Jesus had bad news—the Temple, the place where Jews met with God, would be destroyed. Still more, great hardship and persecution would follow the Temple’s destruction. Jesus’ shocking words about the Jerusalem Temple came true in 70 A.D. Despite the dire facts of this life, Jesus urged his listeners to keep faith through the hardship. His central message was, “Don’t be alarmed … raise your heads, because your redemption is near.”

• Picture a worst-case scenario, the hardest tragedy you can imagine. That’s what the destruction of the Temple sounded like to first-century Jewish ears. Jesus told his hearers this unthinkable event would happen, yet told them to keep their faith because their “redemption was near” (verse 28). Think back to a hard time you’ve faced. Did your faith help you “weather the storm”? What made it hard to keep your faith in the midst of the hardship?
• The life of faith is not always easy. Scholar N. T. Wright put it this way: “This is what it’s about: not an exciting battle, with adrenalin flowing and banners flying, but the steady tread, of prayer and hope and scripture and sacrament and witness, day by day and week by week.” What is there that’s testing your faith journey right now? Who has modeled living with patient faith when life gets hard for you?