Matthew 14:24-43
The Parable of the Weeds
24 Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25 But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. 26 When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.
27 “The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the
weeds come from?’
28 “‘An enemy did this,’ he replied.
“The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’
29 “‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’”
The Parables of the Mustard Seed and the Yeast
31 He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. 32 Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.”
33 He told them still another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds[a] of flour until it worked all through the dough.”
34 Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable. 35 So was fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet:
“I will open my mouth in parables,
I will utter things hidden since the creation of the world.”[b]
The Parable of the Weeds Explained
36 Then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.”
37 He answered, “The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. 38 The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the people of the kingdom. The weeds are the people of the evil one,39 and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.
40 “As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. 41 The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. 42 They will throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears, let them hear.
4 QUESTIONS IN THE TEXT
QUESTION #1 | GOD, DID YOU DO THIS?
Forget about pictures of horns and goat hooves. Simply face a reality to which Scripture and our own experience both testify: evil has its own kind of power. Whether it’s the logic of warfare that seems to require murdering innocent people, or the sexual affair that gathers its own momentum, or the economic situation that forces a factory closure, or the history of abuse that goes down the generations in a family, there are countless situations in which the evil that surrounds us seems greater than the sum of the bad deeds of the human agents involved.”
We make free choices, but then we find ourselves entrapped. We can blame the military-industrial complex, or the media, or the corrupt politicians, and all that often contains a measure of truth, but beyond it lies a power that evil itself seems to exercise on all those who have fallen under its sway. Evil seems to have its own kind of cunning, as if it were plotting to entrap sinners yet further into the consequences of their sins. Whether or not there is someone named “Satan,” we can certainly experience evil as a malevolent force beyond any of the human persons we confront.
Therefore, if God is to rescue us from the mess we’re in, it is not enough that we be comforted by the thought of God’s solidarity with us, or even that we be reconciled to God. Something needs to be done about the power that evil has over us. Evil needs to be defeated. —William Placher, “Jesus the Savior: The Meaning of Jesus Christ for Christian Faith”
“An enemy did this,” he replied. —Matthew 13:28
QUESTION #2 | DO YOU WANT US TO FIX IT?
The servants asked him, “Do you want us to go and pull them up?”
“No,” he answered, “because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them.” —Matthew 13:28-29
QUESTION #3 | WILL IT ALWAYS BE THIS WAY?
“Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: ‘First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’” —Matthew 13:28-29
QUESTION #4 | THEN WHAT ARE WE SUPPOSED TO BE DOING?
IT WAS NEVER OUR MISSION TO ERADICATE EVIL FROM THE WORLD.
OUR MISSION IS TO KEEP PLANTING THE GOOD BY EMBODYING GOD’S KINGDOM.
I believe the most defining moment of my life occurred when I was about nine years old, outside the Blind Institute in Roodepoort where my mother was a domestic worker. We were standing on the stoop when this tall white man in a black cassock, and a hat, swept by. I did not know that it was Trevor Huddleston. He doffed his hat in greeting my mother. I was relatively stunned at the time, but only later came to realize the extent to which it had blown my mind that a white man would doff his hat to my mother. It was something I could never have imagined. The impossible was possible.
I asked my mother why the man had done it. “Because he is an Anglican priest,” she told me. “He is a man of God.” When she told me that he was an Anglican priest I decided there and then that I wanted to be an Anglican priest too. And what is more, I wanted to be a man of God. —Desmond Tutu, “The Man Who Changed My Life
GOD HAS NOT CALLED US TO ERADICATE EVIL FROM THE WORLD.
GOD calls US TO KEEP PLANTING MUSTARD SEEDS AND MIXING THE GOOD NEWS OF JESUS INTO THE WORLD.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. —Galatians 5:22-23
THE PRAYER OF ST FRANCIS OF ASSISI
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
Will you open your heart to Jesus today?
The really good news is that our standing with God isn’t based on the quality of your decisions, because we’ve all decided to do things that are wrong and sinful, but our standing with God is based on the goodness of God. He loves you so much that he sent Jesus, his only Son, who was perfect in every way, who died for the forgiveness of our sins. God raised him from the dead, and our response is to simply decide. If you want to make that decision today, pray with us*:
Heavenly Father, Forgive my sins. Jesus, save me. I trust you. Fill me with your Spirit, so I can follow you and show your love in all that I do. Thank you fore new life. I give you all of mine. In Jesus’s name I pray. Amen
*If you prayed that prayer today, reach out and let us know so that we can journey with you!