The Widow’s Offering
Luke 21Jesus looked up and saw the rich people who were putting their gifts into the temple treasury. He saw a poor widow casting in two small copper coins. He said, “Truly I tell y’all, this poor widow put in more than all of them. They all put in gifts from their wealth, but she, out of her poverty, has put in all that she had to live on.”
Watching for Signs of the End
While some were talking about the temple and how it was decorated with beautiful stones and gifts, he said, “As for these things which y’all are looking at, the days will come when not one stone will be left on another that will not be thrown down.”
They questioned him, “Teacher, so when will these things happen? And what is the sign that these things are about to take place?”
He said, “Y’all watch out that you* don’t get led astray. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he,’ and, ‘The time is near.’ Y’all must not follow them. When y’all hear of wars and disturbances, y’all shouldn’t be frightened. Indeed, it is necessary for things to happen first, but the end won’t come immediately.”
Then he told them, “Ethnic group will raised against ethnic group, and empire against empire. There will be great earthquakes, famines, and plagues in various places, and there will be terrors and great signs from heaven. But before all these things, they will lay their hands on y’all and will persecute y’all, delivering y’all up to synagogues and prisons, bringing y’all before kings and governors for my name’s sake. This will bring an opportunity for y’all to give a testimony. Therefore, y’all must decide in y’all’s hearts not to prepare a defense beforehand, because I will give y’all such words and wisdom that all y’all’s adversaries will not be able to resist or refute. Y’all will be betrayed even by parents, siblings, relatives, and friends, and they will have some of y’all put to death. Y’all will be hated by everyone for my name’s sake, yet not a hair from y’all’s heads will perish.
“By y’all’s endurance, y’all will gain your* lives.
“But when y’all see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, y’all must recognize that its desolation is near. Then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains. Those who are inside the city must leave, and those who are in the country must not enter it, because these are days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. Woe to pregnant women and nursing mothers in those days! For there will be great distress in the land and wrath against this people. They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive into all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled on by the ethnic groups until the times of the nations are fulfilled.
“There will be signs in the sun, moon, and stars, and on the earth there will distress among the ethnic groups anxious over the roaring of the sea and crashing waves. Humans will faint from terror and the expectation of the things that are coming on the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. At that time, they will see the Son of Humanity coming in a cloud with power and great glory. But when these things start to happen, y’all should stand up and lift your* heads, because y’all’s redemption is drawing near.”
Then He told them a parable. “Y’all look at the fig tree and all the trees. When they sprout leaves, y’all see for yourselves and y’all know that the summer is already near. In the same way, when y’all see these things happening, y’all should know that the Empire of God is near. Truly I tell y’all, this generation will not pass away until all things have happened. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.
“But y’all be careful, or y’all’s hearts will be weighed down with intoxication, drunkenness, and the worries of this life, and that day will come down on y’all unexpectedly like a trap. For it will come on all those who dwell on the surface of all the earth. But y’all be watchful at all times, praying that y’all may be counted worthy to escape all that is about to happen, and to stand before the Son of Humanity.”
Every day Jesus was teaching in the temple, and every night he would go out and spend the night on the what is called the Mount of Olives. All the people came early in the morning to hear him in the temple.