By Randall L. Broad
Today’s reading in the New Testament is a rebuke of
all that humanity has become since the fall in the garden.
This rebuke was originally intended for the crowd
gathered to hear Jesus teach in the Gospel of Luke, but its message rings true
for every generation.
54He
said to the crowd: “When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you
say, ‘It’s going to rain,’ and it does. 55And when the south wind
blows, you say, ‘It’s going to be hot,’ and it is. 56Hypocrites! You
know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky. How is it that
you don’t know how to interpret this present time?
Luke 12:54-56
For most of recorded history the world’s primary
occupation was farming and weather is crucial to that way of life, but Jesus is
proclaiming more in these verses–an earth shaking event—the coming of God’s
Kingdom. The first part of this passage (vv. 54-56) criticizes those who recognize
the natural phenomenon around them, but cannot see God in the daily miracles of
life. The rational, empirical, post-modern mind is especially guilty of this
hypocrisy. They worship technology and are so blinded by their own significance
they cannot see past the distractions of their own materialism. People today can
do more than interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky. We can get on
our smart phones and download god like images from satellites. Yet all we
really do is look at the device in our hands; we still don’t know how to interpret this present time (v. 56). There is a
reason for this …
When Jesus
calls His listeners hypocrites and rebukes them for their misunderstanding of the
times, His message is for more than just those present. He is talking of all
who would live through the days until his return and the fulfillment of the Kingdom
of God. However, Jesus’ immediate audience is important here too. He is rebuking
a crowd of disciples numbering in the thousands and His Apostles (Luke 12:1)–not
the Pharisees, not the Scribes, or the leaders of the temple whom he often
criticized. He knew even His followers could not fully appreciate who He was
yet. The
disciples and Apostles like us were the descendants of the perception of
themselves and God woven into humanity since the fall (Genesis 3). In the
struggle that followed Adam and Eve’s banishment from the garden, human
awareness shifted from God to a focus on nature,
so at the time Jesus spoke in Luke’s gospel people could interpret the signs of
the weather (vv. 54-55), but not the revelation of God.
This is the
perfect rebuke for a generation that worships science and technology. The Apostle Peter warned, “people are slaves to whatever has mastered them (2 Peter 2:19).” Technology
has mastered us and in the search for scientific truth humanity has become slaves to their own technological creations. Through the fall in the garden, the enemy has deceived humanity into
thinking scientific discoveries prove God does not exist, but rather they prove
undeniably there is an underlying source to the universe that can be known
through perception and reason.
We can only know reality … if we were given a body of truth
as a valid starting point, and if we knew that perception and reason were valid
tools. If we had some truth to start with, we could test our collective
experiences by that truth and thus rationally expand our ideas with some
confidence. This starting point must be epistemologically relevant and it must
come from an utterly truthful source.[1]
People who live a secular lifestyle have no understanding of
themselves beyond their utilitarian reality–which compels them to avoid pain,
to seek comfort and pleasure and to choose sin over God. They rely upon
scientific discovery to provide this “valid
starting point.” In reality it is a limited source without relevance and
truth. People that have a biblical worldview accept the Bible as
epistemologically relevant and Jesus as an utterly truthful source.
The second
part of this passage is a warning to reconcile ourselves with God before judgment
comes.
Jesus says:
57“Why
don’t you judge for yourselves what is right? 58As you are going
with your adversary to the magistrate, try hard to be reconciled on the way, or
your adversary may drag you off to the judge, and the judge turn you over to
the officer, and the officer throw you into prison. 59I tell you,
you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.”
Luke 12:57-59
It is important to
recognize this call to reconciliation (v. 58) and judgement (v. 59) begins with
a question: ‘Why don’t you
judge for yourselves what is right?’ This is not a command or a statement of the
infallibility of human judgment. Jesus is not giving us the authority to choose
for ourselves what we think or feel is right, but rather to try hard to be
reconciled with God. L. Russ Bush
wrote:
Truth cannot be finally located in the individual human
mind. Truth is located in the character of God. Unfortunately even the superior
human intelligence standing alone may fail. Only God and His Word may be
properly thought of as infallible. Truth may be known by men, but truth is
established by God alone.[2]
God alone is the
source of truth. Disciples must be as wise in the Spirit as they are in the
ways of nature. We should also note in chapter twelve of Luke’s gospel the
story of Jesus is still unfolding. The disciples and Apostles have yet to
witness the cross or the resurrection, receive the Holy Spirit, or endure their
own struggles to build Christ’s church. We stand in the aftermath of all those
proofs to the relevance and utter truth of God. The Gospels present Jesus Christ as the truth that
replaced the lie Adam and Eve became in succumbing to the deception of the
serpent.
Our
hope of knowing truth comes from our faith, a biblical worldview, and the power
of the Holy Spirit. Luke 12:54-59 is a call to obtain peace with God before it
is too late, to interpret this present time, and to judge for ourselves what is
right based on a Christ-centered
life.
Walk
with the Lord …
Ephesians
1:17
(RLB250408)
©
Copyright 2017: Randall L. Broad
Disclaimer: This commentary is written by Randall L. Broad. It is in no way affiliated with or represents any denomination, university, church, or pastor. Any errors or omissions are purely my responsibility.
[1] Bush, L. Russ. "Understanding Biblical Inerrancy." Southwestern
Journal of Theology 50, no. 1 (Fall 2007): 49.
[2] Bush, 30.
