“Act now, before time runs out!”

Advertisements call us to urgent action in order to make a sale. Advertisers realize that they must capitalize on the present moment and press for an instant decision or the potential buyer may move on and quickly forget about the advertiser’s product. A fleeting opportunity increases the pressure to make a snap decision.

Jesus is not selling a product, but he is using the same tactic. With two questions he calls us to “Act now, before it’s too late!” He calls us to urgent action, not in order to make a sale, but in order that we might wisely live in the present time.

His two questions are “You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?” and “Why do you not judge for yourselves what is right?” (Luke 12:56-57). He calls us to know what time it is, and to live righteously in the present hour. He warns his hearers that they live in a crucial time that demands an appropriate response before things change and present opportunities slip away.

Knowing what one ought to do and when to do it is at the heart of wisdom (cf. 1 Chron. 12:32). A wise person does what is right in a timely way. Her actions are both good and appropriate (suitable to the present setting). For example, it is generally considered a good thing to build a museum or a house. But, if one knows a nearby volcano is soon to explode, it makes no sense to build a museum nearby. Likewise, if one knows that an earthquake is immanent, it is foolish to build a house upon a fault-line.

Jesus calls us to know the times and to do what is right in the time we find ourselves in. In short, he calls us to timely discernment.

Discerning the Times

Weather is the only part of a news broadcast that is offered with a full explanation. Most people don’t need to know why the weather is the way it is – most of us simply want the current temperature and the next few days’ forecast – and yet, meteorologists freely and abundantly fill us in on this information.

This is interesting in respect to the remainder of the local news broadcast. While the weather is explained in detail and in context, the rest of the news is offered without explanation.[1] Significant events are recounted without a word of explanation concerning their cause or ultimate significance.

Jesus takes advantage of people’s interest in weather and their ability to “read” its signs for guidance as a point of rebuke. They read weather signs well and adjust their lives accordingly, but they seem to be “blind to the sign from God: the ministry of Jesus among them.”[2] The people lived in an important moment of history – a new and climactic movement in God’s redemptive purpose. Their hopes were being realized in their very midst with the arrival of the Messiah, and yet they remained blind to its significance.

In the same way, we are called to know our times, most importantly, where we are in God’s story, what God is currently doing, and what God expects of us in our present context.

God works in human history. Jesus desires that we learn to read between the lines of human history in order to discover what God is doing. In order that we may live rightly, we must know where we are in God’s story!

Knowing what time it is begins with reading the sacred weave of history contained within the secular accounts. The sacred dimension gives us deep insights on where we currently find ourselves in God’s redemptive purpose. Catholic historian George Weigel is helpful in this regard:

It’s certainly possible to organize the human story under chapter headings that read “Prehistoric Man,” “Ancient Civilizations,” “The Greeks and the Romans,” “The Dark Ages,” “The Medieval World,” “Renaissance and Reformation,” “Enlightenment and Revolution,” “The Modern World,” “The Space Age.” But do we get to the deeper truths about humankind, its origins, and its destiny through that kind of narrative? The Catholic proposal is that the richer, ampler, truer telling of the human story is organized under a different set of chapter headings: “Creation,” “Fall,” “Promise,” “Prophecy,” “Incarnation,” “Redemption,” “Sanctification,” “The Kingdom of God.”

The pivot of that story, the “center of the universe and of history,” is Jesus Christ. His story is the story that makes ultimate sense out of our individual stories and of the whole human drama. This is the Catholic claim in all its daring specificity: that at a certain time, in a certain place, and acting through real human lives, the Creator of the universe entered his creation in order to redirect the human story back toward its true destiny, which is eternal life with God.[3]

God has intimately entered the human story in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus died, was buried, and was raised to new life. He has ascended into heaven where he reigns at the right hand of the Father and he is coming again to judge the quick and the dead. He inaugurated the kingdom during his earthly ministry, established it in his resurrection, and will consummate it at his coming.

The staggering significance of this is that new creation has begun from within the old. Jesus presently reigns, but the fullness of this truth has not yet been demonstrated. There is an “already/not yet” tension between Jesus’ first and second coming. Jesus’ kingdom is a present reality with a future consummation.

This is the time we live in: in the “already/not yet” tension between Christ’s first and second coming; in a world that is being transformed from the inside out. We walk in two worlds, in a time between the times, as new creatures awaiting complete redemption who have tasted of the powers of the age to come. As heirs of glory who hope in the coming restoration of all things, we are called to live the life of the future in the present. We live in a way that recognizes and embraces the glorious end (which is really not an end at all, but a new beginning). This future vision drives our behavior in the present. 1 John 3:1-3 summarizes our experience of this tension:

See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure. (1 John 3:1-3, italics mine)

Discerning What’s Right

It is not our place to judge or condemn others. God is the only righteous, impartial being qualified to do this. Though we must never judge others, we must learn to make godly judgments about ourselves. Condemnation is forbidden, but discernment is absolutely necessary for a godly life. In reaction to right-wing, legalistic Christianity, may we never conclude that discerning between right and wrong is “right-wing” or primitive. It is not. Learning to discern right from wrong is essential to a good and godly life. This is the point Jesus makes with his question, “Why do you not judge for yourselves what is right?”

Poor judgment leaves us at great risk. That is why godly discernment is an urgent need. Deeper intimacy with God is obtained through the inculcation of wise, loving, and godly habits. Right living is absolutely essential to knowing God. Some ways of living drown out the voice of God. Others blind us to God. Remaining open to God does not happen naturally. An endless cacophony of voices seeks to seize our attention. If we are not careful, we will be distracted from our true calling.

There is an old saying, “He who marries the spirit of the age is soon a widow.” We must know our times, but we must never be bound by our times. We become caught in the spirit of the age if we do not discern our times and commit to righteous living that accords with the transcendent dimension – the kingdom of God.

In this chapter (Luke 12) we see how Jesus attempted to counter the spirit of the age and call people to live in light of God’s kingdom. He condemns the hypocrisy of the spiritual leaders and proclaims that their deeds will be exposed by divine judgment (12:1-12).  He corrects a person from the crowd who is more interested in how Jesus can help him with his possessions than with how Jesus can help further his spiritual formation (12:13-14). Jesus warns that greed is foolish, empty, and self-destructive (12:15-21). He argues that worry distracts people from seeking God’s kingdom (12:22-30). He challenges us to set our hearts upon God’s kingdom (12:31-34). He calls people to be ready and faithful servants of God in spite of the conflict and division this may bring (12:35-53). Again and again, Jesus calls people to renounce the spirit of the age and reorient their lives to align with God’s redemptive purpose in Christ.

Life is Serious Business

Why is godly behavior so important? Because life is serious business. What we do with our lives matters. Our actions have consequences. Every action we perform is deeply significant because we are accountable to God. What will we do with what God has given us?

The impact of God’s kingdom on our lives is most evident in our personal relationships. This is where the rubber meets the road. We strike a blow against the spirit of the age – the hypocrisy, greed, selfishness, pride, anxieties, sloth, favoritism, heartlessness, etc. – when we do all in our power to live at peace with others. Though this is not always possible, we are to make every effort toward this goal (cf. Romans 12:18).

The responsibility lies with us – God’s peacemakers. Jesus does not want us to be thrown into a debtor’s prison because of our failure to reconcile to others.[4] Jesus does not want us to end up this way! He wants us to live at peace with others. We are called to make amends now: “Act now, before it’s too late!” We are to do all in our power to embrace and love others.

This takes us all the way back to the man’s complaint at the start of Jesus’ teaching: “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me” (Luke 12:13). The man’s problem was deeper than simply settling a financial disagreement. Jesus refused to get caught up in his complaint because his concern was not deep enough. His question proved that he did not recognize who Jesus was or his divine mission. Like so many in his time and ours, his chief concern was not loving others but “making money, gaining power, acquiring fame, achieving success, and winning honors.”[5] The man was too caught up in the spirit of the age. He was in trouble, building his house on a fault-line beside an active volcano.

He did not know the time. He did not judge well what was right.

In contrast, we are to know the times – and live kingdom lives in a fallen world. We seek the righteousness of God’s kingdom rather than the selfishness (and self-destructiveness) of our own personal dominions.

One final word: Fighting the spirit of the age is a tough job to do on one’s own. For this reason, we need one another for support and guidance. “In our society, where wrong is often considered right, we need a community of truth to help us know what is right and do what is right.”[6] The church is this community. And learning how to live well in the present time is one important area of spiritual formation that we must help one another with.

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© Richard J. Vincent, 2006