"Look!" whispered Andrew. "There they come!" Judas saw a priest he had talked to the day before walking toward Jesus. But the Master paid no attention.
"In those days," he continued, "your own friends will betray you. They will put you to death. Everyone will hate you for my sake—but do not be afraid! If you are willing to give your life for me, you shall have eternal life." Like darts his words struck into Judas.
"The time will come when Jerusalem will be surrounded by enemy armies," declared Jesus. "Then she will soon be destroyed. Let everyone flee to the hills for his life, for in those days God will punish this wicked city for her sin. Every single building will be leveled to the ground!"
"Our beautiful Temple!" cried a man in the crowd. "Look at these great stones! Will all this be destroyed?"
"I tell you solemnly," declared Jesus, "the day is coming when not one stone in this Temple will be left standing!"
The priest broke in. "How do you dare say that? This is the house of God. It took the finest workmen in Israel forty-six years to build it. God will not let his Temple be destroyed!"
"You do not know how to save your Temple!" retorted Jesus. "You think it is holy because you make many sacrifices in it! But I tell you that your enemies will tear down your Temple and kill your children, all because you do not know that God has come to you!"
"What do you mean?" exclaimed the priest. "Look at the monuments we have built in memory of the prophets!"
"You decorate the tombs of the prophets and say to yourselves, 'If we had lived then, we would have treated them better!' But you kill the prophets that God sends you, just as your ancestors did!
"Your religion is like a filthy cup: bright and shiny on the outside, but dirty inside! Your Temple is beautiful, but your religion is rotten!" The priests shrank back from the sheer force of Jesus' anger.