The Weeds and the Wheat
Scripture: Matthew 13:24-30 (ESV)
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.”
Devotion:
Jesus continues to preach in
parables to the crowds. This parable would have sounded familiar to the crowds
as it is an agricultural story. Most of the crowd would have been intimately
familiar with what happened during wheat-growing. The comparison of the kingdom
coming as similar to the process of growing a wheat crop would have been instantly
recognizable to His audience. Regardless of the familiarity with the setting,
the disciples still had to ask the Lord to interpret the parable for them:
Matthew 13:36-43 (ESV)
36 Then he left the
crowds and went into the house. And his disciples came to him, saying, “Explain
to us the parable of the weeds of the field.” 37 He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is
the Son of Man. 38 The
field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are
the sons of the evil one, 39, and
the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and
the reapers are angels. 40 Just
as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the
age. 41 The Son of
Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of
sin and all law-breakers, 42 and
throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place, there will be weeping and
gnashing of teeth. 43 Then
the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who
has ears, let him hear.
Understanding this parable is essential
in today’s culture as it was in the culture of Jesus’ day. We need to be on the
lookout for those good-looking purveyors of the gospel who are secretly (or not
so secretly) sowing discord and disobedience in the world today. Sons of the
devil are all around us in our culture, mixing just enough truth in with their
lies that some believers may take the bait.
Today, we must be like the believers
in Berea Paul encountered in the book of Acts (Acts 17). They carefully checked
Paul’s teaching against the scriptures to make sure they were not being deceived.
It has to be the same way today. The internet provides a steady stream of “Christian”
teaching. Much of it, however, is Christian in name only. We must protect our
children and grandchildren to keep them from being deceived by false teachers.
We must be content to let the weeds grow with the wheat until the Lord calls
for the great harvest of the end times to begin.
Prayer:
Lord, protect our hearts and the
hearts of our loved ones from false teachings and false teachers. Grant that we
may follow you with our whole hearts. May our witness bring glory to your name.
Please help us to expose false teachers as soon as we become aware of them. Help
us, Lord, to check out what we are being taught against your word. Restore in
us a clean and contrite heart with which to seek your truth and declare that truth
wherever we go or live. Amen.
Comments
Post a Comment