SUFFERINGS
Gospel of Mark
8:31 Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.
8:32 He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
8:33 But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things."
If space is all over in the Universe, so is suffering.
suffering starts very early in the book of Genesis but we can't say that it was so from the very beginning at least not in chapter one, which is also the first chapter in the history book of the human nation. Some can argue that that particular book had not been written from the very beginning as a diary, for writing had not been invented for a long time. However, it doesn't really matter because the real book of the history of the human nation was kept written in Heaven by the Angels, which is called the Book of Records, and it contains all the details of every human# person's life whoever lived, lives and will live.
The Book of Records is kept by the Record Keepers, however the judgment belongs to God only. The judgments and rulings are written since time immemorial or primordial, or rather since Genesis chapter three, in two separate Books. The Book of Life, and the Book of the Death.
In the Hebrew Scriptures, the Book of Life records those people considered righteous before God, containing the names of every person who is destined for Heaven or the world to come.When somebody’s name was blotted out from the Book of Life, that person’s name goes to the register, which called the Book of Death.
In the Book of Genesis, chapter one, there was no need for judgment or rulings, yet, because everything was fine, as it is written that "God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. There was evening and there was morning, a sixth day."
The second chapter in the book of Genesis is practically the repetition of the first chapter with extra details. The troubles of humanity begin in the third chapter, and they begin with the disobedience to God's expressed will, or even by just listening to the Wicked one' whispering.
It is a figurative speech Bible story, trying to convey the message that suffering starts when we disobey God. It is not just that humans go rogue from the Paradise, and they are deprived much of the warmth of the close presence of God, but it had and has serious consequences, like immortality disappeared and in the aftermath of the disobedience death and sicknesses as the precursor reminder of death became a part of human experience.
As it is written, that God told the man, that “you return to the ground, for you were taken out of it. For you are dust, and you shall return to dust.”
Thus, disobedience to God was and is a major game-changer, as disobedience to God, distances us from God, who is the source of all life, and God’s Spirit gives or takes the life-force to all or from all. However, disobedience caused not only that our life-force became limited, as it is written, that it it limited to 80 or 120 years, but it is also the major source of any sufferings on Earth.
Like as farther is a person from God, as more he suffers. The scriptures agree that, disobedience is the root cause of all sufferings. Life on Earth is by definition is suffering. We can have a few not that bad moment, sometime we call them happy moments, but otherwise, life on Earth in general is suffering, just because we were born in the flesh.
The Apostle Paul wrote it to the congregation in Rome, chapter 8 that, “ For those who live according to the flesh, set their minds on the things of the flesh … The mind of the flesh is death,...because the mind of the flesh is hostile toward God; for it is not subject to God’s law, neither indeed can it be. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”
And this is natural. We have to acknowledge that most sufferings on Earth are human caused, we inflict them on each other. The Earth itself is cursed in general for the sin of Adam, as it is written that the Lord God said, that “Because you … have eaten from the tree, about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ the ground is cursed for your sake. You will eat from it with much labor all the days of your life.”
Nonetheless, prophet Isaiah declared as an envoy of the Lord, if that something is really profoundly wrong on Earth, then that are the murders, the bloodshed and any arbitrarily imposed sufferings, like coercion, slavery, indentured labor, usury, oppression, exploitation, taking advantage on anybody in anything. All these sins reinforce the dark forces, and they consumed by death. All this sins are natural, in order to fight death our minds have to be freed from the jail of the flesh. If our minds are set on the flesh, it is impossible to obey God. Obeying God, is against nature, it is supernatural.
In history many people complained, that keeping of the Ten Commandments fully, is impossible for mortal people. Many more complained that keeping fully just one of the Commandments is impossible too, especially the last one, which says, it is not enough if you do not do any wrong, you shall not even covet it. It is not enough to enforce the flesh to obey, but we must get rid of the mind, as well, which mind is set on the flesh, if we really want to obey the commandment, which says that you shall not even covet.
That is why Jesus told Nicodemus, that you must be born again from the Spirit, and the Spirit will deliver you from the prison of the flesh.
Mankind have dreamed about immortality and invincibility since ages, we tried to deify our ancestors, our heroes and our mighty emperors. However, ancestors vanished, heroes died, empires disappeared, sufferings, sickness, war and death stayed on Earth generations lived according to the flesh, generation after generation, flesh after flesh, dust to dust.
Thus, it must be conclusive to all, as an outcome of the known human history, according to the Gospels we can not save ourselves, we need the mighty Savior, Jesus Christ, who died for us in order to save us from our own sins and from the curse of this world.
We must reborn by Faith and the Holy Spirit, repenting our sins, and we must take the path of Jesus guided by the Holy Spirit, which leads to Heaven, and eternal life. AMEN.
