Luke 12:54-55 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. And when the south wind blows, you say, ‘It’s going to be hot,’ and it is. Hypocrites! 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 19:41-44 As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace — but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.”

The Jews could not recognize the time of God’s coming to them. Jesus, the Son of God, was in their midst, performing miracles and teaching with great wisdom, yet they remained quite ignorant of what they were experiencing. Jesus expressed exasperation with them for their inability to interpret what was happening and the signs God gave them. They were unwilling to receive him as the Messiah. Instead, their leaders, the elite of their society, challenged his words and criticized his actions. Jesus calls them hypocrites because they were very adept at interpreting the weather but could not interpret the spiritual climate of their time. They could neither determine nor accept that the Messiah had come and was ministering to them. Their behavior evidenced their hard hearts, blind eyes, and deaf ears. With spiritual antennas that had ceased to function, they were dull, in a state of spiritual doldrums. Unfortunately they seemed satisfied with their condition, but disaster was coming. The Romans would soon march in and disperse them throughout the world. Their cities would be destroyed; they would no longer be a people of any worth in the sight of the world.

I sometimes wonder if we understand our spiritual environment. We have many successful Christian programs on television, we have mega churches prospering, but many times our lives appear more carnal than ever. We have placed Jesus in our lives as another commodity. He is another good product in the corner of our basket of goodies that meet our needs. We serve him on Sunday and live much the way we want the rest of the time. We attempt to experience everything the world does, but in some sort of Brady Bunch experience, we are just happier and more bouncy than the rest of the world. This is not what we see in the New Testament where living for Christ was a serious business, a hundred percent commitment. People gave property away to be in the kingdom. People fled together from one city to the next.

Jesus said they would persecute you and kill you. This was no "Brady Bunch" lifestyle of good times and cheer. No, the Christian lifestyle required an all out commitment and faith walk for survival. I wonder if we really know the climate. I wonder if we can detect the true spiritual temperature of our lives. Have we really accepted the Messiah or is He just another vaccination needed to go to heaven? Has Christianity become just another subculture in our society, something some of us do but others do not? Do we really know this present time? I wonder as I look at the church and the world. We have made Christianity into a means of getting what we want to make our lives happier, rather like finding a treasure under a rock. We intend to twist and turn this new thing, so we get the most out of living. This life is not based scripture. God did not come down to us to make this life a whole lot better; He came to us to redeem us, to make us his children, adopting us into his family and giving us life eternal. Jeremiah and the prophets gave their all, the apostles gave their lives, and many martyrs throughout the centuries suffered and died. Are we willing to give ours? This is a hard question, requiring an answer.