“Here is another story Jesus told: “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a farmer who planted good seed in his field. But that night as the workers slept, his enemy came and planted weeds among the wheat, then slipped away. When the crop began to grow and produce grain, the weeds also grew. “The farmer’s workers went to him and said, ‘Sir, the field where you planted that good seed is full of weeds! Where did they come from?’ “‘An enemy has done this!’ the farmer exclaimed. “‘Should we pull out the weeds?’ they asked. “‘No,’ he replied, ‘you’ll uproot the wheat if you do. Let both grow together until the harvest. Then I will tell the harvesters to sort out the weeds, tie them into bundles, and burn them, and to put the wheat in the barn.’” Matthew 13:24-30 NLT
It may not seem like the most appropriate object lesson for Jesus’ series on the Kingdom of Heaven, but it is soooo TRUE.
Why are we risking the health of good wheat by chasing down bad weeds? First of all Jesus told his followers, the enemy sows weeds right among the wheat! This “enemy” has to have double meaning.
I am positive that people being people, means that your farmer neighbor might feel the need to passive-aggressively send you a clear signal that he’s tired of the loud, weekend bonfires you host way too often. Thus, having his field workers run willynilly through your fields flinging weeds (tares). My understanding is that tares look a lot like wheat when they begin to grow. Jesus must also clearly be stating that there is an enemy of all enemies, the slanderer, the liar is also sending his little demon imps throughout the world generously distributing weeds, in the form of well placed lies, right among the good seed of the gospel.
Since the early results of both the good seed and the impostered-lies seed look similar when starting out, it’s hard to tell right away. But as the farmer and expert field workers watch both wheat and tare grow to maturity, they easily spot the difference. The natural response would be to PULL THE WEED! Farmers hate weeds, we hate weeds. We only want to see the beauty and benefit of what we planted! Whether it’s food or flowers, we don’t want to be reminded of sin, evil, or purposeful perpetration scattered around our perfect field or flowerbeds!!!
We must pull the weed to satisfy our idea of how evil must immediately be eradicated! Get it out now. The kindness of Jesus telling the story comes out when he says the field workers asked, “should we pull out the weeds?” Now, there’s a lesson in great management. When in doubt, ask. Ask, until you learn the owner’s ways. The owner (personified as wisdom) answers, “No!” He says wait. Why wait? But but but…weeds are evil and despised, they’ll make more weeds and take over the whole field and destroy the whole world….🤯. Why wait?
Why not pull those evil broods of fakery? Jesus said, “because you’ll uproot the good wheat.” In trying destroy the evil stalk of satan, you’ll pull the good out with it! In what seems so counterintuitive, Jesus says, let them grow together – and wait until harvest! What, did he say, let them grow? Together? What? The thought of letting an evil seed grow is just not possible in my limited understanding of justice.
In the Church world, in our understanding of the gospel and God’s righteousness, we do this all the time. We hate evil. We hate lies. We hate fake, slick, propaganda and small amounts of truth laced with deception! I’m sure this doesn’t extend to ALL EVIL, but think about how much damage we do to the gospel and the Church when we don’t obey Christ’s illustrative object lesson. We hunt down error and evil like weed-seeds sown across the globe. We have whole sects of heresy-hunters scouring every recorded sermon, every book written, every tasty sound bite lifted from some obscure interview. Their job, as they see it – PLUCK EVIL where ever it be found! And, in doing so, we often uproot the young, sprouting seeds of the gospel.
Dear heresy hunters: you can’t stop evil by pulling it out for everyone to see without uprooting the young shoots of gospel good. Heresy existed then, it exists now. Evil seeds existed then, they exist today. Be careful when examining the fields of belief across our land. Let the harvesters sort out the weeds later. Let the Bible do its work. Let the local pastors sort out the weeds from the wheat. Folks are already hoping from one church to another because they are absolutely obsessed with the perfect church with the perfect theology. It’s not helping matters that some are policing every sermon of those they believe are receiving too much attention or have too large a following. Quit trying to foster a christian cancel culture by sowing seeds of disunity. Thank you.
Dear believers: read the Bible for yourself. Listen to the Spirit of God who primarily speaks through the Word of God. The Holy Spirit can and will lead you into all truth, if you’ll listen and obey. Don’t get caught up in church’s or denominational differences, listen and follow the core beliefs of Christianity. We are one Church under Jesus Christ. And don’t mistake various preferences of churches as contrary to the gospel, but just as practics of how things work within that particular community of faith.
Prayer
Dad,
Am I wrong for wanting unity in the body of Christ? Of course solid theology and doctrine is important, but at the expense of sacrificing love and the commands of the one anothers? We are all under the one banner of Jesus, right? Forgive us God. Help us in these last days to be one in the Spirit.