Now
I speak very carefully, even reverently, of what may have been the most
difficult moment in all of this solitary journey to Atonement. I speak
of those final moments for which Jesus must have been prepared
intellectually and physically but which He may not have fully
anticipated emotionally and spiritually—that concluding descent into the
paralyzing despair of divine withdrawal when He cries in ultimate loneliness, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
The
loss of mortal support He had anticipated, but apparently He had not
comprehended this. Had He not said to His disciples, “Behold, the hour …
is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and
shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with
me” and “The Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those
things that please him”?
With all the conviction of my soul I testify that He did please His Father perfectly and that a perfect Father did not
forsake His Son in that hour. Indeed, it is my personal belief that in
all of Christ’s mortal ministry the Father may never have been closer to
His Son than in these agonizing final moments of suffering.
Nevertheless, that the supreme sacrifice of His Son might be as complete
as it was voluntary and solitary, the Father briefly withdrew from
Jesus the comfort of His Spirit, the support of His personal presence.
It was required, indeed it was central to the significance of the
Atonement, that this perfect Son who had never spoken ill nor done wrong
nor touched an unclean thing had to know how the rest of humankind—us,
all of us—would feel when we did commit such sins. For His Atonement to
be infinite and eternal, He had to feel what it was like to die not only
physically but spiritually, to sense what it was like to have the
divine Spirit withdraw, leaving one feeling totally, abjectly,
hopelessly alone.
"None Were with Him" Jeffrey R. Holland General Conference May 2009
