Jesus spoke in parables. He used simple stories.
I marvel at how he took something as magnificent as "the
Have you read any parables lately?
The parable about the wheat and the tares has always been an
interesting story to me. It is in some
respects annoying to many Christians. Diagnostics and healthy discernment
notwithstanding, Christians and churches alike can grow anxious over any number
of things within and without the kingdom
of God
Do you remember what Jesus said about this in the “parable
of the field” recorded in Matthew 13:24-30, 37-43?
24 He put another
parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a
man who sowed good seed in his field, 25 but while his men were
sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. 26 So
when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. 27 And
the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did
you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ 28 He
said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do
you want us to go and gather them?’ 29 But he said, ‘No, lest in
gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. 30 Let
both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the
reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but
gather the wheat into my barn.’”
Later Jesus has to explain the parable to his disciples.
Here is what he said:
“The one who sows the
good seed is the Son of Man.
By the time Matthew's readers received this parabolic
reminder, 30 years of preaching, ministry and church history water had gone
under the proverbial bridge. Most of the book of Acts has happened and
then some. In other words, a lot of living, struggle, and suffering.
House churches were in duress. people who were once faithful weren't
around anymore. "Progress" wasn't a word peopled used then.
(Should we use it today?) They wrestled with big questions:
Is this worth it? Is suffering going to worsen? Do we need to
make the gospel more adaptive to culture? In short, they were getting
anxious. And, this parable was a reminder to them to stick to their guns
and, in a word, continue being who Christ had called them to be. Just be
wheat! Just keep bearing fruit!
Like I said, this parable is annoying. It is annoying
because it doesn't explain everything about life and ministry that we want to
know. Nor does it give us a magic wand to fix every problem in the world
or in the body of Christ. What it does give us is some much needed
perspective on what we need to focus on every day, namely, being
disciples.
We can get so lost in analyzing the darkness that we forget
the wisdom in the song "This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it
shine." And shining is the best thing any of us can do! Weeds of every kind are going to grow. Jesus said so. But, so does the
seed of the kingdom! Planting,
watering, and tending the field is the best thing we can do every day. As
the song says, "This is my Father's world!" Have a great day in
the garden!
Randy Daugherty
