Hosea 10:1-4 Disputations like
poisonous weeds
Israel was a spreading vine; he
brought forth fruit for himself.
As his fruit increased, he built
more altars; as his land
prospered, he adorned his sacred
stones.
Their heart is deceitful, and now
they must bear their guilt. The
Lord will demolish their altars
and destroy their sacred stones.
Then they will say, "We have no
king because we did not revere the
Lord. But even if we had a king,
what could he do for us?" They
make many promises, take false
oaths, and make agreements;
therefore disputations spring up
like poisonous weeds in a plowed
field.
Matthew 13:24-30; 36-43
The parable of the wheat and
the weeds
He put before them another
parable: "The kingdom of heaven
may be compared to someone who
sowed good seed in his field; but
while everybody was asleep, an
enemy came and sowed weeds among
the wheat, and then went away. So
when the plants came up and bore
grain, then the weeds appeared as
well. And the slaves of the
householder came and said to him,
'Master, did you not sow good seed
in your field? Where, then, did
these weeds come from?' He
answered, 'An enemy has done
this.' The slaves said to him,
'Then do you want us to go and
gather them?' But he replied, 'No;
for in gathering the weeds you
would uproot the wheat along with
them. Let both of them grow
together until the harvest; and at
harvest time I will tell the
reapers, Collect the weeds first
and bind them in bundles to be
burned, but gather the wheat into
my barn.'" . . .
Then he left the crowds and went
into the house. And his disciples
approached him, saying, "Explain
to us the parable of the weeds of
the field."
He answered, "The one who sows the
good seed is the Son of Man; the
field is the world, and the good
seed are the children of the
kingdom; the weeds are the
children of the evil one, and the
enemy who sowed them is the devil;
the harvest is the end of the age,
and the reapers are angels. Just
as the weeds are collected and
burned up with fire, so will it be
at the end of the age. The Son of
Man will send his angels, and they
will collect out of his kingdom
all causes of sin and all
evildoers, and they will throw
them into the furnace of fire,
where there will be weeping and
gnashing of teeth. Then the
righteous will shine like the sun
in the kingdom of their Father.
Let anyone with ears listen!
Heaven and Hell #491, 502 Our
second stage after death
We go through three stages after
death before we come into either
heaven or hell. The first is
living in our outer self, the
second is living in our inner
self, and the third is getting
ready. We go through these stages
in the world of spirits. . . .
After the first stage is over--the
stage of living in our outer
self--we are brought as a spirit
into a stage where we are in our
inner self. This is a stage of our
inner motivation, and the thought
that comes from it. In the world,
we were in this state of mind when
we were by ourselves in freedom
and without anything bridling our
thoughts. Just as in the world, we
lapse into this state without
realizing it when the thought
closest to our words--meaning the
thought from which we
speak--withdraws toward our inner
thought, and we linger there. When
we are in this state of mind, we
are in our real self and in our
real life. Our real life--our real
self--is thinking freely from our
own feelings.
The kingdom of heaven may be
compared to someone who sowed good
seed in his field; but while
everybody was asleep, an enemy
came and sowed weeds among the
wheat, and then went away.
(Matthew 13:24, 25)
For the last two weeks, we have
been warming up to our subject of
heaven on earth. We started two
weeks ago by highlighting the
words from the Lord's Prayer,
"Your will be done, on earth as it
is in heaven." From these words it
is clear that we are not meant to
wait until we die before tasting
anything of heaven; rather, we are
here on earth to see that God's
will is done here just as it is in
heaven. In other words, our task
here involves bringing something
of heaven to this earth.
Then last week we explored the
words that John the Baptist and
Jesus and his disciples used when
they preached to the people:
"Repent, for the kingdom of heaven
is near!" Heaven is not some
far-off place that we may
experience some time. It is right
here within us and among us. And
it is within and among us whenever
we leave our own ways behind, and
follow the Lord's ways instead.
With these thoughts as background,
today we take up the first of the
Lord's parables of the kingdom of
heaven that will provide the
themes for the rest of our fall
series. These parables of the
kingdom of heaven form a sequence
that takes up most of Matthew
chapter thirteen, and then
reappears from chapter eighteen to
chapter twenty-five of the same
Gospel. And it is interesting that
where Matthew speaks of "the
kingdom of heaven," the other
Gospels speak of "the kingdom of
God." Of course, the kingdom of
heaven and the kingdom of God are
one and the same, because it is
God's presence--the presence of
God's love and wisdom within and
around us--that makes heaven.
Now let's dig into the parable of
the wheat and the weeds--or "wheat
and tares," as you may be more
used to hearing.
One of the things I love about
this parable is that it points out
so clearly that we do not have to
be perfect to be in the kingdom of
heaven. In fact, this parable
makes it clear that we do not even
have to be in heaven to be
in the kingdom of heaven!
Here is why the parable says this:
In this parable, the kingdom of
heaven is first compared to
someone who sowed good seed in his
field. Well, that does sound like
heaven. The field is the world of
our lives, and the good seed is
the Lord's truth that causes us to
be children--or citizens--of his
kingdom. But then the parable goes
on to say, "but while everybody
was asleep, an enemy came and
sowed weeds among the wheat, and
then went away." Why is this
surprising? Because Jesus is still
talking about "the kingdom of
heaven!" The kingdom of heaven is
not only like having good seed
sown in the field of our lives,
but also like having bad seed sown
in our lives by an enemy--which
Jesus identifies as "the devil," a
personification of hell. So while
we are in heaven in our spirits,
we have not only good seed sown in
us, but also bad seed.
Now, I'm not advocating that we
get comfortable and friendly with
our evils and vices. After all,
eventually they're going to have
to be rooted out. But this parable
should help us to relax a bit, and
not be so hard on ourselves if we
are not perfect. In every single
one of us, the Lord has sown good
seed. The Lord has given us good
qualities, good character traits,
good potentials and skills that
fit us for heaven if, like wheat
sown in the field, we allow them
to grow in our lives.
But the Lord also knows--and we
ourselves are often painfully
aware--that in each one of us
there are also bad seeds sown.
These are our tendencies toward
being selfish, uncaring, greedy,
and focused on physical things,
and all the character flaws, bad
habits, and outright offenses that
flow from these bad seeds. Every
single one of us has weeds growing
up with our wheat. Yet as long as
the good seed is growing in us as
well, we are still in the kingdom
of heaven.
Now, truth be told, while we are
mixed up between good and evil, we
are still in the earth version of
the kingdom of heaven. And our
teachings tell us that on earth,
heaven is the church--or the
community of believers and
followers of God. And every single
one of us who is part of the
universal church, or the Lord's
kingdom on earth, has both good
seed and bad growing in us at the
same time. So we might as well
just accept that we are not going
to be perfect. It was not we, but
an enemy who sowed that bad seed
in our lives. And the sooner we
get out of our personal guilt trip
and realize that in fact, we are
under attack by outside forces,
the sooner we will be able to
loosen the grip of that evil on
our lives. Who sowed the bad seed?
"An enemy." It was the devil, or
hell, who sowed us full of the
seeds of bad tendencies and
character flaws. This happened
while we were spiritually asleep,
and didn't realize what was
happening. And those seeds will
grow up in us, whether we like it
or not. We'll just have to get
used to not being perfect.
And the next surprising thing
about this parable is that we are
not commanded to
immediately root out the evil in
ourselves the moment we notice
that it is there. We have
generally been advised that
whenever we see anything wrong, we
should "nip it in the bud." For
heaven's sake, get rid of it
before it takes over! But I would
suggest that this does not apply
to all the flaws we notice as they
are sprouting up in our minds and
hearts. These are not coming from
buds, but from seeds. The buds we
are to nip are the poisonous
flower buds of fully grown weeds
in our character that are about to
blossom out into actions and words
that are damaging and destructive
to the people around us, and to
ourselves.
Now why, when we see a wrong
thought or feeling sprouting up in
ourselves, should we not instantly
rip it up out of the field of our
minds? Wouldn't that be a safer
course?
The Lord, in the parable, says,
"No; for in gathering the weeds,
you would uproot the wheat along
with them. Let both of them grow
together until the harvest." What
could this mean? Isn't it obvious
that when we weed our garden, it
is best to get the weeds when they
are small? Aren't they much more
difficult to uproot when they are
full-grown?
In many cases, this is true. And
if we have obviously evil, vile
thoughts and feelings cropping up
within us like broad-leafed weeds
that will quickly shade and choke
out the good plants, it probably
is a good idea to pull them up
right away, before they can take
over.
But in the case of wheat and these
particular weeds, that would not
be a wise course of action for two
reasons. First, unlike most garden
plants, wheat is a grass, and it
grows packed closely together.
With the root systems similarly
packed together, and even
intertwined, pulling up the weeds
would inevitably uproot the wheat
as well.
Second, the particular weed that
Bible scholars believe Jesus was
referring to is the darnel plant,
which looks very much like wheat,
especially in the early stages of
growth. Unlike nutritious wheat,
its seeds are poisonous. But as it
is growing, it is hard to tell
darnel from wheat. So in our
attempts to root it out, we would
be likely to pull out a lot of
wheat plants thinking they were
darnel, and leave behind a lot of
darnel plants thinking they are
wheat. In other words, in the
early stages, it is hard to tell
the difference between the wheat
and the weeds, and we would likely
pull out many of the wrong plants.
What does this mean in our lives?
It is true that some parts of our
mind and lives are like a
vegetable or flower garden, in
which the good plants and the
weeds are obvious, and we can root
out the bad right away. For
example, if we are in business,
and we are thinking that perhaps
just this month we should cook the
books a bit to make things look a
little better than they really
are, that's an obvious violation
of the Ten Commandments, and we
can just pull that weed right out.
But what about when things aren't
so clear cut? Perhaps an example
outside of ourselves may help to
make the problem stand out. Let's
say once again that we are in
business, but this time we are a
manager in charge of hiring and
firing. We have just hired a new
crop of workers. Some of them look
very promising; others look like
they may not cut it, or may even
be dishonest.
In this situation, one course of
action we might take would be to
immediately give the pink slip to
those we suspect are going to be a
problem. But in so doing, we run
the danger of letting go people
that might turn out to be very
good workers. Perhaps some of the
ones we see problems with are
simply new to employment, or new
to this particular line of work.
They may be struggling to get
oriented, and be a bit inept and
inefficient at first. These people
do not need to be fired; they need
to be helped along. And if we do
help them along, many of them will
become fine additions to our work
force.
On the other hand, some of the
ones who look great at first may,
in fact, be quite competent--but
also untrustworthy and apt to
cheat the business. We might leave
them in place because of their
good showing, only to find out
later that they have a tendency to
help themselves to money or
merchandise when they see an
opportunity.
Of course, there may be some
obvious bad apples that we need to
get rid of right away. But in this
situation, it is better to give
our new crop of employees some
time, and see how they turn out.
In the language of the parable, we
"Let both of them grow together
until the harvest." Only when we
have seen them "grow to maturity"
in their job can we clearly
distinguish between the wheat and
the weeds among our employees.
The same is true of many of our
everyday thoughts and feelings. We
have a multitude of thoughts and
feelings cropping up within us
every day--and it isn't always
easy to tell which ones are good
and which are bad. For example, we
may have a bad feeling about a
particular person, and be ready to
shut that person out. And our
feeling may be right! On the other
hand, it may be based on
prejudices that we need to
overcome, or even a bad experience
we had with someone else who
looked a bit like that person. In
this case, it is best to let our
feelings "mature" a bit, and see
if our initial reaction is
well-founded--or if, in fact, this
is a case in which we need to
change our attitudes and broaden
our minds.
The message here is not that we
should be careless and unconcerned
about dealing with our wrong
thoughts and feelings. It is,
rather, that when thoughts and
feelings are growing up within us
that are new and untried, it might
be best to see where they lead us
before making a decision about
whether they are good or bad. New
ideas that at first seem crazy
may, in fact, be leading us in a
whole new and better direction.
And new feelings that at first
seem beautiful and appealing may,
in fact, be leading us in a bad
direction. As those thoughts and
feelings mature, their true nature
will become clear to us, and then
we will be able to "harvest" them
together, keeping the good, and
rejecting the bad.
Some of this we can do right here
on earth. The more we do allow our
thoughts and feelings to grow to
maturity, and then "collect the
weeds and bind them in bundles to
be burned," while "gathering the
wheat into the Lord's barn," the
better off we will be even while
we are still living in the
physical world.
For each one of us, though, there
is also a "final harvest" after we
leave the physical world for the
spiritual world. There, in a place
called "the world of spirits," all
our thoughts and feelings come to
full maturity. There, whatever we
have truly believed and been
motivated by within ourselves will
come out into the light. We will
no longer be able to think one
thing and do another; and the true
nature of each one of our thoughts
and feelings will become obvious
in the brilliant, clear light that
comes from heaven. Whatever
outward show we may have made here
on earth, our real inner nature
will come out, and we will speak
and act outwardly exactly as we
have thought and felt inwardly.
This can be a scary teaching. Most
of us have well-hidden thoughts
and feelings that we would be
embarrassed or scared to have
generally known by the people
around us. But as Jesus said, what
we have said in the darkness of
our own hearts will be heard in
the daylight, and what we have
whispered in the ear in the inner
rooms of our minds will be
proclaimed from the rooftops (Luke
12:3). This should give us some
incentive to gradually let those
inner thoughts grow up into the
light, where we can clearly
distinguish the good from the bad,
and then reject the bad, while
taking the good to heart.
But the teachings about our final
harvest in the spiritual world can
also be comforting. What if we do
want to be good, but we are still
a bit mixed up? What if we have a
good heart, but find ourselves
drawn into thoughts, feelings, and
ways of living that we do not
feel good about. While we are here
on earth, because of our outward
circumstances and our ingrained
habits, we may not be able to live
the life we truly want and believe
in.
All is not lost! When the fields
of our lives come to their harvest
in the world of spirits, these
things will all be sorted out--no
matter how hopelessly tangled a
mess they may be in now. If we are
good at heart, Lord's angels are
very skillful in seeing our true
nature, our true feelings, and
helping us to "gather into
bundles" everything evil and false
that does not agree with them, so
that they can be sent down to hell
where they belong, and not trouble
us anymore.
"Do you want us to go and gather
them?"
"No; for in gathering the weeds
you would uproot the wheat along
with them. Let both of them grow
together until the harvest; and
at harvest time I will tell the
reapers, Collect the weeds first
and bind them in bundles to be
burned, but gather the wheat
into my barn."
Music: God Grant Us Peace
©Bruce DeBoer - Used
with Permission
Color Scroll Bar Script Courtesy of:
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