This past week, I finally got my garden planted. It’s not a huge space, but my wife and I like working together on it and enjoy the produce we receive. There is, however, one downside to the experience. WEEDS! Weeding the garden is my least favorite activity in the process. But it seems to be an endless endeavor.
I recently had a conversation with people concerning this topic, “What differentiates a weed from a flower?” (I know, I have some unique friends!) Many plants we categorize as weeds have pretty flowers and some are even edible if prepared properly. In our totally unscientific discussion, we decided that weeds are those things that grow where we don’t want them to be. They just show up. If left unattended, weeds can quickly overpower the plants we desire and choke them out. That’s why we need to get them out of our garden. But there is a caution to which we must pay attention. When we pull the weeds, we need to be sure the purposeful plants don’t get uprooted as well.
As Jesus was discussing what it is like to be citizens of the Kingdom of heaven while still having to live in this fallen world, he talks about weeds. In Matthew 13:24-26, he says this, “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.”
To understand the impact of this account, we need to understand that Jesus mentions a specific weed in the original language. It is a plant that looks very much like wheat when they are in their early stages. It is only after the plants mature that they can be distinguished.
We don’t have to dig too deep for the meaning of this story as Jesus responds to the plea of the disciples and interprets it for them in Matthew 13:37-39, He answered, “The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man.38 The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one,39 and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.
The synopsis is this. As citizens of God’s Kingdom, we are forced to live with those things Satan plants in our lives that he intends for evil, sickness, hatred, worry, disunity in our families, and all kinds of pain. Although we may not have the ability to get rid of them, God will deal with them in the end. Satan’s attacks will be revealed, and his efforts will prove useless when we determine to grow in our relationship with Jesus.
This is a message of hope. We don’t like the “weeds” Satan sows in our lives, but we don’t have to allow then to choke out the hope that comes from faithfully following our Lord. We have the promise that a day is coming when God wipes out the work of Satan and we are rewarded for our consistent life of pursuing his righteousness. Again, Jesus describes this in Matthew 13:41-43, The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil.42 They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear. We win!