Sign of the Times

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.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.
This is not excerpt from a conversation between Jesus and the religious elite found in Matthew 16. Caveat-I’m not throwing the current Catholic Church model under the bus…But consider a Jewish boy having been raised in a very modest and humble home, partaking in very common religious and educational practices, but now making his way to Rome and in the court yard around the Vatican, finds members of the Popes Curia, (those who exist to carry out the will of the holy father) but now is pushing back on them about their complete lack of spiritual awareness.
Could you imagine the headlines today?!!
This Jewish man had been leading a complete cult and is threatening every piece of their theology! They are losing their mind with this heretic and he’s telling them their pride has blinded them to see what is directly in front of them.
The confidence of the truth of Jesus as he confronts sin generates either anger or repentance leading to healing.
Their response?
Let’s just say it wasn’t repentance. I would even argue they didn’t quite know how far off track they were.
He was telling them that the one they say they worship, and whose “way” they say they follow, was right in front of them, yet they never could open their heart enough to consider if they themselves were off track of God.
As we personally read the Bible, it’s easy to see how stubborn and blinded to Jesus these people were, but it changes when we consider if this exists in our day as well. More sobering, if we are one of those people.
Interestingly, his disciples had a hard time discerning some spiritual matters, too. He told them not to eat what the Pharisees and Sadducee’s were offering and their thoughts went instantly carnal and believed he was talking about food.
The harder question may be is if we tend to focus on earthly matters because the spiritual ones are more uncomfortable or worse yet, we’ve given the spiritual authority to someone else that Jesus died to give us.
We’ve left the “hard stuff” up to someone else.
Could the way of Jesus and his character be found right in the person across from us?
Could the workings of His Kingdom be all around us?
Let’s be aware today of we tying cumbersome loads of hypocrisy on those around us and be set free to see all that is going on around us.
-I used the Catholic pipeline as an example of hierarchical systems, but also how revered man becomes often even over God.
The term holy father is not my term, but rather the Catholic Churches title for the Pope.
To find out more, see this link.
https://www.catholic.com/qa/why-is-the-pope-called-the-holy-father-instead-of-just-father
