"Therefore, stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come." Jesus doesn't tell us when he will come again; but he does tell us all we need to know. First, he leaves no doubt in our minds that he will in fact return--this isn't a question we have to debate. And secondly, he tells us what we need to do to be ready: stay awake! As long as we don't doze off while we're waiting, everything will be all right.

"Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." The two thieves that were crucified next to Jesus show two very different ways of understanding who Jesus was. The first thief insulted Jesus, prodded him, mocked him. He didn't believe that Jesus had any power whatsoever. Like the sneering crowds, he thought that it was a joke to label Jesus as the "King of the Jews."

"You will even be handed over by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends, and they will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all because of my name." This is not a pleasant prophecy. On the contrary, Jesus' somber words may strike us with a bit of fear and make us wonder if we will ever actually face such a tragic scenario. We are fortunate to live in a country where religious freedom is tolerated, and of course we hope that this continues to be the case. But the sad fact is that right now, there are Christians in other parts of the world who are living out the reality of these prophetic words. For these men, women, and children of faith, the name of Jesus truly is a cause of persecution and martyrdom.

"Those who are deemed worthy to attain to the coming age and to the resurrection of the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage." Jesus' response to the Sadducees regarding their question about the resurrection of the dead actually raises another question for us: what about marriage in heaven? We understand marriage to be "until death do us part," but what exactly becomes of this special relationship in the afterlife?