Miracles of Miracles - Lesson 1 - Christ's Week of Awe

      I decided that I wanted to share with you Lessons 

from a book that I wrote about the last week of the Savior's life.

Here is the introduction, preface and Lesson 1.

Tell me what you think.

Introduction

           During my junior year in high school, I challenged myself to read the Book of Mormon.  It was a year that I had decided to take home study seminary instead of early morning seminary, and that year we were studying the Book of Mormon.  I read it during my spare time between activities in the Church and school, and just before Easter I was in the last chapter of that marvelous book.

            On Easter Eve, the evening before a sunrise service for Easter Sunday our ward had planned, where I had committed to sing with the youth at the service in a park to celebrate the resurrection of  the Savior, I finished the last verses of  Moroni in The Book of Mormon.  I read:                                                                                                              

            “Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, ...that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts.  And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true, and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.”  (Moroni 9:3-4) 

            Moroni had given a challenge, and what a challenge it was.  I didn't know until that day that that verse even existed.  It was a new idea. Ask to know if these things were true.  I had arrived home about an hour before from a youth activity also celebrating the days before the death of the Savior, and we had been taught so very much. 

            That week my grandmother from Germany was visiting with us, and my room was given to her for her stay, so I was staying with my little sisters in their room.  They both had already retired to bed and were asleep.  In the quiet of that Easter Eve, I knelt in prayer to my Heavenly Father to ask if these things I had just spent months reading really were true. 

            That night changed who I am forever.  I asked, and I was given an answer, a feeling that touched me to the very core.  The feeling of truth and joy overcame me in such a way that enveloped me in so much love, a feeling I had never felt before, and just like Joseph Smith, I knew it was true, and I could not deny it.  It was true, the Book of Mormon, its every   verse, was true, and Jesus was the Christ, the very living God who came to this  earth to save us from our sins.  I knew it, and I knew God knew I knew it.  From then until now, I have kept that very conviction close to my heart. From this period of time in my life until now, I love to read about the Savior, Jesus the very Christ and testify of Him and His love for us. 

            This experience in my youth, on Pascal Week, has helped me to reflect on that sweet moment in my life.  Easter continues to be especially sacred, the Spirit confirming to me the importance of His life, how it touches me for good, and the very important role He plays in the events of our lives.

            I start this adventure, the last week of the Saviors life, as a challenge for myself, to learn about this very sacred week:  To know the Savior better and to understand His life and meaning better, to put this adventure in words, so someday I may share it with others, that they too will have a better understanding of this very sacred week.

            J. Ruben Clark, Jr. teaches a beautiful concept. We can try to  imagine we are walking with the people during the time of the Savior.  We will be walking with the Savior step by step through His last few weeks of life. We personally imagine we are there. (Clark, Jr., Behold the Lamb, p.9)

            In this study, some of the miracles before the Savior's last week are included, as they are a crucial part of the last week's events; also, events after the Savior's resurrection are also included because He lived on, and came back, and still lives!

 Preface

            One Sunday morning my very dear friend shared with us how she decorated for Easter in her home.  Wow, was I ever impressed.  As the Golden Easter Bunnies sat on my table with chocolate eggs at their feet. I thought, what am  I doing, what am I teaching?  Easter is about bunnies and eggs and what?  After that great example, my home became more of a center of Christ when spring came and Easter  rolled around.  By this time, all of our children had left  home, and I no longer had them close to share with them these wonderful ways of decorating and celebrating Easter, a change that took those Easter bunnies away and replaced them with pieces of fabric, wood, and nails.

            I've always wanted to change my emphasis on how we celebrate Easter.  Our home was always filled with Easter eggs, colored in all colors, bunnies, baskets, and anything I could think of to make it fun for our children and grandchildren.  But now, after this example of my sweet friend, I wanted to make some major changes.  One of those changes had to be with me.  I needed to study more about what Easter was about.  I knew about the resurrection, and had pictures up of different aspects of the resurrection but I needed to learn more so I could share the real meaning of this magnificent holiday and really understand it myself.

            Emily Freeman shares her experience with a friend who celebrates the Easter week as a High Holiday, or  High Holy Days,  and I love that so much! Yamim Noriam means “Days of Awe.” (Freeman, Celebrating a Christ-Centered Easter, p.4) The Days of Awe are 10 sacred  days in the Jewish religion that take place between  Rosh Hashanah (“Jewish New Year”) and Yom Kippur (“Day of Atonement”).  It is a time to repent of the things done the previous year, reflecting seriously on the past and repenting to go forward for the future --  The Days of Awe.

            As I continued to research, I found there are many ways the week was referred to by other religions.  Many religions refer to Easter week as Holy Week, or Passion Week. 

            “The observance of Passion Week recalls the week before Easter consisting of the sufferings and death of Jesus Christ.  The word passion comes from the noun translation of the verb pascho appearing in Acts 1:3, where Jesus showed 'himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs.'  There the word passions means 'to suffer', particularly in reference to Christ's sufferings and death.  The observance of Passion Week is also traditionally known as Holy Week, Greater Week,  (with reference to God's mighty acts during the week), or Pascal Week (with focus on the Resurrection.)”  (Josh Branscomb, Pastor Gilbert wordpress.com)  

            Pascal Week! With focus on the resurrection, beautiful!  The dictionary clarifies pascal lamb as 1. a lamb sacrificed at Passover.  2.  Christ.  Thus it becomes Christ's Week, a celebration of his resurrection, in essence,  Christs Week of Awe.  How beautiful is this?  To celebrate Easter as Christ's Week of Awe, where the focus of what we are learning is on Jesus Christ, the very Son of  God.  Oh, we do that. We sing about the Saviors resurrection, we learn about him overcoming death, and showing himself after Gethsemane, Golgotha, and the Garden Tomb.  How much do we really bring of this into our everyday lives and really love the Savior through the celebration of the  resurrection?  Do we really try to experience or feel these events He had during that week? Putting ourselves in Jerusalem is key to understand better this week in His life, that our lives may emanate this beautiful King and the things He taught during the last week of his life, that they may become easy to  recall and share with others,  that we may all come to Know and Love the Savior  intimately.

            This study time has given me a greater understanding of His life. It is now years, that I have been studying the life of the Savior as a focus of my everyday studies.  It has taken me on a journey that has brightened my soul.  What a journey it has been, and will continue to be.  I wish that I had the ability to remember every little detail  the authors share in the books I have read and reread, but alas, I continue to study over and over again, write notes and now write these things down, to help me remember and celebrate in a new and meaningful way.  I refer back to these volumes and share what I have learned: The Pascal Week, Christ's Week of Awe. I am in Awe!

  

     Lesson 1

          Miracles of Miracles

           John 11:1-53

            Let's travel to Bethany of Judea. It is two miles east of Jerusalem, hidden from the Holy City by the Mount of Olives. Today we might refer to it as a bedroom community, close to the city but out a ways.  The Savior's most intimate friends lived there,  Mary, Martha and their brother Lazarus.  We know at this time that Lazarus was being cared for in Martha's home by his two sisters.  The scriptures don't tell us whether he was married or not, just that he was with his sisters in Bethany of Judea.

            The Savior was in the city of Perea at this time, about ten miles away from Bethany. This sweet family knew where He was.  They sent a message to Him, “Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick.” (John 11:3) If the message came from me, it would have had an “urgent” on it with it asking for Him to hurry as fast as He could, “ASAP,” to where He was needed.  The reality of it was that by the time the message arrived to the Savior, Lazarus was already dead and lay in the tomb. 

            It took one day to travel the miles to Perea from Bethany, find the Lord, give the message, and another day to travel back.  Jesus, after receiving the message, stayed in Perea another two days,  teaching and ministering to the people there, then traveled to Bethany.

            Contemplating this situation, my mind went back to the early days of our marriage.  We were living on a fish farm in Tennessee raising fish. We had lost one of our twin girls about a year and a half before to SIDS and had a son who was about 6 months old.  Spring had arrived, and I decided to plant some lettuce seeds close to the back of our home.  It was warm, the sun beautifully shining, a southern spring day.  Our oldest daughter Rachel was about 20 months old, and she was next to me with seeds in her precious little hands helping me plant.  After I covered the seeds and turned around she was gone.  Close to the house, about 15 – 20 feet were raceways, where the fish were raised.  Fresh spring water ran through these raceways naturally. 

            I was in panic mode trying to find her, calling her name, running, searching, looking.  I ran to the edge of the raceway, scared that she would have fallen into the water and saw only fish and water.  I ran around the house calling her name over and over again.  Back to the raceway I searched, and there  she was face down, floating in the water.  I immediately jumped in, pulling her out of the water and placing her little white, limp body on the ground next to the raceway. As I stood in the water, I started CPR, however, I had never been trained. I had only  watched the procedure on TV. 

            Just then, as I was breathing my life into her lungs Dana, my husband, arrived.  He had been down at the lake close to our home sorting fish. He arrived in his waders, knelt and took over the CPR. He never had training either.  After a few breaths of his into her little mouth, while pressing her chest several times, she started spitting water, over and over, and then life came to her body.  She was breathing again!  Dana had heard a voice calling his name, and he thought it was my voice.  Someone, something had prompted him to come. And come he did, just in time to save his daughter's life.  The Spirit had talked to Dana, he listened and stopped what he was doing to find me hovering over our 20 month old daughter – a tender mercy in our young lives.

            I'm not sure to this day, how long it was from the time I realized Rachel had left my side to the time I pulled her from the water.  For me it seemed like ages!  And then a miracle took place and Rachel was again breathing and part of our little family.    

       I think of Mary and Martha, waiting and mourning for FOUR DAYS before  the Savior

arrived in Bethany.  This is such a long, long time, and yet the Master knew that Lazarus had to be dead for a significant period of time to perform this miracle of miracles. 

            “This sickness is not unto death,” Jesus said, “but for the glory of God, that the son of God might be glorified thereby.” (John 11:4)

            Bruce R. McConkie tells us, “Lazarus's sickness was 'for the glory of God'!  Shall we not set it forth plainly?  Lazarus was foreordained to die; it was part of the eternal plan,  His spirit must separate from its mortal tenement; it must remain in paradise until the tabernacle of clay began to decay, until corruption and decomposition were well under way.  Then his destiny was to live again; to take up a physically renewed mortal body; to dwell again in mortality, from which temporal state he could escape only by dying again.” ( Bruce R. McConkie, The Mortal Messiah, B. 3, p. 271)

            The story continues. The Savior speaks of Lazarus' death with His disciples. He meets Martha in her grief, just outside of town, where they  share beautiful words.  Mary arrives and also talks with Him.  He is taken to the tomb, carved out of a rock, where Lazarus was laid.  Mary, Martha, the Jews who were comforting the two sisters, and others, both friends and foes, all stand before the grave of Lazarus.  Luke tells us in one sentence.  “Jesus wept.”  He too, knowing that He had the power to raise Lazarus, wept!  “Then said the Jews, Behold how he loved him!” (John11:35-36) With all the miracles that the Savior performed up till this time, He could have found Lazarus without help, He could have rolled away the stone with a wave of the hand or a word from His tongue, however, Jesus asked “Where have ye laid him,” and then He said, “Take away the stone,” each step with the group of followers.  “Each step was  taken with deliberation, to test and purify the faith of those who believed.”  (McConkie, B3, p. 208) 

            “Then before the great miracle, one thing yet remained.  'And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and

said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me.'  This miracle is going to prove that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Promised One. ….  At this moment with the hearts of Martha and Mary perfectly united with that of their beloved Lord; with the body of Lazarus lying in the dust, eaten by worms, every vital organ in process of rotting away; with the spirit of this man of divine destiny, in paradise, awaiting the Promised Voice—at this moment the Lord of Life spoke: ”LAZARUS, COME FORTH.” (McConkie, B3, p.279)

            Here the Lord of Life, the Savior of the World, the Messiah, brought forth Lazarus from the dead.  Bruce R. McConkie refers to it as the “Miracle of Miracles.  The miracle that he singled out as the chief one to bear witness that he is the resurrection and the life; that by him immortality and eternal life come; and that he would in due course perform the infinitely and miraculously great atoning sacrifice.” (McConkie, B3, p. 269)

            This is the last miracle recorded that He performed before the last week of his life, the very miracle that put the Sanhedrin over the edge, that they could no longer permit Him to walk, teach, and minister before the Jews.  “Then from that day forth they took counsel together for to put him to death.” (John 11:53)

            This is such an important part of the last weeks of the Savior's life.  He pronounced to the world that He was the Messiah, the Redeemer, The Lord of Lords, The Prince of Peace, The Savior of all mankind!  With this miracle there was no refuting that He was sent by God to redeem us. 

            In my insignificant life here on earth, the things that have come my way to help me understand and know the Savior are many.  Each day that I live I think of how much He has done for me.  And knowing that He granted to us the life of our daughter, who that day in the backwoods of Tennessee, could have easily stayed with Him on the other side of the veil, and granted to us many other miracles in our lives.

            How do we share such great miracles with others?  Do we recognize the significant role He plays in our lives, knowing that though Him these things are possible?

            How do we go about our lives in thanks to our Heavenly Father for touching our lives, for granting such sacred tender mercies, that we are able to make it through to tomorrow?

            How are we living our lives, that we like Martha and Mary can testify to the world that we know “That thou art the Christ, the Son of God!” and...Have enough faith to believe that miracles can happen in our very homes and lives.

            I often wonder if in the pre-existence Lazarus volunteered to die, and be the person the Savior brought back to life,  the man to help Him bear witness that Jesus is the Christ!  They were very good friends here on earth. They must have been friends in the pre-earth life!  What a friendship!  What a calling! 

Miracle of Miracles

What can we learn from Lazarus?

Read and prepare

 John 11:1-53

Tell the story of Lazarus.  Bring in the details of how far away things were, the timing, four days of waiting, the precision by which the details came.  The Savior could have done all of these physical

acts by Himself, but He used individuals

around Him to accomplish the simple things. 

Share a story from your family that will help relate how hard it is to lose someone, even if it is just for a few minutes, how easily time can pass when things aren't going easily. 

How can we relate the Miracle of Miracles  to our own personal lives?

             Discuss how these events relate to the last week of the Saviors life. 

How important was it that Lazarus was raised? 

Why was this the Miracles of Miracles? 

            What is the similarity of Lazarus' raising to the Saviors resurrection? 

            What can we do this week to remember the story of Lazarus?

                How patient would we be if we were Mary or Martha? 

             Would we still exclaim, ”I know thou art the Christ?”

Remembering

Miracles of Miracles

Fiddler on the Roof

What a beautiful song this is about the miracles of the Old Testament and of course at the end of love.  It is a wonderful song to share with your family members about miracles.  Miracles of Miracles can be found and watched on the internet, and the original song viewed from Fiddler on the Roof.

  Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles-
God took a Daniel once again,
Stood by his and side and- miracle of miracles- 
Walked him through the lions den!

Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles-
I was afraid that God would frown,
But like he did so long ago, at Jericho,
God just made a wall fall down!

When Moses softened Pharaoh's heart, that was a miracle.
When God made the waters of the red sea part, that was a miracle too!
But of all God's miracles large and small,
The most miraculous one of all 
Is that out of a worthless lump of clay,
God has made a man today.

Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles-
God took a tailor by the hand
Turned him around and- miracle of miracles- Led him to the promised land!

When David slew Goliath (yes!), that was a miracle.
When God gave us manna in the wilderness, that was a miracle too.
But of all God's miracles large and small,
The most miraculous one of all 
Is the one I thought could never be: 
God has given you to me

source: https://www.lyricsondemand.com/soundtracks/f/fiddlerontherooflyrics/miracleofmiracleslyrics

          

 Act of Service

             What service can you do to remember the Miracle of Miracles?

          This act of service the Savior performed for the

          world is so incredible, what can you do to help others

          see this great act of service.