The Distress of Jerusalem Predicted

The Distress of Jerusalem Predicted
Luke 21.20-33

At school we were sometimes made to write stories which included several very different characters and objects. ‘Write a story,’ the teacher might say, ‘including a rabbit, a telescope, a cathedral and a man with a wooden leg.’ Often this would involve huge leaps of the imagination, as young minds struggled to come up with something that met the requirements and yet made sense in itself.

Many people have felt, reading Luke 21, as though Jesus is setting us a puzzle rather like that. How can we make sense of an event which involves armies round a city, the roaring of the sea, the coming of the son of man on a cloud, and the arrival of the kingdom of God? And how can whatever-it-is be said to happen within a generation of when Jesus was speaking?...

Taken from Luke for Everyone – by Tom Wright