Week 19: Weed or Wheat? Wait until Judgment

 

Don’t you worry about the devil’s health!

He is doing well. Very well in fact. Just the other day I saw him sitting in one of front pews at a church wedding. No doubt he was making some plans! Not good ones, you can be sure, but then that is his nature. But why didn’t the wedding ushers identify him and turn him out? Were they busy distributing the pamphlets or were the gorgeously dressed women distracting them?

No, you can’t blame them. This guy – the devil – looked just like one of the invitees. To be honest, he was well groomed and better dressed than several others! He was attentive throughout and in fact did some lusty singing. Nothing seemed amiss. But at the point where the Pastor united the couple and pronounced, “what God has put together let no man put asunder”, he emitted a cynical chuckle which many might have missed.

Jesus’s parable of the weeds paints a similar scenario. Look at Matthew 13:

²⁴ Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. ²⁵ But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. ²⁶ When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.

²⁷ “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?’

²⁸ “‘An enemy did this,’ he replied.

This story suggests that the enemy was alive, well and watching what you do.

Are you working for the planting and expansion of the kingdom of heaven? The enemy’s motive is diametrically opposite. He very nearly follows your methods, when your head is turned the other way; or when you are sleeping.

Lesson 1

Do not sleep.

This sounds impractical but take it in the meaning following.

Luke 21:36 (NIV) says: “Be always on the watch”. Check out also 1 Peter 1:8: “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”

Going on with the passage from Matthew:

“The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’

²⁹ “‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them.

Lesson 2

Be careful.

The weed is dressed up just like the wheat. It is difficult to tell which is which. In your eagerness and excitement to preserve the purity of the Kingdom, you don’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Yes, be sober, be vigilant …and be patient.

Reading on in Matthew:

³⁰ 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.’”

Lesson 3

There is a judgment

Many people miss this point – to their peril. Everything may seem hunky dory for a while. Then comes the harvest. Ecclesiastes 11:9 is usually enough to drive the fear of God into most people:

“Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth; Walk in the ways of your heart, and in the sight of your eyes; But know that for all these God will bring you into judgment.”

And Matthew 25 details what would happen on the Day of Judgment:

³¹ “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. ³² All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. ³³ And He will set the sheep on His right hand………….then the King will say (to them) you showed care and concern for the marginalized and in so doing you did it for Me (paraphrased in part), “Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” 

You want to be on the King’s right hand. Right?