is “the resurrection, and the life” (John 11:25).
I bear solemn testimony that we shall live again! Such testimony is founded upon the words of eyewitnesses, including modern prophets who have seen and heard the living God and the living Christ (see D&C 76:22–24; JS—H 1:17), and upon personal and sacred experiences of the Spirit gained in attempting to walk with God. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
“If a Man Die, Shall He Live Again?”
Hymn: #135 My Redeemer Lives (link to church Hymns website)
Below is a YouTube video playing the music for the hymn instrumentally with lyrics so you can sing along.
Activity:
This Easter Memory Match Game that you can play repeatedly throughout your Easter season in order to help children learn the events of Holy Week. Once you’ve played it enough that the matching comes easily, challenge your children to put the events in chronological order and then reward them for doing so.
Day 5
Scripture: In these verses, the Apostle Paul explains the universal nature of the Resurrection by connecting it to the universal nature of the Fall:
For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
1 Corinthians 15:21-22
Latter-day Prophets: In this excerpt, Apostle John Taylor explains the universal application of the Resurrection and what that means for the eternal nature of our human relationships:
First, the Resurrection. The penalty of the broken law in Adam’s day was death; and death is passed upon all. The word of the Lord was, “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” The atonement made by Jesus Christ brought about the resurrection from the dead, and restored life. And hence Jesus said: “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live;” and Jesus Himself became the first fruits of those who slept.
The next question that arises is, how far does this principle extend and to whom is it applicable? It extends to all the human family; to all men of every nation.
…I heard Joseph Smith say, at the time he was making a tomb at Nauvoo, that he expected, when the time came when the grave would be rent asunder, that he would arise and embrace his father and mother, and strike hands with his friends. It was his written request that when he died, some kind friends would see that he was buried near his bosom friends, so that when he and they arose in the morning of the first resurrection, he could embrace them, saying, “My father! My mother,” etc.
How consoling it is to those who are called upon to mourn the loss of dear friends in death, to know that we will again be associated with them! How encouraging to all who live according to the revealed principles of truth, perhaps more especially to those whose lives are pretty well spent, who have borne the heat and burden of the day, to know that ere long we shall burst the barriers of the tomb, and come forth living and immortal souls, to enjoy the society of our tried and trusted friends, no more to be afflicted with the seeds of death, and to finish the work the Father has given us to do!
Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: John Taylor, pgs. 50-51
Hymn: #286 Oh, What Songs of the Heart (link to church Hymns website)
Below is a YouTube video playing the music for the hymn instrumentally with lyrics so you can sing along.
Activity:
Easter Coloring Cards for families to color and then share with friends.
Day 6
Scripture: In the following verses, the Resurrected Lord explains the necessity of the Resurrection for the salvation of the human soul:
Now, verily I say unto you, that through the redemption which is made for you is brought to pass the resurrection from the dead.
And the spirit and the body are the soul of man. And the resurrection from the dead is the redemption of the soul.
And the redemption of the soul is through him that quickeneth all things, in whose bosom it is decreed that the poor and the meek of the earth shall inherit it.
D&C 88:14–16
Latter-day Prophets: In this excerpt, President Wilford Woodruff explains the comforts that knowing the truths of the Resurrection bring him:
I am satisfied, always have been, in regard to the resurrection. I rejoice in it. The way was opened unto us by the blood of the Son of God.
When the resurrection comes, we shall come forth clothed with immortal bodies; and the persecutions, suffering, sorrow, pain and death, incident to mortality, will be done away forever.
This doctrine of the resurrection of the dead is most glorious. It is comforting, at least to my spirit, to think, that, in the morning of the resurrection, my spirit will have the privilege of dwelling in the very same body that it occupied here. As elders of Israel we have travelled a great many thousand miles in weariness and fatigue, laboring to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to the children of men. I would be very glad to have the same body in the resurrection with which I waded swamps, swam rivers and travelled and labored to build up the kingdom of God here on the earth.
Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Wilford Woodruff pg.81
Hymn: #122 Though Deepening Trials (link to church Hymns website)
Below is a YouTube video playing the music for the hymn instrumentally with lyrics so you can sing along.
Activity: Create a Resurrection Garden that will sprout by Easter day.
Materials:
- 1 Terra Cotta plant saucer (Ours was 8 inches.)
- 1 small Terra Cotta pot
- large rock
- small rocks
- potting soil we used Miracle Grow
- grass seed
- small sticks
- hot glue
- hot glue gun
Instructions
- Place the small pot in the middle of the saucer and put the large rock in front of it.
- Add the small rocks in front of the pot and halfway around the sides.
- Put dirt on the other half of the small pot and on top to form a mound.
- Sprinkle the grass seed over the dirt, then add a thin layer of additional dirt over the grass seed.
- Cut small twigs to desired lengths then hot glue together to form three crosses.
- Once dry, place in the dirt.
- Place in a sunny, warm location and water as needed.
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