Here we go!
The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.
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?’
‘An enemy did this,’ he replied.
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. 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.’ (Matt. 13:24:-30)
In Matthew, Chapter 13, look how the disciples question Jesus' teaching method:
The disciples came to him and asked, “Why do you
speak to the people in parables?”
He replied, “Because the knowledge of the secrets
of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has
will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have,
even what they have will be taken from them. This is why I speak to them in
parables:
'Though seeing, they do not see;
though hearing, they do not hear or understand.'
In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:
‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding;
you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.
For this people’s heart has become calloused;
they hardly hear with their ears,
and they have closed their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts
and turn, and I would heal them.'
But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your
ears because they hear. For truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous
people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear
but did not hear it."
Can you hear their longing to understand? Yes, the disciples are concerned about the people who gather, but perhaps the question really is, Why do You teach in such a roundabout way? Can't You just tell us, straight up, what the truth is? Look at Moses...he told the people exactly what to do, when to do it and how to do it. Simple and direct. If You are the One that the prophets spoke of, why must You speak in stories?
Fair enough. But Jesus didn't answer them
from the His own position: Yes, He is like Moses, in that He is giving a
"new" law--He is refocusing the attention away from doing the Law to having it "written on their hearts" as
Jeremiah foretold. He uses Isaiah as His base of teaching
operations: How the people respond is a sign of the state of their
hearts. "Calloused hearts" are impervious to the truth.
Just being a member of the Chosen People is not enough--this is not a
club.
Why "calloused?" Sin. Pure
and simple.
The disciples are being trained to walk with God,
not just do the Law and assume He is satisfied. Jesus is trying to
recreate, in the hearts of His disciples, a new law of Love--for God and for
one another. So, the disciples are given the interpretation from the
Author Himself. Jesus will quote Isaiah again in Matthew 15 when He
says: "The Lord says: "These people come near to me with their
mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their
worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught"
(Isaiah 29:13). In other words, intimacy with the Father has been smothered
under rules made up by sinful men and Jesus is reclaiming the people's hearts
with His words. Sadly, the calloused condition of them is reaffirming
their need for the truth. Not "a truth" from the lips of men, the The
Truth"--from God's very own Son.
So, after the Parable of the Sower, Jesus launches
into another harvest parable. Harvests don't just happen...they take a
lot of work and diligence on the part of the farmers. The time the seed
goes into the ground, how much sun and rain will come and how well the field is
maintained all contribute to the final goal: to reap bountifully. A
careful dutiful farmer will have abundance and a lazy farmer will have
scarcity. In an age where the harvests' outcome meant the difference
between literal feast and famine, irresponsible farmers were a liability and
the people would pay dearly. So, farms were at the community's
center. The food grown there would affect everyone. Not everyone
was a farmer, but the farmer affected everyone. So, let's see where Jesus
goes with this parable.
This spiritual farm is at the center of the
community's heart. The farmer here is responsible; he choose
"good seed." He put it in the ground at the right time,
confident in the sun and rain to bring it to fruition. Note that the
danger comes while "everyone is sleeping." Hmmm....sleeping on
the job? Lulled into a false slumber of righteousness? Thinking
that doing the Law was enough?
The enemy never sleeps...he is
always on the lookout to cause havoc. Who is the enemy? Well, ultimately
it is Satan, of course, whose very name means "adversary" and his
other name, Devil, means "the accuser." Those names covers his
operations well. But people can also, in the hardness of sin, perpetuate
Satan's agenda, by leading themselves and others away from God's truth.
Notice the sowing by the enemy isn't noticed until
the wheat springs up. Evil starts as an idea...something that is contrary
to God, unnoticed on the outside, but slowly growing and germinating in the
soil of the heart. It soon springs up and may not be as obvious in the
life of an individual at first. The NIV comments that the weeds are
probably darnel, which looks like wheat when it is immature. It is only
when the darnel sprouts its kernels that you know it is not wheat.
So, notice
in order to know what is truly sown by the good Farmer and what is sown by the
Evil One, look at the fruit! Jesus is compassionate enough to know that
the people listening to Him are not entirely responsible for their
callousness: They have teachers who have furthered Satan's agenda by
destroying intimacy with God with rules and regulations and their own
willingness to chase after sin. Ultimately, though, Satan is behind
it.
With this, Jesus is reminding the disciples that
God never intended for His planet to be a polluted field. The enemy
gained a foothold here because Adam and Eve choose to act on an alternative
plan: making their own decisions and leading lives out of step with
God. So, Jesus, in effect, has come to reclaim His Father's fields.
Now, let's consider what the disciples are
thinking: Oh, boy! WE get to get out the scythes and start whacking
that wheat! Take that, Satan! Take that, Pharisees! Take
that, you sinners!
NO. Jesus is not creating
a new set of Pharisees. The disciples would fall prey to the same
temptation to tell others how to live for God, instead of gently pointing them
to the One Who will guide and strengthen their souls. The servants must
serve and the angels, under the direction of the Father, will harvest.
So, what exactly is our job?
Teach the Word in its fullness: no cherry-picking comforting verses and excluding the uncomfortable ones.
Serve and love: let the Spirit convict of sin--let Him apply Round-Up to the sinner's heart. Know that God is faithful: He will accomplish His will on earth as it is in heaven.
Rest in the knowledge that He will return: sin and suffering, praise God, have
an expiration date.
How does this parable finish up?
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.’He answered, ‘The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. 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, and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels. As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. 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. They will throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears, let them hear.’ (Matt. 13:36-43)
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