John 14:6-7
Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”
John 15:18-25
The World Will Hate Jesus' Disciples and Persecute Them
18 “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.20 Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. 21 They will treat you this way because of my name,for they do not know the one who sent me. 22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 Whoever hates me hates my Father as well. 24 If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. 25 But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’
John 16:33
Jesus Tells Us We Will Have Troubles in this World
33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
Luke 18:31-33
Jesus Predicts His Death a Third Time
31 Jesus took the Twelve aside and told them, “We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled. 32 He will be delivered over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him and spit on him; 33 they will flog him and kill him. On the third day he will rise again.”
Isaiah 53:10
The LORD Caused Jesus to Suffer
10 Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.
Luke 17:25
The Second Coming of Jesus
25 But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.
Life requires struggles...Life requires sufferings...Sufferings have been something I have tried to get around, but have completely been unable to do...Your can only avoid suffering for so long and they come roaring back into your life...And this has taken me years to learn...
So let us say that we believe in God and in Jesus...And we are looking only at things on here on earth...There is this very important question I ask myself about earthy life...And it is pertains to suffering...The question is, what is it that I want most out of life this life on earth?...Do I want financial independence, do I want a great job, a great spouse with a loving relationship, and a great family and great friends?...Now after many years, I have found that working at a job does not gain one necessarily financial independence...A loving relationship takes painfully pouring out of one's sometimes painful emotions, even though many times I want to keep my feelings in and unspoken...A loving relationship can take going through one or many suffering times with the one you love wearing not only yourself out, but the one you love as well...Both at your job and in relationships sacrifice must happen to be successful, and this can be hard...For example, I had thought many times I might start a new business, but I was unable to bring myself to comes to grips with the year to year and the daily grind of long hours and the pains it would take to get the business where I would want it to be...
And as I have read the Bible, God has given us the greatest lessons in suffering and in sacrifice, and thus lessons about life...As we seek God, and try to begin or to increase our faith, we find suffering and troubles ahead...Jesus told His Disciples that they would have troubles and problems in this world...He told His Disciples that if people had hated and persecuted Him, they would also persecute His Disciples...And people did just this...
In talking about these things, we can get caught up in the negative and the suffering...Jesus did say He would suffer many things...But there are good times in life...And even the One from Nazareth was cheered...But let us also remember that the Prophet from Galilee was not only cheered, but also mocked and persecuted...The Pharisees, the High Priest, and the Sanhedrin saw Jesus' teaching and His Ways a serious threat to their own personal power...And as we study this, we see the Passion and Suffering of Jesus was a major point of His message and God's Plan...And Jesus began and maybe was always preparing His Disciples for His arrest and His crucifixion...Jesus told His Disciples three times that in Jerusalem He would be delivered over to the Romans...The Gentiles would mock Him, insult Him and spit on Him...Then they would flog him and kill Him...Then on the third day He would rise again...
We see this Truth in Life and our own sufferings, and we find the Way to the cross is through suffering...And in life we find suffering...Just as in faith, we find suffering...Suffering seems to be our way in life...I do not think there is any way around the pains and sufferings we go through as we live our lives...And suffering seems to be a part of us and our mother's pain as soon as we are born, and come into this world...We cannot get around pain and suffering, no matter how hard we try to avoid it or ignore it...But do we want to...Through the most painful experiences and sufferings with my spouse have made us the closest...
It seems like our sufferings and sacrifices determine much of who we are and where we are...Jesus entered His Glory through suffering...And through God's Plan, I better see how our lives get defined by our sacrifices and sufferings...