You Don't Interpret This Time
54 He said to the multitudes also, “When you see a cloud rising from the west, immediately you say, ‘A shower is coming,’ and so it happens. 55 When a south wind blows, you say, ‘There will be a scorching heat,’ and it happens. 56 You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky, but how is it that you don’t interpret this time? 57 “Why don’t you judge for yourselves what is right? 58 For when you are going with your adversary before the magistrate, try diligently on the way to be released from him, lest perhaps he drag you to the judge, and the judge deliver you to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison. 59 I tell you, you will by no means get out of there until you have paid the very last penny.”
They can read the weather and not the moment — and a warning to settle out of court while there is still a road.
He said to the multitudes also, “When you see a cloud rising from the west, immediately you say, ‘A shower is coming,’ and so it happens.
The forecasting is local and exact. West of that country is the Mediterranean, so a cloud from that quarter brings rain; south is desert, so a south wind brings heat. Every farmer in the crowd knew both, and both are correct.
You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky, but how is it that you don’t interpret this time?
The charge is the same one made in Matthew's account about the face of the sky Matthew 16:2–3: the failure is not of method. They use the right method daily, on evidence far thinner than what has been in front of them. What fails is willingness, which is why the word is hypocrite rather than fool.
And this time is a particular word — the season, the moment that has arrived and will not stay. Weather is read to know what to do next; a moment is read for the same reason.
“Why don’t you judge for yourselves what is right?
They are not being asked to accept a ruling. They are being asked to reach one, which is a considerable compliment in the middle of a rebuke.
For when you are going with your adversary before the magistrate, try diligently on the way to be released from him, lest perhaps he drag you to the judge, and the judge deliver you to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison.
The illustration is a debt case, and the picture is of two men walking to court together — which is how it was done. The whole opportunity exists on the road. Once they arrive, the sequence is mechanical: the adversary hands you to the judge, the judge to the officer, the officer to the prison, and nobody along that chain has any discretion left.
I tell you, you will by no means get out of there until you have paid the very last penny.”
The coin named is the smallest in circulation, and the sentence closes the door on any hope of a shortfall being overlooked.
The force of it is the timing rather than the terror. There is a stretch of road on which the matter can still be settled cheaply, by agreement, between the parties — and the stretch of road is exactly what a man who cannot read the weather will spend arguing about whether it is going to rain.
settled What this mark means