“Jesus Christ: The Hope and Promise of Easter,” Liahona, Apr. 2025.
Jesus Christ: The Hope and Promise of Easter
Through the hope and promise of Easter, Jesus Christ fills the longings of our hearts and answers the questions of our souls.
Illustrations by Michael Dunford
Please create a quiet moment and place of spiritual sanctuary as you read this message.
Too often, our world is noisy, cluttered with pretense and pride. But when we are open, honest, and vulnerable with ourselves and God, Easter’s hope and promise in Jesus Christ become real. In such moments, we plead:
“How can I see my family member, my friend, my loved one again?”
“In a world of often-fleeting ‘I choose me’ relationships, where do I find and feel peace, hope, and communion with God (see Doctrine and Covenants 107:19), those around me, and myself?”
“Is there someone I can love—and who will really love me? Can covenant relationships grow and last, not as a fairy tale but with bonds stronger than the cords of death, truly happy and forever?”
“Where there is much pain, suffering, and unfairness, how can I contribute to peace, harmony, and understanding in Jesus Christ and in His restored gospel and Church?”
At this Easter season, I share my testimony of Jesus Christ and of His promise and hope.
The Promise of Covenant Belonging and Purpose
God, our Eternal Father in Heaven; Jesus Christ, His Beloved Son; and the Holy Ghost are personally close to us. Their infinite and eternal light, compassion, and redeeming love are interwoven in the purpose of creation and the fabric of our existence (see Alma 30:44; Moses 6:62–63).
In the premortal Council in Heaven, “the morning stars sang together, and all the sons [and daughters] of God shouted for joy” (Job 38:7). We chose choice. Now we walk by faith. Through our own experience, we discover God’s promised beauty, clarity, joy, and purpose amidst mortality’s uncertainties, discouragements, and challenges.
We are not meant to wander alone in existential uncertainty. We can commune with heaven, build faith and belonging in family and in the household and community of the Saints, and become our truest, freest, most authentic, joyful selves through willing and joyful obedience to God’s commandments. Atonement—at-one-ment—in and through Jesus Christ brings this covenant belonging.
The Hope of Jesus Christ’s Life and Mission
Each day, Easter’s hope and promise include the blessings and teachings Jesus Christ shared during His perfect mortal ministry. Preordained in the beginning, Jesus Christ was born the Only Begotten Son of God (see Jacob 4:5; Alma 12:33–34; Moses 5:7, 9). He grew in wisdom and stature, finding favor with God and man (see Luke 2:52). Seeking only to do the will of His Father, Jesus Christ forgave sins, healed infirmities, raised the dead, and comforted the sick and lonely.
Once, after fasting 40 days, He testified, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised” (Luke 4:18; see also Isaiah 61:1).
That’s each of us.
At the Last Supper, Jesus Christ washed His disciples’ feet (see John 13:4–8). In both the Old and New Worlds, the “living water” and “the bread of life” Himself instituted the sacrament. In the sacred sacramental ordinance, we call upon the Father and we covenant to take upon us the name of Jesus Christ, always remember Him, and keep His commandments, that we may always have His Spirit to be with us (see Luke 22:19–20; 3 Nephi 18:7, 10–11).
In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus suffered more than man can suffer to redeem and atone for us. Blood came from every pore. He suffered these pains for all, that we might not suffer if we would repent (see Doctrine and Covenants 18:11; 19:16).
Betrayed and falsely accused, Jesus Christ was mocked and scourged, and a crown of thorns was thrust upon His humble head (see Matthew 27:26, 29; Mark 15:15, 17, 20, 31; Luke 22:63; John 19:1–2). “Bruised for our iniquities … with his stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). He was “lifted up upon the cross” to draw us to Him (see 3 Nephi 27:14–15). Yet, even on the cross, Jesus Christ forgave (see Luke 23:34). He asked John to care for His mother (see John 19:26–27). He felt forsaken (see Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34). That scripture might be fulfilled, He said He thirsted (see John 19:28). When all was accomplished, He of Himself “gave up the ghost” (Luke 23:46; see also John 10:17–18).
Jesus Christ knows how to succor us in our sicknesses, infirmities, loneliness, isolation, and hardships (see Alma 7:12). Such afflictions often come as the consequence of others’ choices. He also knows how to rejoice with us in our delights and gratitude, how to weep with us when our joy is full. Tenderly, He calls us in His name, by His voice, into His fold. He calls to every person everywhere. He invites us to see and understand mortal life through an eternal perspective. As we walk uprightly and keep our covenants, He promises that all things can work together for our good (see Doctrine and Covenants 90:24; Romans 8:28).
In His time and way, restoration comes—not only to how things were but also to what they can become. Truly, Jesus Christ can free us from bondage and sin, from death and hell, and can help us fulfill our divine identity as we become more than we ever imagined, through faith and repentance.
The Promise of Deliverance
Because of Jesus Christ, death is not the end. At Easter we declare:
By commandment and power from His Father, Jesus could lay down His life and take it up again (see John 10:17). While His body lay in the tomb, Jesus Christ ministered and organized in the world of spirits, declaring “their redemption from the bands of death” (Doctrine and Covenants 138:16).
On the morning of the third day, He rose from the tomb. He spoke to Mary. He appeared to two disciples on the road to Emmaus, His Apostles, and others. (See Matthew 28; Mark 16; Luke 24; John 20.)
In chiasmatic testimony, He invited His disciples to cast their nets on the other side of the ship; this time, though again full of fish, the nets did not break (see John 21:6–11; Luke 5:3–7). He fed the disciples and pleaded with Peter three times to feed His sheep and lambs (see John 21:12–17). He ascended into heaven, declaring that His disciples then and all of us now should share Easter’s glorious news and His gospel with every nation, kindred, and people (see Matthew 28:19–20; Mark 16:15).
Jesus Christ is our Good Shepherd and the Lamb of God. He gave His life for, and gives His life to, His sheep. In the garden and on the cross, He bore the unbearable and atoned for us. In time and eternity, He shows us by example how “death unlocks the passageway into eternity.”
Through the power of Christ’s Atonement and Resurrection, our bodies and spirits will be reunited in physical resurrection. We will be glorious, restored in countenance and physical frame, limb to limb. Even the hairs of our heads will be restored. We will be free from ailments of time, disease, physical accident, and mental incapacity. Christ’s Atonement can bless us to overcome every kind of spiritual separation and spiritual death. On condition of repentance, we are freed from every sin and sorrow and opened to an eternal fulness of love and joy. Pure, clean, free, we can return in our most cherished family relationships to the glorious, celestial presence of God our Father and Jesus Christ.
We will see our loved ones again. When we are reunited with those we love, we will see one another with an eternal perspective—with greater love, understanding, and kindness. Jesus Christ’s Atonement can help us remember what matters and forget what does not. Seeing our Savior and relationships with greater faith and gratitude brings peace, lifts burdens, reconciles hearts, and unites families in time and eternity.
The Hope of Abundance and Joy
Easter in Jesus Christ includes windows of heaven opening, fruit of the vine multiplying, and lands becoming delightsome. Easter in Jesus Christ includes comforting and caring for widows and orphans, the hungry and helpless, those who are afraid, abused, or innocently caught in harm’s way. Mindful of each, Jesus Christ invites us to see and minister with love and compassion, as He does.
In all good things, Jesus Christ restores abundantly (see John 10:10; Alma 40:20–24). He promises that “the earth is full, and there is enough and to spare” (Doctrine and Covenants 104:17). His restoration of all things includes the fulness of His gospel, His priesthood authority and power, and the sacred ordinances and covenants found in His Church, called in His name, even The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Easter in Jesus Christ includes more holy houses of the Lord coming closer to God’s children in many places, bringing into our hearts the doctrine of “saviors on Mount Zion” (see Obadiah 1:21). The Lord provides a sanctifying, unselfish way for us to offer on earth what departed loved ones need and desire in eternity that they cannot obtain for themselves.
Such is my hope, promise, and testimony. I witness God our Father; our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ; and the Holy Ghost. At Easter and every day, may we find eternal hope and promise in God’s divine plan of happiness, with its covenant path of divine transformation from mortality into immortality and eternal life. Each day may the certainty of Jesus Christ’s Atonement lift our burdens, help us comfort others in their sorrows, and free our souls to receive His full joy.
Through the hope and promise of Easter, Jesus Christ fills the longings of our hearts and answers the questions of our souls.