Read Luke 21:5-19 with your family.

Sometimes it sounds like Jesus is predicting bad things, when in reality the writer of the story is remembering what already happened. When we hear the Gospel stories we have to remember three times in history, and think of what how the story would be heard in each time period.

1. The time when Jesus was alive and was teaching everyone
2. The time the writer was writing (in the case of Luke, that was around 80-90 CE, so after the Temple had been destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE)
3. And our time so that the stories can make sense to us

This story was written after the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed, and it is a memory of the time when Jesus had visited the Temple while it was still there.

We know because we live in the now times, that when Jesus talks about the Temple being rebuilt in three days, that he was really meaning he was the Temple, the place of worship, and he would be resurrected after three days.

But that isn’t the important part. The important part was Jesus telling his closest friends to prepare for God’s world, but don’t get distracted by the stories of disasters. Those are not signs of God doing anything, those are just things that happen in every place around the world.

What we have to prepare for is the new world, where people share what we have and take care of each other. That is what we have to be prepared for. Even if our families don’t agree with us, we have to have faith and remember Jesus’ promise of a different way of living.