209. What's so good about Good Friday? — Eric Huntsman

Faith Matters

Faith Matters Foundation

Morality, Lds, Ethics, Mormonism, Latter-day Saint, The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-day Saints, Christianity, Philosophy, Mormon, Religion & Spirituality

4.4 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 27 March 2024

⏱️ 62 minutes

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Summary

As Latter-day Saints, we often say that we focus more on Jesus’ resurrection than on His death, and we consider the atonement in Gethsemane as the most sacred event in Jesus’ life. In this episode, we consider a question we don’t think about too often, stemming from this: why have we not cultivated more robust ways to celebrate Holy Week, and all the events leading up to Easter Sunday? Especially when we compare it to all that we do leading up to Christmas?

We sat down to talk with Eric Huntsman, a professor of ancient scripture at BYU and author of God So Loved the World: The Final Days of the Savior's Life. Eric has done a lot of work as a scholar to understand the events of Holy Week leading up to Jesus’ death on the cross on Friday, his resurrected visitations on Sunday, and where, as Latter-day Saints, we might place the points of emphasis differently than other Christian denominations. His family has cultivated Easter traditions, complete with meals, activities, and scripture readings, to help them really feel and anticipate these events, and invite a deeper witness of the Savior. By getting more creative with our Holy Week traditions, Eric says we can connect ourselves more deeply with the rest of Christianity while immersing ourselves more fully in a scriptural journey.

We hope this episode inspires you to get more out Easter Weekend, which is coming up in just a few days. And for more on this topic, you can check out Eric’s book God So Loved the World at Deseret Book, Barnes & Noble, or Amazon.

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0:00.0	Hey everybody before we get started I just wanted to jump on because we are so excited to announce that restore registration is officially open
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0:24.4	Go to faithmatters.org slash restore for tickets and we'll see you there.
0:28.5	Hey everybody this is Aubrey Chavez from Faith Matters. As Latter-day Saints we've historically really emphasized
0:34.0	the significance of Jesus's resurrection, while we also hold Gatsemone and the
0:38.0	crucifixion as two of the most sacred events in Christ's life. So in this
0:41.7	episode we're exploring richer ways to commemorate the last few days
0:44.7	of Holy Week, reflecting on all the profound events preceding Easter Sunday. We sat down again to talk
0:49.5	with Eric Huntsman, a professor of ancient scripture at BYU,
0:52.7	and author of God so love the world,
0:54.4	the final days of the Savior's life.
0:56.3	He's also the academic director of the BYU Jerusalem Center.
0:59.6	Eric has done a lot of work as a scholar
1:01.2	to understand the events of Holy Week leading up to Jesus's death on the
1:04.3	cross on Friday, his resurrected visitations on Sunday, and what our restoration scripture may have to offer
1:09.5	as we observe this sacred time. His family also has so many special Easter traditions
1:13.8	complete with meals, music, activities, and scripture readings that he shares that
1:18.0	really helped them to feel and anticipate these events with joy and reference and
1:21.7	invite a deeper witness of the Savior.
	...

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