As He went about His Father's business teaching the means of eternal life, Jesus presented many principles that it was difficult for His followers to understand, but you may readily imagine that He presented no other thought so hard for them to comprehend as the thought that He must lay down His own life. To His disciples, Jesus was the Mighty King come to establish His reign on earth. They thought that He would establish an earthly kingdom; that He would overthrow the dominion of Rome in Palestine; that He would restore the independence of the Jewish nation. It did not occur to them that His was more largely a spiritual kingdom, than a material kingdom. The thought that He should lose His life seemed impossible to them; indeed, it was abhorrent to them. Many of them did not learn to understand Jesus's sayings about His death until after He was actually laid away in the tomb. [Sidenote: Jesus's foreknowledge of His death.] But the knowledge of His approaching and inevitable death, seems to have been always present with Jesus Himself. Very early in His ministry, Jesus foreshadowed the coming end. "The days will come," He declared to those assembling about Him, "when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days." Somewhat later. He spoke of His death as a "baptism," and asserted that it would become a kind of test to determine, who was for him and who was against Him." "I am come to send fire on the earth," declared He; "and what {272} will I if it be already kindled? But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished! Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you Nay; but rather division; for from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law." The division in the family would be caused, of course, because some members would accept Jesus, whereas others would reject Him; some would find in His sinless death reason for worship, whereas others would find in His sufferings sufficient reason for rejection.