Death, Taxes, and a Few Other Sure Things

I was asked to give a short talk in my ward's sacrament meeting today. I have posted my remarks below. Happy Easter, friends.

Jana and I recently watched the new Ken Burns documentary on Benjamin Franklin, one of our Founding Fathers. I’m a history buff, and I even majored in the subject in college until I realized one day, “Yikes, I’m majoring in history.” Franklin’s is, of course, the portrait on one of my favorite pieces of U.S. currency. If a hip hop musical were ever created about his life, I would most seriously consider listening to it.

It was interesting to me to learn that when the Constitution was adopted, he wasn’t completely sure it was last---though he hoped it would. He observed: “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” A cynic today might look at the state of the world and reach the same conclusion.

Five years ago this weekend, death and taxes converged for me on the same day when my father passed away following a long illness on Saturday, April 15 (2017). Earlier that day, I got the impression to go and visit him in the care center. Jana and I were dating at that time, and she got the same impression. I’m so glad we followed that prompting. Had I waited to go and visit him the next day, on Easter Sunday, with the Easter candy I planned to bring, it would’ve been too late.

On that day, I got to hug him one last time and tell him once more that I loved him. Just a few hours later, he was gone. The doctors had given him six months; he lasted only nine more days. Though it was an expected loss, it occurred unexpectedly quickly, and it was a painful one.

When I arrived at the hospital that night, Dad had already passed. My siblings and I recalled numerous funny stories we remembered about Dad; it was a mix of laughter amid the tears. Upon leaving the hospital, I suddenly realized that it was past midnight, and that the day had changed from Saturday night to Sunday morning---it was Easter morning! The timing of this loss was a tender mercy to me and to our family.

In addition, the Comforter came in an unexpected way. The words of a favorite scripture appeared in my mind as I drove home. I saw or heard them repeated very clearly:

“I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die” (John 11:25-26).

In the April 1992 general conference, Elder Marion D. Hanks of the Seventy related the following:

“Let me share with you the tender story of an eleven-year-old boy named Philip, a Down’s syndrome child who was in a Sunday School class with eight other children.

“Easter Sunday the teacher brought an empty plastic egg for each child. They were instructed to go out of the church building onto the grounds and put into the egg something that would remind them of the meaning of Easter.

“All returned joyfully. As each egg was opened there were exclamations of delight at a butterfly, a twig, a flower, a blade of grass. Then the last egg was opened. It was Philip’s, and it was empty!

“Some of the children made fun of Philip. ‘But, teacher,’ he said, ‘teacher, the tomb was empty.’

“A newspaper article announcing Philip’s death a few months later noted that at the conclusion of the funeral eight children marched forward and put a large empty egg on the small casket. On it was a banner that said, ‘The tomb was empty’” (Ensign, May 1992, p. 11).

The tomb was empty---and yet that tomb with nothing and no one inside gave us everything! Our Savior gave us the two greatest gifts He could: triumphing over sin through the Atonement and over death with His Resurrection. Beyond death and taxes, the gospel gives us so many certain things in this life, and many reasons to have great hope in the next one.

The Prophet Joseph Smith taught: “The fundamental principles of our religion are the testimony of the Apostles and Prophets concerning Jesus Christ, that he died, was buried, and rose again the third day, and ascended to heaven; and all other things which pertain to our religion are only appendages to it” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 121).

That is why we are here, today and every other week. We take the sacrament as an appendage to the Atonement and the Resurrection. We meet here on Sundays as an appendage. Our missionary and temple work are appendages to it. We have so much to be grateful for and so many reasons to rejoice this day and every other as followers of Christ.

Brothers and sisters, I know that my Redeemer lives. I also know that the gift of the Holy Ghost is real and is also one of our Father’s greatest gifts to us. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.