Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Weeds

Do you remember Jesus' story about the weeds? Do you have weeds in your life? Trust me, they will be there for the duration. There is too much danger in uprooting them. Please read the parable below.

Matthew 13:24-30

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.’”

As Jesus tells us later in the chapter, the farmer is the Son of Man, Jesus Himself. The weeds are the Devil's own - evil people with evil intentions in the world. The harvest is the end of the age and the harvesters are angels that will separate the weeds from the wheat - the saved from the unsaved - and then cast the unbelievers into hell where they ultimately belong with their father the Devil. The saved, on the other hand, will live in the Kingdom of God where they will "shine like the sun". Jesus calls them righteous.

So then, as long as we live here in the time and space of our planet, believers will live with unbelievers. We have to put up with it. We still have to try and grow despite their influence and we have to do so without the help of the farmer. He will not allow His servants to separate us just yet. For one thing, it would be a danger to us. Some of us might become uprooted in the process and perish. The thing the farmer is really counting on though I think is transformation of the weeds. In the real world, weeds do not suddenly become grain or vegetables or flowers or beautiful shrubs or anything else useful. In the spiritual world however, this is not the case. Weeds can be influenced by the grain to change. Unbelievers can choose faith based on what they see and hear promoted by believers. Imagine a field where the actual crops crowd out the stubborn weeds and convert other weeds to fruit bearing status? Imagine that John Lennon.

I have probably taken Jesus' parable too far here, but my considered opinion is that there are weeds out there that would love to be wheat, but they hesitate because they think the wheat hates them or does not accept them. There is something to this.

If you grew up in the Church, you probably never experienced this. Or maybe the power of the weeds influence early on pulled you away or worse still, you were angry at the Farmer for making you a weed in the first place, and was that really His doing?

Brethren, we all start out as weeds regardless of our backgrounds. It's easier for some weeds to change than it is for others. Some weeds will not make it. But the ones that will need our support to become the very best wheat possible given their circumstances. You know what I am saying I hope. You do not want to be guilty of uprooting some of the Farmer's crop.