by Pat Lee
(Based on Matt 13:24-30, 36-43)
Last week we heard the Parable of the Sower. This week we hear a similar parable, but this time weeds come up amongst the wheat in the good soil and grow together.
Elisabeth Johnson, in one of her commentaries, says that “a little bit of botany is helpful in understanding this parable. Matthew uses the Greek term zizania, which, in modern botanical terms, refers to the genus of wild rice grasses. What Matthew most likely refers to, however, is darnel or cockle, a noxious weed that closely resembles wheat and is plentiful in Israel. The difference between darnel and real wheat is evident only when the plants mature and the ears appear. The ears of the real wheat are heavy and will droop, while the ears of the darnel stand up straight.”
The slaves of the householder notice the weeds and are surprised by them because they believe their Master sowed good seed. So, they ask him, “Where, then, did these weeds come from?” They are told that an enemy has sown them. They want to go out into the fields and pull out all the weeds to take care of the problem. But their Master wisely restrains them from doing that, and orders them to let both grow together until the harvest, because he knows that by pulling out the weeds, the good plants will be uprooted as well.
Many of you are gardeners.
You know how the weeds seem to grow much faster than the plants. They try to choke out the ones you want. You can pull the weeds up today, but in a few days’ time more appear.
Our lives are a bit like that. We all have ‘weeds’ in our lives.
What are some of those weeds?
The Bible lists a number of them in various books, and there are others not mentioned. Things like gossip, talking about someone behind their back, telling half truths, breaking confidences, making judgements, being unreliable, having a controlling attitude, bearing grudges, complacency, being disobedient to God’s word … In fact, anything that does not bring glory to God. So, how do we get rid of these weeds that grow in the gardens of our lives without pulling the wheat out too?
The Bible tells us in 1 John 1:9 that if we confess our sins (the weeds), “… he who is faithful and just (God) will forgive our sins and cleanse us.” God will root out the weeds when we ask him.
Unlike the parable where the Master tells the slaves to wait until harvest when weeds will be gathered into bundles and thrown into the fire , our weeds can be uprooted as soon as we become aware of them. The weeds can be removed with the good wheat left intact.
However, in this parable, as in many others, there is a warning. In verses 41-42 Jesus says, “The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will weeping and gnashing of teeth.” And then, in verse 43, “Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” I emphasise that God will be the one to sort out the righteous from the unrighteous when the time comes: he is the one who best knows each of our hearts.
I found at least eight similar warnings in the Gospel of Matthew.
[One of these is in the parable of the ten bridesmaids, in Matthew chapter 25. There we read that five of the bridesmaids went in to the wedding feast with the bridegroom but the other five were shut out. When they called out to be let in, the reply was, “Truly I tell you, I do not know you.”]
Is Jesus trying to frighten us ? I don’t think so. But he is warning us of the consequences of failing to recognize Jesus as Lord and Saviour.
In today’s parable, at the end of Jesus’s explanation he says, “Let anyone with ears … listen!” This phrase occurs several times in the gospels. It echoes the words God spoke in the cloud at the Transfiguration, words which Peter, James and John clearly heard. The words were, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” These words, or similar ones, appearing in the Scriptures several times must be important? We should be listening to him as well, and taking good heed.
Many people believe that God is a God of love who will welcome everybody; but that is not what the Scriptures say. God is also a God of justice.
Of course, I do believe that God is a God of love. John 3:16 tells us that God loved the world (including you and me). When God inspired John to write that verse, he was talking not just to those alive at the time, but to the generations that followed right down to the present day and to all those generations yet to come. So, God “loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life.” The key words are, everyone who believes. So how do we know that we will not perish? John 1:12 says, “But to all who received him (that is, asked Jesus to come into their lives as personal Saviour), and who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God.”
That is a promise that gives us assurance; and God does not break his promises.
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