You can watch or read Sister Johnson’s talk at: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2023/04/42johnson?lang=eng

Sister Johnson begins by telling the story of the man with palsy who was healed by Jesus when his friends let him down through a roof.

Jesus Christ had provided the hoped-for healing—physical relief from pain and the crippling consequences of chronic disease. Significantly, the Savior also provided spiritual relief in cleansing the man from sin.

I testify that Jesus Christ is relief. Through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we may be relieved of the burden and consequences of sin and be succored in our infirmities.

And because we love God and have covenanted to serve Him, we can partner with the Savior to help provide temporal and spiritual relief for those in need—and in the process find our own relief in Jesus Christ.

In what ways is Jesus Christ relief? 

Our beloved prophet, President Russell M. Nelson, invited us to overcome the world and find rest. He defined “true rest” as “relief and peace.” President Nelson said, “Because the Savior, through His infinite Atonement, redeemed each of us from weakness, mistakes, and sin, and because He experienced every pain, worry, and burden you have ever had, then as you truly repent and seek His help, you can rise above this present precarious world.” That is the relief Jesus Christ offers us!

How have you experienced the relief and peace that can come through the Atonement of Jesus Christ?

Each of us is carrying a metaphorical backpack. It may be a basket balanced on your head or a satchel or a bundle of things wrapped in cloth and thrown over your shoulder. But for our thinking, let’s call it a backpack.

This metaphorical backpack is where we carry the burdens of living in a fallen world. Our burdens are like rocks in the backpack. Generally, there are three kinds:

• Rocks there of our own doing because of sin.
• Rocks in our backpack because of the poor decisions, misconduct, and unkindness of others.
• And rocks we carry because we are living in a fallen condition. These include the rocks of disease, pain, chronic illness, grief, disappointment, loneliness, and the effects of natural disasters.

What can we learn from the metaphor of the backpack and the rocks?

I joyfully declare that our mortal burdens, these rocks in our figurative backpack, need not feel heavy.

Jesus Christ can lighten our load.

Jesus Christ can lift our burdens.

Jesus Christ provides a way for us to be relieved of the weight of sin.

Jesus Christ is our relief.

He said:

“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest [that is, relief and peace].

“Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

“For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

President Howard W Hunter explained:

“Take my yoke upon you,” he pleads. In biblical times the yoke was a device of great assistance to those who tilled the field. It allowed the strength of a second animal to be linked and coupled with the effort of a single animal, sharing and reducing the heavy labor of the plow or wagon. A burden that was overwhelming or perhaps impossible for one to bear could be equitably and comfortably borne by two bound together with a common yoke. His yoke requires a great and earnest effort, but for those who truly are converted, the yoke is easy and the burden becomes light.

Why face life’s burdens alone, Christ asks, or why face them with temporal support that will quickly falter? To the heavy laden it is Christ’s yoke, it is the power and peace of standing side by side with a God that will provide the support, balance, and the strength to meet our challenges and endure our tasks here in the hardpan field of mortality.”

That the yoke is easy and the burden is light presumes we get in the yoke with the Savior, that we share our burdens with Him, that we let Him lift our load. That means entering into a covenant relationship with God and keeping that covenant, which, as President Nelson has explained, “makes everything about life easier.” He said, “Yoking yourself with the Savior means you have access to His strength and redeeming power.”

How do our covenants yoke us to Christ?

So why are we stingy with our rocks? Why would a weary baseball pitcher refuse to leave the mound when a reliever is there ready to complete the game? Why would I insist on maintaining my post alone when the Reliever stands ready to keep it with me?

President Nelson has taught, “Jesus Christ … stands with open arms, hoping and willing to heal, forgive, cleanse, strengthen, purify, and sanctify us.”

So why do we insist on carrying our rocks alone?

Why DO we insist on carrying our rocks alone?

We can struggle along in darkness, bowed down by our burdens, not knowing where we are going – or we can come unto the Saviour and accept his help, his grace, his atonement.

For me, it is the age-old vice of pride. “I’ve got this,” I say. “No worries; I’ll get it done.” It’s the great deceiver who wants me to hide from God, to turn away from Him, to go at it alone.

How does pride prevent us fro accessing the Atonement of Jesus Christ?

Brothers and sisters, I can’t go at it alone, and I don’t need to, and I won’t. Choosing to be bound to my Savior, Jesus Christ, through the covenants I have made with God, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”

Sometimes I hear members of the Church murmuring that it is hard to be a member of the Church, that it is hard to keep the commandments, to keep striving to perfect ourselves. This may sometimes be true, but I believe that it is incomparably harder to live life without the Gospel, to not know the purpose of life, to not know what has happened to our loved ones who have passed on, to have no sure light or voice guiding us through life’s darknesses and to have no relief for sin. As Neal A Maxwell says:

“[Christ’s] yoke, when fully and squarely placed upon us, is much lighter than the weight of sin. No burden is as heavy as the burden of the ‘natural man’! The annoying load of ambivalence and the hecticness of hesitation produce their own aggravations and frustrations.” (Men and Women of Christ, p. 103.)

Now let’s return to our own metaphorical backpack.

Repentance, through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, is what relieves us of the weight of the rocks of sin. And by this exquisite gift, God’s mercy relieves us from the heavy and otherwise insurmountable demands of justice.

How is repentance a joy rather than a burden?

The Atonement of Jesus Christ also makes it possible for us to receive strength to forgive, which allows us to unload the weight we carry because of mistreatment by others.

President Russell M. Nelson has taught that the Savior offers us the ability to forgive:

“Through His infinite Atonement, you can forgive those who have hurt you and who may never accept responsibility for their cruelty to you.

“It is usually easy to forgive one who sincerely and humbly seeks your forgiveness. But the Savior will grant you the ability to forgive anyone who has mistreated you in any way. Then their hurtful acts can no longer canker your soul.”

So how does the Savior relieve us of the burdens of living in a fallen world with mortal bodies subject to grief and pain?

Often, He performs that kind of relief through us! As covenant members of His Church, we promise “to mourn with those that mourn” and “comfort those that stand in need of comfort.” Because we are “come into the fold of God” and are “called his people,” we “are willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light.” 

Our covenantal blessing is to partner with Jesus Christ in providing relief, both temporal and spiritual, to all of God’s children. We are a conduit through which He provides relief.

Have you had experiences where others have been a conduit through which the Lord provided relief to you?

And so, like the friends of the man with palsy, we “succor the weak, lift up the hands which hang down, and strengthen the feeble knees.” We “bear … one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.” As we do, we come to know Him, become like Him, and find His relief.