GETTING THE MESSAGE/Christ addresses the dullness of men

In Luke 12, the Lord Jesus speaks before perhaps the largest crowd he would address in his ministry.  In verses 54-56, he speaks “to the crowds” and uses two illustrations to show the dullness of men to spiritual discernment. 

He uses signs of the weather to make his point. If they see a cloud from the west forming, they know how to prepare for a storm. If they see the south wind blowing, they know it will be a hot day. The point our Lord is making is that these things happen just as the signs indicate. You cannot avoid the reality of the weather, so you must prepare for its coming. 

The Lord is speaking to rational people. They can reason and prepare for the weather. But he calls them hypocrites with respect to spiritual realities. God has been bearing witness to Jesus being the promised Christ in a wonderful and miraculous way. He has healed the sick and cast out demons in the presence of all to see. He has spoken like no other man. 

But his words have fallen on deaf ears. The people want to see more signs. Men have such a thick blindness to their spiritual condition that they refuse to humble themselves before the plain teaching of God. You can show a beautiful picture to a blind man and there is no response to it. 

Why don’t men get it? Why don’t they understand the things Christ is saying to them? It is a willful stubbornness to resist turning to God when he calls to you in plain language. We have a dependence upon the Holy Spirit of God to convict us of our sin and enlighten our minds to the knowledge of Christ. We would do well to call upon the Lord daily for help to see. 

Jesus says that the people do not know how to interpret the present time (verse 56). This is the question for us. Can we interpret our present time? If the sun goes down on us day after day without us realizing what a great salvation Christ has accomplished, then our reasoning is faulty and renders us worthy of condemnation. The Lord knows what we are thinking.

Discerning the time means understanding that you live in a time before the final judgment has come. Today is the day of salvation. Today is the golden hour to use to serve Christ if you know him, and to come humbly to him if you do not. The longer we delay, the closer our time comes to give an account to the Lord. It will happen just as surely as the weather.

In verses 57-59, the Lord uses an illustration of facing a judge to impress upon the people the urgency of the reality they face. In the Hellenistic system, if one couldn’t pay their loan, the judge would sentence him to debtor’s prison. He would not be released until the last penny was paid. Many were never released from that terrible judgment. 

Jesus is saying that the guilty verdict is upon all sinners. The sinner deserves to die for his sins. The justice of God requires that the debt be paid. Once judgment is rendered, it cannot be undone. It is an urgent situation. If one was threatened with debtor’s prison, he would not be indifferent about his case. How much more when God is threatening from his throne. 

Christ alone can dissolve all obligations to punishment and hand a pardon to us through his own blood. God’s word makes a continual appeal to us to be reconciled to God through Christ. Paul exhorts Christians to make sure of Christ: “We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. We appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. Behold, now is the favorable time, behold now is the day of salvation” (2nd Cor 5).

Learn to anticipate the judgment seat of Christ. Hear Christ’s word, “Come you blessed of my Father, and inherit the kingdom prepared for you.” It is an indescribable joy to hear the sentence of life from Christ. Think what music to your ears that would be. The soul shall leap for joy. 

It is a welcome to eternal life. As Issac said about Jacob, “I have blessed him, and he shall be blessed.” There is no undoing the pronouncement of Christ. Such different verdicts rendered on that day should shake away our lethargy and give voice to calling on the name of the Lord.