“Isn’t this an amazing building project, Jesus? Have you ever seen anything like it?”

Those sentences don’t appear in the Bible. They are, however, implied in Matthew 24:1. The disciples look at magnificent structures that Herod built to house Jewish worship. They call Jesus’ attention to them in a way most favorable. Jesus’ response? They will fall down.

The disciples waited until they were all out of town before asking what he meant. They sat on the Mount of Olives, outside Jerusalem, across a valley. There, able to see the temple and the city, they ask Jesus when it will fall and when he will come back and how they will know that he is coming.

I have to read into the text, at this point, some supposition. When I read the answers that Jesus gives to questions, I have to reread the question for intention that I might have missed. Because he knows the hearts that are asking the questions, his answers often seem to go beyond what was asked.

In this case, it seems a simple question. However, he talks about the people who will lie about being him. He talks about the turmoil that will happen in the world. He talks about the suffering that will happen to his followers. He talks about the difficulty many people will have in staying faithful.

And it all says to me that the disciples were expecting the destruction of the temple and the glorious victory of Jesus to come quickly and devastatingly simply. They were assuming that in their future as followers was peace. They were hoping that following meant triumph.

And Jesus says that following will be hard.

Not much hope is there.

Or is there? Maybe Jesus is saying, “it will be bad, but don’t let that worry you.”

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I missed posting Tuesday. I spent Monday in bed with a headache. All better now. I’ll do better getting rest, I promise.