Weedy Weeds

"The owner's servants came to him and said, 'Sir, didn't you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?' "'An enemy did this,' he replied. "The servants asked him, 'Do you want us to go and pull them up?' "'No,' he answered, 'because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. Matthew 13:27-29 (niv)

Last Sunday, we returned from our family vacation finding that our lawn has been infested with weeds! All the weeds sprouted up during the 9 days we were gone! I learned from a brother in Christ that it has been very stormy and rainy all week while we were at the beach. It's one of the after-effects of 'Cane Dennis causing wreak havoc throughout parts of the midwest and the eastern seaboard.

I have been tending to our lawn almost everyday. Watering, pruning, mowing, and fertilizing. Even, I asked a neighbor to do me a favor by watering our plants and grass if needed. But God provided the rain! After weeks of work on the yard (probably since April), the weeds still come up, not taking weeks, but only a mere 9 days! This makes Jesus' parable so clear that even though you've done all the great work with the effort to care for your yard, weeds still pop up! Now, I am back to work doing "re-fertilization" to get rid of the weeds in my yard.

But the parable says the opposite. Jesus said to leave the weeds? Let's go to the Scripture and begin to understand His parable and how this applies to us today.

The "field" is the world; the world of mankind, a large field, capable of bringing forth good fruit; the more is it to be understood that it brings forth so much bad fruit: the world here is the visible church, scattered all the world over, not confined to one nation.

The "good seed" are the children of the kingdom, true saints, faithful, hard worker, goes the "second-mile", shows Jesus 24/7. This is the seed from which "fruit" (Galatians 5:22-23) is expected, the fruitfulness of honor and service God has rendered us.

The "weeds" are the children of the wicked one, even in the church. Here is the character of sinners, hypocrites, and all profane and wicked people. They are the children of the devil, as a wicked one. They bear his image, do his lusts, and from him they have their education; he rules over them, he works in them.

They are weeds in the field of this world (and in the church); they do no good, they do hurt; unprofitable in themselves, and hurtful to the good seed, both by temptation and persecution.

They are weeds in the garden, have the same rain, and sunshine, and soil, with the good plants, but are good for nothing: the weeds are among the wheat. Understand this, God has so ordered it, that good and bad should be mixed together in this world, that the good may be exercised, the bad left inexcusable, and a difference made between earth and heaven.

We give every weed a chance. We feed them the Word of God in hope that they will become a beautiful golden wheat by nurturing them with our love, encouraging them in fellowship, worshipping God with them, and sharing our burdens. But the time will come when the weeds are still weedy weeds, they will face judgment:

"Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.'" Matthew 13:30 (niv)

The weeds will be judged, tied up in bundles along with other stubborn weeds and thrown into the fire of hell. That's the truth. That's the judgment of God. How many times has God given the weeds of the world and church a chance to repent and become a beautiful wheat? They are the first to go.

The wheat! Man! I am really excited for those who are wheat. You ought to be thankful to God for all the trials and temptations we have endured. They made you stronger. The service you've done for God has made you stronger. I can picture a small group of wheat softly singing, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord, our God!" before our God like the Kansas wheat softly waving in the wind. Beautiful! Like the farmer knows how to raise a good crop of wheat, God raises a good crop of faithful Christians!