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Thoughts of a saint and slave
by Sam Isaacson
I’ll be honest, I’ve not known that much about this parable until now, which to some extent isn't surprising. Isn’t it great that no matter how well, or how much we know of Scripture, there is always something new:
‘The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. 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?” 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?” But he said, “No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. 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.”’ (Matthew 13:24-30)
What it all means
Fortunately for us, Matthew also recorded how Jesus explained this parable to his disciples in Matthew 13:36-43. I’ll not reproduce that here, but will pick out the main points for application. Let’s begin with Jesus’ first sentence. The first character we are introduced to is ‘a man’, and, similar to last week’s parable, this sower of good seed represents ‘the Son of Man’ (v37), which is a title Jesus took upon himself. This parable represents Jesus distributing good seed, his followers (Christians), into the field, i.e. the world. Satan, however, sows his followers, and at ‘the close of the age’ (v39) it will be up to the angels to reap.
How should we respond?
Well, first let us clarify that we ought to respond as those who know we are the good seed. So here’s the first question: would we produce good fruit for Jesus? Are we willing to be used by him, or are we obstinate and refuse? Do we trust that God has the best for us, or do we try too hard to make our own way in life? That all being said, if we are Christians then we are this good seed, and should respond with that perspective.
There is a warning in this parable that where all good seed is sown, weeds will be planted close by. A leader once said to me that if I were finding my Christian life easy, then that was because Satan had singled me out and noticed that I was not a threat to him. The Christian life must be tough, or it is not the one talked about by Jesus here. Wherever we are, we should expect hard times to hit, and even be encouraged when they do, for that is the life for the sower’s good seed.
What timescale are we talking here?
It is clear to me that Jesus’ intention in this parable is to warn us that our Christian walk will be difficult between now and death. The weeds are intentionally left in the field by the sower right up until ‘the close of the age’, so we ought not to expect our hard times to go away any time soon. Is this bad news, however? Jesus doesn’t seem to think so.
The sower says that if the weeds are uprooted in the short term, they would uproot the good seed as well. Hear what Jesus is saying here: if your hard times were taken away, your Christian life would also go away. This is true – anyone who knows any statistics will be able to tell you that the Christian population grows exponentially in nations that are suffering. Don’t underestimate the power of suffering.
So Christianity is about suffering?
No, absolutely not – Christianity is all about joy! Hear Jesus’ words: ‘The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.’ (v41-43) This is good news! At the close of the age we will experience all sin, all causes of sin, and all causers of sin, being entirely removed, and thrown into the fiery furnace. We will enjoy complete freedom from the very presence of sin, and then ourselves will receive righteousness that we will shine like the sun! Read Hebrews 12:1-2 and we can see that Jesus endured his suffering on the cross because of ‘the joy set before him’ – so let us do the same. Let’s keep our eyes fixed on that joy set before us to enable us to endure the suffering that will come.
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