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You are here: Home / Devotions / TAKE 5–MAY 17, 17

TAKE 5–MAY 17, 17

May 17, 2017 by beardonnam Leave a Comment


‘He presented another parable to them: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while people were sleeping, his enemy came, sowed weeds among the wheat, and left. When the plants sprouted and produced grain, then the weeds also appeared. Let both grow together until the harvest. At harvest time I’ll tell the reapers: Gather the weeds first and tie them in bundles to burn them, but store the wheat in my barn.’ ”
Matthew13:24‭-‬26‭, ‬30

So Jesus gives the aame crowd another parable (remember, a parable is a “story about ordinary people doing seemingly ordinary things, but with a message that has eternal significance”)! This time, Jesus’ story is about a farmer who sows a field of good seed. While he sleeps one night, an enemy slips in and sows weeds in the same field. When the seeds come up, a servent asks the farmer, “didn’t you plant pure seed–look at all these weeds”, to which the farmer replied, “an enemy has slipped in and done this”! (Vs 27-28)
Now the servant’s solution was to immediately uproot all the weeds, which sounds like a good idea to me (vs 28). The farmer was wiser, however, with his reply, ““ ‘No,’ he said. ‘When you gather up the weeds, you might also uproot the wheat with them.” (Vs 29)
Now this reply sounds a little strange to me, I mean after all, what does it hurt to lose a little bit of wheat in order to clean up the crop? But the story wasn’t really about wheat and weeds, it was about people! In vss 36-40, Jesus explains the parable: the One Who sowed the original seed was Himself; the field is the world; the good seed are the legit Christ followers; the weeds are those who play church whom Jesus called “the sons of the evil one”, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil himself, the harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels. So like in our story, Jesus says “Let both grow together until the harvest.” (Vs 30)

“At harvest time I’ll tell the reapers: Gather the weeds first and tie them in bundles to burn them, but store the wheat in my barn” (vs 30). Wow! I’d hate to be a weed on that day!
Let me make a couple of comments:
First, the Sower, Jesus, planted all GOOD SEED! God did not create evil, He permitted it out of respect for our free will. He WANTS us to worship and fellowship with Him, but He’ll never FORCE us to! Like in our story, it was the devil, His and our enemy, who sowed evil. I, personally, veiw these weed seeds more as temptations or ideas, not people. Why?
Second, Jesus the farmer is very protective of His people, the good seed sown. His will is that “NONE should perish” (2 Peter 3:9). Instead of allowing the angels to purge evil, prior to the harvest-the end of the age, He insists that to protect ALL the wheat, they not pull up any of the weeds until the end of time!
Now I’ve heard that the weeds of which Jesus speaks (similar to rye grass) are strikingly similar to legit wheat and almost impossible to tell apart from them right up until they are ripe. Only when “fruit” begins to be bore can they be accurately destingushed. (Matt 7:15-20)
What strikes me the most about this story is Jesus’ passion for those who are legit followers of Himself. He loves us enough to allow evil to co-exist with us to not risk losing any of us. It also tells me that there may be weedish looking wheat that hasn’t yet born fruit and that these may be they ones Jesus is holding out for.
He may be holding out for you!
Think about it!

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