Weeds

Scriptures to Read

St. Matthew

13:24-30

St. Matthew

13:36-43

St. John

5:19-23

St. John

5:24-30

St. John

5:31-47

St. John

8:42-47

Revelation

20:11-15

Last week's parable dealt with Sowers – Seeds – Soils. It was told to help those who tell God's Story about how their message would be received. Today, we look at a parable to will help us understand what the Kingdom of Heaven is like.

Today's parable is told only in Matthew's Gospel. It is one of several that tell us something about what the Kingdom of Heaven is like. Some of the terminology last week and today is similar. We should note in both the Sower is God's Son.He is sowing Seed. Last week the seed represented the Word of God or God's Story.

Today, the Seed is God's children. I should mention the parable and its interpretation are found in St. Matthew 13:24-30 and 36-43. Jesus gave this parable to large crowds of people but the interpretation of it only to His disciples when they asked Him for an explanation.

Here is the parable. A man sowed good seed in his field. That night while everyone slept, an enemy of his came and sowed weed seeds over the good seed. Of course no one knew it for a while. But the day came and it was known there were lots of weeds growing in the field. The man's servants asked him about it knowing he had sowed good seed. He freely acknowledged that an enemy of his had sowed the weeds.

Now the servants were concerned and wanted to know if they should go to the field and pull the weeds. But the owner tells them it is too late. By the time the weeds were recognizable, their root systems were tangled with root systems of the good grain. Pulling weeds would uproot good grain as well. The only recourse was to let them grow together until harvest time. He would then instruct the harvesters to harvest weeds first, bundle them, and burn them. Then they could harvest the good grain and put it into storage.

When the crowds were gone, the disciples asked for an explanation. Jesus gave a detailed one. The Sower is Jesus Himself, The Son of God. The Seed is people who were God's children/servants/people. The enemy was Satan, The Enemy's seeds were his children/servants/people. The field was the world. The harvesters were God's angels. The harvest was the end of the world.

God's angels will gather Satan's children/servants/people and they will be thrown into Hell's fire. God's children/servants/people will also be gathered by the angels into Heaven.

The focus of the parable is that children/servants/people of both God and Satan live in this world side by side, until the final Judgment. We cannot tell them apart by their looks. But, we can know them by the fruit they produce.

God's children/servants/people produce good fruit. Satan's children/servants/people produce wicked/sinful fruit. We humans may not be able to tell who are Satan's children/servants/people but God certainly knows them.