On the Mount of Olives

THIS is Jesus on the Mount of Olives. The four men with him are his apostles. They are the brothers Andrew and Peter, and also the brothers James and John. That is God’s temple in Jerusalem you can see over there in the distance.

It has been two days since Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the young donkey. It is Tuesday. Earlier in the day Jesus was at the temple. There the priests tried to grab Jesus to kill him. But they were afraid to do this because the people like Jesus.

‘You snakes and sons of snakes!’ Jesus called those religious leaders. Then Jesus said that God would punish them because of all the bad things they had done. After that Jesus came up to the Mount of Olives, and then these four apostles started asking him questions. Do you know what they are asking Jesus?

The apostles are asking about things in the future. They know that Jesus will put an end to all badness on earth. But they want to know when this will happen. When will Jesus come again to rule as King?

Jesus knows that his followers on earth will not be able to see him when he comes again. This is because he will be in heaven, and they will not be able to see him there. So Jesus tells his apostles some of the things that will be happening on earth when he is ruling as King in heaven. What are some of these things?

Jesus says that there will be great wars, many people will be sick and hungry, crime will be very bad, and there will be big earthquakes. Jesus also says that the good news about God’s kingdom will be preached everywhere in the earth. Have we seen these things happening in our time? Yes! And so we can be sure that Jesus is now ruling in heaven. Soon he will put an end to all badness on earth.