I am profoundly grateful for the influence of the temple in my life. As I contemplate the atonement of Jesus Christ during this Holy Week, my heart is full of gratitude and love for my Savior! I think of how Jesus rescued me when I was a practicing alcoholic with no sobriety in seven years and from heavy addiction lasting 18 years. In sobriety, I have experienced His grace and power. I know He felt my sorrow and sins in Gethsemane and on the cross. I can’t wrap my mind around it, but I know it’s real. I wouldn’t be alive today without His grace and healing.
We have examined the cursing of the fig tree on Monday of Holy Week. Fig trees produce the fruit buds before the leaves, so wherever you see fig leaves, there should be fruitfulness, for which Israel had become negligent.
Jesus cleansed the temple, overthrowing the tables of the moneychangers and the seats of them that sold doves. He said, “It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves” (Matthew 21:12-13).
During this Passover week, the paschal lambs were selected on the tenth day of the month and sacrificed four days later. During this time, the lambs were examined for any blemishes. If we place the Christmas story in the spring and take the verse in D&C 20:1 literally, then the Savior’s birth was April 6th. We can now better understand the Christmas story and appreciate why the shepherds were “keeping watch over their flock by night” (Luke 2:8). During the original Holy Week, the Lamb of God was being examined by the chief priests and Pharisees with questions like, “By what authority doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority?” (Matthew 21:23). Or, “What thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give tribute unto Cæsar, or not?” (Matthew 22:17). Or the question of the Sadducees regarding the seven brothers who were all married to the same wife: “Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her.” (Matthew 22:28). Jesus was examined and cross examined.
In the Gospel of John, the Last Supper is not called a Passover meal. John 13:1-2 states, “Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. And supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him.” John has the Last Supper the day before Passover. According to Josephus, the paschal lambs were brought into the temple courtyard at 3:00 in the afternoon of Passover to be slain. All three Synoptic Gospels state that Jesus died at the ninth hour, which would be 3:00 in the afternoon. Think of the symbolism and irony of this! As the paschal lambs are being sacrificed in the temple courtyard, the Lamb of God finishes the ultimate sacrifice for you and me!
At the Crucifixion, after Jesus had yielded up the ghost, the “veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom” (Matthew 27:51). In the Old Testament, only the designated high priest, who was a direct descendant of Aaron, could enter the Holy of Holies. And he could only enter once a year on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur). I am grateful that Jesus parted the veil so we can attend the temple and enter into the Celestial Room, representing the presence of God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ.
In Leviticus 23, the Lord commands the children of Israel to keep the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot):
“Seven days ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord: on the eighth day shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord: it is a solemn assembly.” (Leviticus 23:36).
We get to experience a solemn assembly tomorrow as we sustain a new prophet. These have always been grand events. The word convocation in the verse above is the Hebrew word miqra’. It means “to have a rehearsal.” All saving ordinances of the gospel are rehearsals for future eternal events. At baptism we rehearse the resurrection and coming out of the grave. In the Temple Endowment, we rehearse the entire plan of salvation, from premortal life to future exaltation with God the Father and Jesus Christ. We anticipate that glorious day when we will pass through the veil into Their presence.
“Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,
“By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh.” (Hebrews 10:19-20).
