Lesson 26: What happened on the Via Dolorosa?

2) WE'RE NOW TAKING ORDERS FOR THE ISRAEL DEVOTIONAL BOOK! With only a few weeks left in this "devotional tour" of Israel, we're now taking orders for two paperback versions of the complete series. One version contains the full-text of all 30 devotionals, and the other version contains the full-text, plus over 300 full-color photographs taken from all over Israel. Both versions are truly inspiring and educational, and will help to bring the Bible to life for you, your family or your friends. The full-text version is available for a donation of any amount, and the full-color, photographic version is available for a donation of $50 or more. To make a donation and receive a copy of either of the books, click here:
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3) WE COULD USE YOUR HELP! To meet our budget by the end of the year, it looks like we'll need an extra $15,000 beyond what we would normally receive between now and then. If you've ever thought about making a donation to our ministry, but haven't done so yet, we could truly use your help. And if you've been a faithful supporter, but would like to make an extra gift between now and the end of the year, know that your extra gift will go a long way as we continue reaching out to others in the name of Christ. Your gifts of any size are a blessing, whether $50, $100, $1,000 or $10,000! To make a donation (and get one of our Israel devotional books as a thank-you gift, too!), click here:
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The Via Dolorosa is a path that winds its way through the streets of Jerusalem, and upon which millions have walked over the years. Why? Because one man walked this path on the most painful day of his life. To see what the path looks like today, and find out why it's called the Via Dolorosa, take a look at this one-minute video. Then read on to find out how God can give you the strength to get through the painful days in your life as well. Here's the video...
www.youtube.com/watch

So what happened on the Via Dolorosa? That's the path that Jesus took as He carried His cross to His crucifixion.

"Via Dolorosa" is Latin for "the way of suffering." And while the Via Dolorosa is a path that many people have taken over the years, not many people ever really want to take the "way of suffering" in life. Suffering goes against human nature, and pain is usually a God-given indicator to let you know that something is wrong and needs to be fixed.

But there are times when God may call you to take a path that leads directly into pain--not because He wants you to suffer, but because He has something better in mind for you on the other side of the pain.

Examples abound:

- Like a pregnant woman who has to endure nine months of labor and the pain of childbirth in order to experience the joy of holding her newborn baby in her arms,
- Or like a teenage girl who has to break up with her boyfriend because she wants to remain pure for her future husband,
- Or like a man with a gash in his arm who has to endure the cleansing and stitching of the wound so that his flesh can eventually be healed.

Jesus showed us the key to making it through times of suffering like these: by keeping your eyes on the prize. As the Bible says:

"Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart" (Hebrews 12:2-3).

It was for the joy set before Him that Jesus was able to endure the cross. If there was any other way, Jesus would have taken it. He said as much in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before He had to walk down the Via Dolorosa. He prayed:

"My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from Me. Yet not as I will, but as You will" (Matthew 25:42).

While none of us wants to enter into pain and suffering voluntarily--not even Jesus--He showed us how to do it when the time comes for us to enter into it.

He kept His eyes on the prize. When the guards came to take Him away, He went. When they asked Him to carry His cross, He carried it. And when He could carry it no longer by Himself, God sent someone else to carry it for Him:

"Carrying His own cross, He went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha)" (John 19:17). "As they were going out, they met a man from Cyrene, named Simon, and they forced him to carry the cross" (Matthew 27:32).

You can still see the place marked on the Via Dolorosa where Simon the Cyrene may have taken up Jesus' cross for Him. It's one of fourteen "stations of the cross" that are marked out along the path, stations that are replicated in many churches throughout the world. If people want to remember all that Jesus did for them in those last few hours of His life, they can walk around the perimeter of the church and stop and meditate at each of these fourteen stations, just as they can on the real Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem.

And walking along the Via Dolorosa is a reminder not only of the suffering that Jesus endured for us, but also of the suffering that He sometimes calls us to endure for Him. As Jesus told His disciples:

"If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Me will save it" (Luke 9:23-24).

Although no one ever wants to suffer, Jesus' words are a reminder that some things are worth suffering for, that there is a prize awaiting those who endure it to the end, and that God wants you to have it.

The best way to go through suffering is to make sure you set your eyes on the prize. But it's also important to make sure you're setting your eyes on the right prize. There's nothing worse than enduring pain and suffering, only to find that what you've been waiting for all along has been lost in the process.

If your hope is set on having the perfect family, and then something happens to destroy that perfection, you'll be disappointed. If you're working your hardest to get a promotion, then the promotion doesn't come, you'll be upset. If you give up your dreams in order to help someone else fulfill theirs, but then they blow it and waste all that you've given up for them, you might wonder if it was worth it.

Sometimes those disappointments come because our eyes weren't on the right prize in the first place. Even Peter, who may have expected Jesus to ride into Jerusalem, overthrow the Romans and setup His new kingdom, was willing to die for Jesus as He ascended to the throne. But when Peter found out that Jesus had been arrested, and was likely going to be sentenced to death, his disappointment was evident. Instead of standing up for Jesus anymore, he denied that he even knew him. Perhaps it was because his eyes were on the wrong prize.

But God honored Peter still, just like He honors all those who love Him and who are called according to His purpose. He eventually showed Peter that Jesus reigned in a kingdom whose authority reigned not just in Jerusalem, and not just over the Romans, but over the entire earth. It was better than Peter could have ever expected. We're told that Peter eventually did give up his life for Jesus, being crucified on a cross upside-down. But this time he had his eyes on the right prize, and he was willing to walk down the path of suffering to get it.

As much as God wants to relieve you of much of the suffering you'll face in life, He also wants you to know that some things are achieved only by going through it.

God wants you to trust Him. He wants you to trust that He is able to do "immeasurably more than all we could ask or imagine" (Ephesians 3:20a). Keep your eyes on the prize, and if you can't see the prize, then keep your eyes on Jesus. In the end, it will all be worth it.

Let's pray:

Father, thank You for Jesus' example, that we can follow in His steps. Help us to trust that the suffering in our life is worth it, when we entrust our lives completely to You. Help us to take up our cross daily and be willing to die for you, so that we can find the life that You've wanted us to live all along. In Jesus' name, Amen.

As I mentioned above, we'll be finishing this series on "Israel: Lessons in the Holy Land" in just a few weeks! If you'd like to get a copy of all of the full-text of all 30 devotionals, I'd be glad to send you a paperback version for a donation of any size to our ministry this month. And for a gift of $50 or more, I'd like to send you a beautiful 8x10 full-color version of the book, including over 300 beautiful photographs taken from all over Israel. It's a beautiful "devotional tour" of this land where Jesus walked and will help bring the Bible to life for you, or for your family, or for your friends. We also have an optional companion DVD of all 30 video clips that we been posting each week that we'd be glad to send you for a donation of $20 or more. To make a donation and receive a copy of either of the books or the DVD as our way of saying thanks, click here:
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For those who would like to hear more about the "way of suffering," and how God can use it in your life for good, join us for a our live Internet broadcast tonight, Sunday, October 3rd, at 8 p.m. Central Time (-5 GMT). My son will be leading us in worship, and we'll pray for anyone who wants to join us in the chat room during the broadcast. Just click the link below to watch live or anytime:
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To read more from this series, "Israel: Lessons from the Holy Land," click here:
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