nl-Chapter 12 – Suffering, death and resurrection

Jesus' Lifelong Struggles and Suffering

1. I lived among people and made my life an example, a textbook. I experienced all forms of suffering, the temptations and struggles, poverty, labor, and persecution. I endured rejection by my own family, ingratitude, and betrayal; long days of work, hunger and thirst, mockery, loneliness, and death. I allowed the entire burden of human sin to fall upon Me. I permitted man to scrutinize My Spirit in My Word and in My pierced body, where one could even see the last of My ribs. Although I am God, I was made a king of mockery, stripped bare, and was also forced to carry the cross of shame and climb the hill where the thieves died. There my human life came to an end as proof that I am not only the God of the Word, but the God of deeds. (217, 11)

2. As the hour drew near and the Last Supper was over, Jesus had given his disciples his final instructions. He set out for the Garden of Gethsemane, where he was accustomed to pray, and spoke to the Father: "Lord, if it is possible, take this cup from me. Yet not my will, but yours be done." Then the one among my disciples who was to betray Me approached, accompanied by a crowd that would arrest Me. When they asked, "Who is Jesus of Nazareth?" Judas approached his Master and kissed Him. Fear and dismay filled the hearts of those men when they saw Jesus' calm composure, and they asked again, "Who is Jesus?" Then I went up to them and said to them, "Here I am; it is I." Thus began my Passion.

3. They brought Me before priests, judges, and rulers. They interrogated Me, judged Me, and accused Me of violating the Law of Moses and of seeking to establish a kingdom that would destroy that of the Emperor. (152, 6-7)

The Betrayal of Judas

4. Do you not remember how many times I revealed My love, not only to those who believed in Me, but also to the one who betrayed Me, and to those who persecuted and judged Me? Now you might ask Me what was the reason that moved Me to allow all those mockeries. And I answer you: It was necessary for Me to grant them complete freedom of thought and action in order to create suitable opportunities to reveal Myself, so that all might experience the mercy and love that I taught the world.

5. I did not move Judas's heart to betray Me; he was the instrument of an evil thought when his heart was filled with darkness. Yet in the face of that disciple's unfaithfulness, I showed him My forgiveness.

6. It would not have been necessary for one of My own to betray Me in order to give you that example of humility. The Master would have demonstrated it at any opportunity that people might have offered Him. It fell to that disciple to be the instrument through which the Master showed His divine humility to the world. Even if you thought that it was that man's weakness that brought about Jesus' death, I tell you that you are mistaken; for I came to give Myself entirely to you, and if it had not been in this way, you may be certain that it would have happened in some other way. Therefore, you have no right to curse or judge him who is your brother, who in a moment of darkness lacked the love and loyalty he owed his Master. If you blame him for my death—why do you not bless him, since you know that my blood was shed for the salvation of all people? It would be better for you to pray and ask that none of you fall into temptation, for the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees still exists in this world. (90, 37-39)

The Passion of Jesus

7. When I was being interrogated by the high priest Caiaphas and he said to Me, "I adjure You to tell me whether You are the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God," I answered him, "You have said so." (21:30)

8. How many hearts, which just a few days earlier had admired and blessed My works, forgot them, showed themselves ungrateful, and joined those who reviled Me. Yet it was necessary for that sacrifice to be very great, so that it would never be erased from the memory of mankind.

9. The world, and you as part of it, have seen Me reviled, mocked, and humiliated as no human could have been. Yet patiently I emptied the cup you gave Me to drink. Step by step, I fulfilled My destiny of love among humanity and gave Myself entirely to My children.

10. Blessed are those who believed in their God, even though they saw Him covered in blood and gasping for breath.

11. Yet something even more difficult awaited Me: to die nailed to a cross between two thieves. But it was written, and therefore it had to be fulfilled so that I might be recognized as the true Messiah. (152, 8-11)

12. For this teaching I am giving you now, I already gave you an example in the "Second Era." Jesus hung on the cross; the Savior wrestled with death in the presence of the crowds of people He had loved so dearly. Every heart was a door at which He had knocked. Among the crowd of onlookers were the man who ruled the masses, the prince of the church, the tax collector, the Pharisee, the rich man, the poor man, the depraved, and the simple-hearted. Yet while some knew who He was who died at that hour, because they had seen His works and received His blessings, others, thirsting for innocent blood and greedy for vengeance, hastened the death of the One whom they mockingly called "King of the Jews," without knowing that He was not only the King of one people, but that He was the King of all peoples on earth and of all worlds in the universe. As Jesus cast one of His final glances upon those crowds, He raised His prayer to the Father, filled with merciful love and compassion, and said: "My Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."

13. That gaze encompassed both those who wept for him and those who revelled in his torment, for the Master's love—which was the Father's love—was equally directed toward all. (103, 26–27)

14. When the day came when the crowd, incited by those who felt threatened by Jesus' presence, wounded and scourged him, and saw him, as a result of the blows, bleed like an ordinary mortal and later struggle with death and die like any other human being, the Pharisees, the leaders of the people, and the priests exclaimed with satisfaction: "Look at him, the one who calls himself the Son of God, who thought himself a king and claimed to be the Messiah!"

15. It was for them, more than for anyone else, that Jesus asked his Father to forgive them—they who, even though they knew the Scriptures, were now denying him and portraying him as a fraud before the crowd. It was they who, despite their claim to be teachers of the law, did not in reality know what they were doing when they condemned Jesus, while there among the crowd were hearts torn with pain at the injustice they were witnessing, and faces streaming with tears at the sacrificial death of the Righteous One. It was the men and women of simple minds, humble , and generous spirits who knew Who had been among the people in the world, and who understood what they had lost with the Master's passing. (150, 24–25)

16. He speaks to you who, struggling with death on the cross and mistreated and tortured by the executioners, raised his eyes to infinity and said: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."

17. In that divine forgiveness I included all people of all times, for I could see the past, the present, and the future of humanity. I can tell you in truth and in spirit that I also beheld you in that blessed hour, you who are hearing My new Word at this time. (268, 38-39)

18. As I cast my final glances down upon the crowd from the height of the cross, I beheld Mary, and to her I said, referring to John: "Woman, behold your son," and to John: "Son, behold your mother."

19. John was the only one at that hour who could understand the meaning of the following sentence, for the crowd was so blind that when I said, "I thirst," they thought it was physical thirst and gave Me gall and vinegar, whereas it was a thirst for love that My Spirit felt.

20. The two criminals beside Me were also struggling with death; yet while one blasphemed and plunged himself into perdition, the other allowed himself to be enlightened by the light of faith; and although he saw his God nailed to the shameful crossbeam and near death, he believed in His divinity and said to Him: "If You are in the Kingdom of Heaven, remember me," whereupon I, moved by so much faith, replied: "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise."

21. No one knows the storms that raged in the heart of Jesus at that hour. The unleashed forces of nature were but a faint reflection of what was taking place within the solitude of that man, and the pain of the Divine Spirit was so great and so real that the flesh, feeling weak for a moment, cried out: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

22. Just as I taught people to live, I also taught them to die, forgiving and blessing even those who reviled and tortured Me as I spoke to the Father: "Forgive them, for they know not what they do."

23. And when the Spirit left this world, He said: "Father, into Your hands I commend My Spirit." The perfect teaching example was accomplished; as God and as man, I had spoken. (152, 12 161 17)

24. A single moment was enough for Dimas to find salvation, and that was the last of his life. He spoke to Me from the cross, and although he saw that Jesus, whom they called the Son of God, was in the throes of death, he felt that He was the Messiah, the Savior; and he surrendered himself to Him with all the repentance of his heart and all the humility of his soul. That is why I promised him Paradise that very same day.

25. I tell you, I will let everyone who sins unwittingly but speaks to Me at the end of his life with a heart full of humility and faith feel the tenderness of My merciful love, which lifts him up from the hardships of the earth to let him know the bliss of a noble and exalted life. (94, 71-72)

26. Yes, dear Dimas, you were with Me in the paradise of light and spiritual peace, where I carried your soul as a reward for your faith. Who could have told those who doubted that a God dwelt in Jesus—dying and bleeding as He was—that a spirit of light was hidden within the thief who lay on His right hand in the throes of death? 27. Time passed, and when peace of mind returned, many of those who had rejected and mocked Me entered into the light of My truth, which is why their repentance was great and their love in following Me indestructible. (320, 67)

28. When the body that served as My vessel in the Second Era entered its death throes and I spoke My final words from the cross, among My last utterances was one that was not understood either in those moments or for a long time afterward: "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?"

29. Because of those words, many doubted; others were confused, thinking it was a lack of courage, a wavering, a moment of weakness. But they did not consider that this was not the last sentence, but that after it I spoke others that revealed full strength and clarity: "Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit"; and: "It is finished."

30. Now that I have returned to shed light on your errors and to illuminate what you have called mysteries, I tell you: When I hung on the cross, the agony of death was long and bloody, and the body of Jesus—infinitely more sensitive than that of all other human beings—endured a prolonged agony, yet death did not come. Jesus had fulfilled His mission in the world, had already spoken the final word and given the final teaching. Then that tortured body, that torn flesh, as it felt the separation from the Spirit, asked the Lord in anguish: "Father, Father, why have You forsaken Me?"—It was the gentle and suffering cry of the wounded Lamb for its Shepherd. It was proof that Christ, the "Word," truly became human in Jesus and that his suffering was real.

31. Can you attribute these words to Christ, who is eternally one with the Father? — Now you know that it was a groan from the body of Jesus, which had been desecrated by the blindness of men. But when the Lord's caress descended upon that tortured flesh, Jesus continued to speak, and his words were: "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." — "It is finished." (34:27–30)

32. As Jesus hung on the cross, there was no spirit that did not feel shaken by the voice of love and justice of Him who died—naked as the truth itself, which He brought in His words. Those who have studied the life of Jesus have recognized that there has been no one before or after Him who accomplished a work like His, for it was a divine work that, through His example, will save humanity.

33. Meekly I came to the sacrifice, for I knew that My blood was to transform and save you. Until the very last moment, I spoke with love and forgave you, for I came to bring you a sublime teaching and to show you the way to eternity through perfect examples.

34. Humanity sought to dissuade Me from My purpose by exploiting the weakness of the flesh; yet I did not waver. People sought to lead Me into blasphemy; yet I did not blaspheme. The more the crowd insulted Me, the more compassion and love I had for them, and the more they wounded My body, the more blood flowed from it to give life to those dead to the faith.

35. That blood is the symbol of the love with which I have charted the path for the human spirit. I left My word of faith and hope to those hungry for justice and the treasure of My revelations to the spiritually poor.

36. Only after that time did humanity become aware of who had been in the world. Thereupon, the work of Jesus was perceived as perfect and divine, recognized as superhuman—how many tears of repentance! How many pangs of conscience in the souls! (29, 37–41)

37. When Jesus, who was "the Way, the Truth, and the Life," concluded His mission with that prayer of the seven words and finally spoke to His Father: "Into Your hands I commend my spirit," then consider whether you, who are the pupils and disciples of that Master, can leave this life without offering it to the Father as a tribute of obedience and humility; and whether you can close your eyes to this world without asking the Lord for His protection, since you will not open them again until you are in other realms.

38. The whole life of Jesus was a sacrifice of love for the Father. The hours of His agony on the cross were a prayer of love, intercession, and forgiveness.

39. This is the path I showed you, humanity. Live in the footsteps of your Master, and I promise to lead you to My bosom, which is the source of all bliss. (94, 78 80)

40. I, Christ, revealed through the man Jesus the glory of the Father, His wisdom, and His power. That power was used to perform miracles for the benefit of those who needed faith in their spirit, light in their mind, and peace in their heart. That power, which is the very force of love itself, was poured out upon the afflicted to devote myself entirely to them, to the extent that I did not use it for my own body, which likewise needed it at the hour of death.

41. I did not wish to make use of My power to avoid the piercing pain of My body. For when I became human, it was with the intention of suffering for your sake and of giving you tangible divine and human proof of My infinite love and My compassion for the immature, the afflicted, and the sinners.

42. All the power I revealed to others—whether by healing a leper, restoring sight to the blind, and mobility to the lame, or by converting sinners and raising the dead — all the authority I revealed before the crowds to give them proof of my truth by demonstrating my dominion over the natural realms and my power over life and death—I did not wish to use for myself, and thus I allowed my body to endure that Passion and suffer that pain.

43. True, My power could have spared My body all pain, but what merit would I then have had in your eyes? What example comprehensible to humanity would I have left behind if I had made use of my power to spare myself the pain? It was necessary to divest myself of my power in those moments, to reject that divine strength, in order to feel and experience the pain of the flesh, the sorrow in the face of ingratitude, the loneliness, the agony of death, and death itself.

44. Therefore, in the hour of his death, Jesus' lips cried out for help, for his pain was real. But it was not only physical pain that overwhelmed Jesus' feverish and exhausted body—it was also the spiritual awareness of a God who, through that body, was being tormented and made a mockery of by his blind, ungrateful, and arrogant children, for whom he shed that blood.

45. Jesus was strong through the Spirit that animated him, which was the Divine Spirit, and could have been insensitive to pain and invincible against the attacks of his persecutors; but it was necessary that he shed tears, that he felt, that he fell to the ground again and again before the eyes of the crowd, that the strength of his body was exhausted, and that he should die after his body had lost its last drop of blood.

46. Thus was my mission on earth fulfilled; thus ended the existence on earth of the One whom the people had proclaimed king just a few days earlier when he entered Jerusalem. (320, 56–61)

Jesus' Act of Redemption in the Worlds Beyond

47. In the early days of humanity, their spiritual development was so limited that their (lack of) inner understanding of the soul's life after physical death and their (lack of) knowledge of its ultimate destiny caused the soul, upon leaving the physical body, to fall into a deep sleep from which it awoke only slowly. But when Christ became human in Jesus to impart His teaching to all souls, as soon as He had completed His mission among humanity, He sent His light to great multitudes of beings who had been awaiting His arrival since the beginning of the world, so that they might be freed from their confusion and be able to ascend to the Creator.

48. Only Christ could illuminate that darkness; only His voice could awaken those souls who were sleeping for their development. When Christ died as a human being, the Divine Spirit brought light into the spiritual worlds and even into the graves from which emerged the souls who had been in the sleep of death alongside their bodies. Those beings roamed the world that night, making themselves visible to human eyes as a testimony that the Savior was life for all beings and that the soul is immortal. (41, 5-6)

49. Men and women received signs and calls from the beyond. The elderly and the children were likewise witnesses to these manifestations, and in the days preceding the Savior's death on the cross, the Heavenly Light penetrated the hearts of men; the beings of the Spiritual Realm called out to the hearts of men; and on the day the Master took His last breath as a human and His Light penetrated every cave and every corner, into the material and spiritual abodes, in longing for the beings who had long awaited Him—materialized, confused, and sick beings who had strayed from the path, bound by chains of remorse, dragging the burdens of injustice with them, and other souls who believed themselves dead and were bound to their bodies—then all awoke from their deep sleep and rose to life.

50. But before they left this earth, they gave to those who had been their loved ones a testimony of their resurrection and their existence. Through all this, the world witnessed these manifestations on that night of mourning and pain.

51. The hearts of men trembled, and the children wept at the sight of those who had long been dead and who returned on that day for but a moment to bear witness to that Master who had come down to earth to sow the seeds of His love, and who at the same time cultivated the spiritual fields inhabited by an infinite number of souls who were likewise His children, and whom He healed and freed from their ignorance. (339, 22)

52. When I left My body, My Spirit entered the world of spiritual beings to speak to them with the Word of Truth. As I did with you, I spoke to them of divine love, for this is the true knowledge of life.

53. Truly, I tell you, the Spirit of Jesus was not in the tomb for even a moment; He had many good deeds to perform in other worlds of life. My infinite Spirit had many revelations to make known to them—just as I did to you before.

54. There are also worlds where spiritual beings do not know how to love; they live in darkness and long for light. Today, people know that where lovelessness and selfishness reign, darkness prevails, and that war and passions are the keys that lock the gate to the path leading to the Kingdom of God.

55. Love, on the other hand, is the key that opens the Kingdom of Light, which is the Truth.

56. Here on earth I have made Myself known through material means; in the beyond I have communicated directly with the high spiritual beings so that they might instruct those who are not capable of receiving My inspiration directly. Those high, luminous beings are—as they are here for you—the messengers. (213, 6 11)

The Appearance of Jesus After His Resurrection

57. A few days after my crucifixion, when my disciples were gathered around Mary, I allowed them to feel my presence, which was symbolized in a spiritual vision as a dove. In that blessed hour, no one dared to move or utter a single word. There was true rapture in the contemplation of that spiritual image, and their hearts beat with strength and confidence, for they knew that the Master, who had apparently departed from them, would always be present with them in spirit. (8, 15)

58. Why should you think that My coming in the Spirit has no meaning? Remember that after My death as a human being, I continued to speak to My disciples and revealed Myself to them as a spiritual being.

59. What would have become of them without those manifestations I granted them, which strengthened their faith and instilled new courage in them for their mission?

60. The picture they presented after My departure was a sad one: Tears flowed ceaselessly down their faces; every moment a sob escaped from their breasts; they prayed much, and fear and remorse weighed heavily upon them. They knew: one had betrayed Me, another had denied Me, and almost all had forsaken Me in the hour of death.

61. How could they be the witnesses of that Master of all perfection? How were they to find the courage and strength to face people of such diverse beliefs and ways of thinking and living?

62. Just then My Spirit appeared among them to soothe their pain, to kindle their faith, and to set their hearts ablaze with the ideal of My teaching.

63. I gave My Spirit human form to make it visible and tangible to the disciples, yet My presence was still spiritual; and behold the influence and significance that appearance had among My apostles. (279, 47–52)

64. My sacrifice was accomplished; yet, knowing that those hearts needed Me more than ever, for a storm of doubts, sufferings, confusions, and fears had arisen within them, I immediately drew near to them to give them further proof of My infinite mercy. In My love and compassion for those children of My Word, I became human by taking on the form or likeness of the body I had possessed in the world, and I made Myself seen and heard, and with My words I rekindled faith in those despondent souls. It was a new lesson, a new way of communicating Myself to those who had accompanied Me on earth; and they felt strengthened, inspired, and transformed by faith and the knowledge of My truth.

65. Despite those proofs, of which they were all witnesses, there was one who stubbornly denied the manifestations and proofs I gave to My disciples spiritually, and so it was necessary to allow him to touch My spiritual presence even with his physical senses, so that he might believe.

66. But that doubt arose not only among the disciples who were close to Me—no, also among the multitudes of followers, in the towns, cities, and villages, among those who had received proof of My power and followed Me because of these works, confusion arose, anxious questioning, consternation; they could not explain why everything had ended this way.

67. I had compassion for all, and therefore I gave them, just as I did to My closest disciples, proof that I had not departed from them, even though I no longer assisted them as a human being on earth. In every home, every family, and among every people, I revealed Myself to the hearts that believed in Me by making My spiritual presence felt in many ways. Then began the struggle of that people of Christians who had to lose their Master on earth in order to rise up and proclaim the truth He had revealed to them. You all know of their great works. (333, 38-41)

68. When I made Myself visible to My disciples for the last time in the "Second Era" amidst the clouds, there was sadness in them as I vanished from their sight, for at that moment they felt abandoned; but afterward they heard the voice of the Lord's angelic messenger, who spoke to them: "Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing into the sky? This Jesus, whom you have seen ascend into heaven today, you will see coming down in the same way."

69. Then they understood that when the Master returned to the people, He would do so in a spiritual manner. (8:13–14)