Weather

Weather is a topic we love to at least mention every day. You know the old saying, "everyone talks about the weather, but no one does anything about it." Actually if you let this sink in you might find a little truth there. Often truth is found in the obvious, hidden in plain sight. Weather signs are meant to be "read" not to be changed. The trappers who came to Jesus asking for more signs, needed a weather lesson and Jesus gave it to them. These same men began and ended their days looking at the sky to see what the morrow would bring. Red sky in the evening means the day will be fair. Red sky in the morning means the day will be stormy. We have gotten much more sophisticated today in reading the weather signs. I get an update every so often from our local EOC(Emergency Operation Center) when threatening weather is approaching. Predictions are getting pretty good. We sit glued to out sets when a hurricane comes into our neighborhood of the world. People are also good at interpreting the economic, business, political, and societal trends. We have an entire discipline devoted to reading the signs to gain some advantage over the competition.

But, the reason Jesus brings up the weather is to show that those who are very good at reading the signs within the atmosphere are lousy at reading the important signs of the times. All these earthly signs are important to people because they see how they directly affect their lives. I don't want to leave my umbrella at home on a rainy day. I don't want to leave my money in a market too long. I don't want to vote for the looser. We listen to pollsters, prognosticators, and even sorcerers when we have something at stake. What we spend the most time predicting tells us something about what is truly important to us. So what if we predict the right team in the Super Bowl (unless we have some money on the game)? But, the real problem for the Pharisees and Sadducees is not that they were spending too much time predicting trivial things.

Their problem is that the signs of God's visitation are easy to read and they are feigning incompetence in reading the signs. They see but they don't see. They hear but they don't hear. They get it but they don't "get it." It is a heart problem, not an evidence problem. Some will not trust Jesus until they get a myriad of other questions worked out. These are mere diversions because a person either has something to hide from Jesus (something in the heart that needs to be worked out) or just does not want to submit to Him.When we realize that Jesus affects our daily lives much more than the weather perhaps we will heed the signs.