Weeds in your life…
Matthew is one of the Bible authors that walked with Jesus and often refers to and connects with passages in the Old Testament.
We find that scholars like to refer to Matthew as the book that describes the “priestly” nature of Jesus.
One parable that only shows up in Matthew, is paired with two others and it describes, to me at least, the process and life of a Christian.
In Matthew 13:33 Jesus tells of a woman blending yeast into dough, let it set (let the yeast permeate and activate) and how it raises up the dough into something useful.
Similarly in verse 31, he speaks about the smallest of the seeds, a mustard seed growing huge and becoming a place of rest and shelter for birds and animals alike.
But it’s the parable of the weeds starting in v24 that hits me dead on:
The farmer prepared a field and sows good seed. But when the seed comes up, the wheat is mixed in with weeds.
The workers who believes it is sabotage from our enemy, want to go an pluck out the weeds, but the farmer says no… you will damage and pluck up the wheat as well… (The wheat that must feed and become the seed for future generations)
Let them grow together, says the farmer, and when it comes time to harvest, we remove the weeds, tie them up into bushels and throw them into the fire (never to sprout a seed again) once we have cleaned the field, then we can harvest the wheat.
This is just amazing. If I think about my own Christian walk… I am not without sin… No follower of Christ is… even Paul complained about it in his own life. The weeds show up in between the wheat.
… but with it grows the wheat. It gets stronger and becomes ripe and ready… and when Jesus decides that now I am strong enough to handle the process… He starts removing the weeds. He ties them up, and burns it. Never to take over my field again.
The weeds in my life is frustrating and irritating. And I could never understand why God (the farmer 😉) would allow these to grow around my ankles… but as He says… if I rip it out now… I will damage you more than the weeds will.
God allows the weeds, but He hates it. He doesn’t want it, He will gather it and burn it and get rid of it forever… as soon as you are safe from the process. Does that mean God condones my sin? Absolutely not, but instead of risking to destroy the field, He will wait for me to grow. To become strong, to stand tall like the mustard seed, leavened throughout like the yeast in the bread.
God the Farmer, God the Shepherd, God the Father… always cares with love.
“The Parable of the Weeds
Then Jesus taught them another parable:
“Heaven’s kingdom can be compared to a farmer who planted good seed in his field.
But when everyone was asleep, an enemy came and planted weeds among the wheat and ran away. When the wheat sprouted and bore grain, the weeds also appeared. So the farmer’s hired hands came to him and said, ‘Sir, wasn’t that good seed that you sowed in the field? Where did all these weeds come from?’
“He answered, ‘This has to be the work of an enemy!’
“They replied, ‘Do you want us to go and gather up all the weeds?’
“ ‘No,’ he said. ‘If you pull out the weeds you might uproot the wheat at the same time. Let them both grow together until the harvest. At that time, I’ll tell my harvesters to gather the weeds first and tie them all in bundles to be burned. Then they will harvest the wheat and put it into my barn.’ ”
(Matthew 13:24-30)
