Right before your eyes how to#

When messengers came from John the Baptist to ask Jesus if he was really the one God would send, Jesus answered: Right in front of their eyes people had gathered in their thousands to hear his teaching. Right in front of their eyes he had healed the sick and raised the dead. Right in front of their eyes stood Jesus.

Right before your eyes how to#

How is it that you don’t know how to interpret this present time?” (v. “You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky. But they were not at all able to interpret something far more important which was right before their eyes. So, they were skilled at interpreting what was happening with the weather. A wind from the south came from the desert and it would be hot. They may not have understood the science, but they knew that air coming in from the west off the Mediterranean Sea carried water which would turn to rain once it was over land. “When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, ‘It’s going to rain,’ and it does.And when the south wind blows, you say, ‘It’s going to be hot,’ and it is.” (Luke 12:54-55) Luke’s gospel is probably a different moment, but again Jesus uses meteorology to make the same point: Those words are recorded in Matthew’s gospel when Jesus was in dispute with the Pharisees and Sadducees.

“You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.” (Matt. Jesus applied a lesson from that to the people: Shepherds and sailors had known for centuries that the color of the sky in the evening or the morning is a sign of good or bad weather for many hours ahead. Jesus quoted exactly that saying in a passage in Matthew’s gospel: “He replied, ‘When evening comes, you say, “It will be fair weather, for the sky is red,” and in the morning, “Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast”’” (Matt. Red sky in the morning, shepherds’ warning. That’s not surprising, for the saying has been around for at least two thousand years: They are probably more related than we might think.įirst, Jesus warned them that they were failing to accept what was right before their eyes. Jesus seems to talk about two things here – interpreting what is happening at that very time, and whether or not people should take cases to a judge or decide those things for themselves. How is it that you don’t know how to interpret this present time?ĥ7 “Why don’t you judge for yourselves what is right? 58 As 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. 59 I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.”

Jesus’ words to them were very blunt indeed.ĥ4 He said to the crowd: “When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, ‘It’s going to rain,’ and it does. 55 And when the south wind blows, you say, ‘It’s going to be hot,’ and it is. 56 Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky. They could identify trends in the weather, but they failed completely in any equivalent skill of interpreting spiritual signs that were right before their eyes. Something like that was true also for the people to whom Jesus spoke. He was failing to apply that knowledge even to his own life. He had all the knowledge he could need, but it was doing him no good. So, the doctor who knew all the dangers of obesity had heeded none of the warnings.

He was visibly much larger than the year before. There was no scolding and no lecture because he had dramatically increased in weight. Why not? Had I lost so much weight it wasn’t needed? Unfortunately no. Next time I saw him, about a year later, there was no scolding.

But he was still very straight with his message. I already knew all the dangers, so he kept his lecture short. Some time ago my primary care doctor gently scolded me for being overweight. Failing to Accept What is Right Before Your Eyes – Luke 12:54-59 By: Northern Seminary