the kingdom of god - seeds and weeds

Mt 13.24-30; 36-43 - [Jesus] put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather 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 came to 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 is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the close of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the close of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.

I love this and the parable of the sower for many reasons. First of all, the sower is not us. Many take these parables to mean that we are sowing God's Word liberally as one going about scattering seed. I see it very differently. I see we are dying where God plants us and through our death, life is given and if it is healthy life, it eventually bears fruit - which of course yields more seed to be planted yet again. This deserves more development but this is a blog not a sermon.

The second thing I see is that we are not the reapers and that the reaping doesn't come until the end of the age. This continues in the theme of my friend Iggy in that we are contenders not defenders. Our role is to not go about pulling out weeds. Our role is to grow strong in the Kingdom bearing fruit for His Name's sake.

And finally, this deals with the eschatology of the Kingdom. We should not expect that the Kingdom will gradually take over the world nor that the world as a whole will stop being a broken field with mixed crops. In fact, the children of the Kingdom of God will co-exist with the children of the kingdom of Satan until the end of the age.

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