"For the word of the Lord is truth, and whatsoever is truth is light..."

Garden of Gethsemane

The Purifying Power of Gethsemane

A talk given by Elder Bruce R. McConkie
of the Quorum of the Twelve at the
April 1985 General Conference

I feel, and the Spirit seems to accord, that the most important doctrine I can declare, and the most powerful testimony I can bear is one of the atoning sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ.

His atonement is the most transcendent event that ever has or ever will occur, from creations dawn and through all the ages of a never ending eternity. It was the supreme act of goodness and grace that only a God could perform. Through it all the terms and conditions of the Father's Plan became operative. Through it was brought to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. Through it all men are saved from death, hell, the devil, and endless torment. Through it all men who believe and obey the glorious gospel of God, those who are true and faithful and overcome the world, all who suffer for Christ and his word, all who are chastened and scourged in the cause in whom we are, all shall become as their maker and sit with him on his throne and reign with him forever in everlasting glory.

In speaking of these wondrous things I will use my own words. Though you might think these are the words of scripture, words spoken by other Apostles and Prophets, true it is that they were first proclaimed by others, but they are now mine. For the Holy Spirit of God has born witness to me that they are true and it is now as though the Lord has revealed them to me in the first instance. I have thereby heard his voice and know his word.

Two thousand years ago, outside of Jerusalem's walls, there was a pleasant Garden spot, Gethsemane by name, where Jesus and his intimate friends were want to retire for pondering and prayer. There Jesus taught his disciples the doctrines of the Kingdom and all of them communed with him who is the Father of us all in who's ministry they were engaged and on who's errand they served. This sacred spot like Eden where Adam dwelt, like Sinai where Jehovah gave his law, like Calvary where the Son of God gave his life as a ransom for many, this holy ground is where the sinless Son of the Everlasting Father took upon himself the sins of all men on conditions of repentance.

We do not know we cannot tell, no mortal mind can conceive the full import of what Christ did in Gethsemane. We know he sweat great gouts of blood from every pore as he drained the dregs of that bitter cup his father had given him. We know he suffered both body and spirit more than it is possible for man to suffer except it be unto death. We know that in some way incomprehensible to us, his suffering satisfied the demands of justice. Ransoms penitent souls from the pains and penalties of sin and made mercy available to those who believe on his holy name. We know that he lay prostrate upon the ground as the pains and agony of an infinite burden caused him to tremble and would that he might not drink of the bitter cup. We know that an angel came from the courts of Glory to strengthen him in his ordeal. And we suppose that it was mighty Michael who foremost fell that man might be. As near as we can judge, these infinite agonies, the suffering beyond compare continued for some three or four hours.

After this, his body then wrenched and drained of strength, he confronted Judas and the other incarnate devils, some from the very Sanhedrin itself and he was lead away with a rope around his neck as a common criminal to be judged by the arch criminals who as Jews sat in Aaron's seat and who as Romans wielded Caesar's power. They took him to Annas, to Caiphas, to Pilate, to Herod, and back to Pilate. He was accused cursed and smitten. Their foul saliva ran down his face as vicious blows further weakened his pain engulfed body. With reeds of wrath they laid blows upon his back. Blood ran down his face as a crown of thorns pierced his trembling brow. But above it all he was scourged, scourged with forty stripes save one. Scourged with a multi-thonged whip in to whose leather strands sharp bones and cutting metals were woven. Many die from the scourging alone, but he arose from the sufferings of the scourge that he might die an ignominious death upon the cross, the cruel cross of Calvary.

Then he carried his own cross until he collapsed from the weight and pain and mounting agony of it all. Finally on a hill called Calvary, again it was outside Jerusalem's walls, while helpless disciples looked on and felt the agonies of near death in their own bodies, the Roman soldiers laid him upon the cross. With great malice they drove spikes of iron through his feet and hands and wrists. Truly he was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities. Then the cross was raised that all might see, gape, curse, and deride. This they did with evil venom for three ours from 9 a.m. until noon. Then heavens grew black darkness covered the land for the space of three hours as it did among the Nephites. There was a mighty storm as though the very God of nature was in agony, and truly he was for while hanging on the cross for another three hours, from noon until 3 p.m., all the infinite agonies and merciless pains of Gethsemane reoccurred. And finally when the atoning agonies had taken their toll, when the victory had been won, when the Son of God had fulfilled the will of God in all things he said "It is finished" and he voluntarily gave up the ghost. As the peace and comfort of a merciful death freed him from the pains and sorrows of mortality he entered the Paradise of God. When he had made his soul an offering for sin he was prepared to see his seed according the Messianic word. These consisting of all the Holy Prophets and Faithful Saints from ages past, these comprising of all those who took upon them his name and who being spiritually begotten by him had become his sons and daughters even as it is with us. All these were assembled in the Spirit World there to see his face and hear his voice.

After some 38 or 40 hours, three days as the Jews measure time, our blessed Lord came to the Arimathaean's tomb where his partially embalmed body had been placed by Nichodemus and Joseph of Arimathaea. Then in a way incomprehensible to us he took up that body which had not yet seen corruption, and rose in that glorious immortality which made him like his resurrected Father. He then received all power in Heaven and on Earth, obtained Eternal Exaltation, appeared to Mary Magdalene and many others and ascended into Heaven. There to sit down on the right hand of God the Father almighty there to reign forever in eternal glory.

His rising from death on the third day crowned the Atonement. Again in some way incomprehensible to us the affects of his Resurrection pass upon all men so that all shall rise from the grave. As Adam brought death so Christ brought life. As Adam is the father of mortality so Christ is the father of immortality. And without both, mortality and immortality, man cannot work out his salvation and ascend to those heights beyond the skies where God and angels reign forever in Eternal Glory.

Now the Atonement of Christ is the basic fundamental of the Gospel and it is the least understood of all our revealed truths. Many of us have a superficial knowledge and rely upon the Lord and his goodness to see through the trials and perils of life. But if we are to have faith as Enoch and Elijah, we must believe what they believed, know what they knew and live as they lived.

May I invite you to join with me in gaining a sound and sure knowledge of the Atonement. We must cast aside the philosophies of men and the wisdom of the wise and hearken to that Spirit which is given to us to guide us into all truth. We must search the scriptures accepting them as the mind, will, and voice of the Lord and the very power of God unto salvation. As we read ponder and pray there will come to our minds a view of the three gardens of God. The Garden of Eden, the Garden of Gethsemane, and the Garden of the empty Tomb where Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene. In Eden we will see all things created in a paradisiacal state without death without procreation without probationary experiences. We will come to know that such a creation now unknown to man was the only way to provide for the fall. We will then see Adam and Eve the first man and woman step down from their immortal and paradisiacal glory to become the first mortal flesh on earth. Mortality including as it does procreation and death enter the world. And because of transgression a probationary state of trial and testing will begin. Then in Gethsemane we will see the Son of God ransom man from the temporal and spiritual death which came to us because of the fall. And finally before an empty tomb we will come to know that Christ our Lord has burst the bands of death and stands forever triumphant over the grave.

Thus, creation is father to the fall and by the fall came mortality and death and by Christ came immortality and eternal life. If there had been no fall of Adam by which cometh death, there could have been no Atonement by which cometh life.

And now as pertaining to this perfect Atonement, I testify that it took place at Gethsemane and at Golgotha. And as pertaining to Jesus Christ, I testify that he is the Son of the Living God who was crucified for the sins of the world. He is our Lord, our God, and our King. This I know of myself independent of any other person. I am one of his Witnesses. And in the coming day I will feel the nail marks in his hands and in his feet and shall wet his feet with my tears. But I shall not know any better then, than I know now, that he is God's almighty Son and he is our Savior and Redeemer and that Salvation comes in and through his atoning blood and in no other way.

God grant that all of us will walk in the light, as God our Father is in the light so that according to his promises the blood of Jesus Christ his son will cleanse us from all sin. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, amen.