There was a popular television drama from 1996 to 2000 called Early Edition. The premise of the program was that an advance edition of the Chicago Sun Times was delivered to the main character’s doorstep every day by a cat. This extraordinary event enabled him to know what was going to happen before it actually happened. It was usually some catastrophe so the poor guy spent seven days a week, exhausted, racing around Chicago trying to change things that were about to happen.

The program was fiction, but Jesus, before he died, actually gave his followers an early edition of what was about to take place. He said, “We’re going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled. He will be handed over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him, spit on him, flog him and kill him. On the third day he will rise again”

The difference is that Jesus didn’t try to intervene or change what was going to happen. He went straight ahead into Jerusalem to face difficulty with courage and death with hope. What was prophecy then is now for us history. But Jesus also gave predictions for us. He said, “I have told you these things, so that you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Jesus predicted that our world and our lives would have problems and difficulties. But as Christians, even though we don’t know all the details about the future, we do know God and we know that he will be there for us.