Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen
The text for this meditation is written in the 13th Chapter of the Gospel according to St Matthew: Verses:24–30, 36–43
24 He put another parable before them, saying “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, 25 but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. 26 So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. 27 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?’ 28 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?’ 29 But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. 30 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.” ’ ”
36 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.” 37 He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. 38 The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, 39 and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. 40 Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. 41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, 42 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.
If you regularly read spy thrillers or watch them on the screen, you are probably familiar with the term ‘mole.’ A mole is someone who appears to be one of the good guys, but is actually working for the enemy. A mole will infiltrate to the highest security levels and then feed sensitive information to the enemy while promoting false information to the good guys. The results are usually deadly until the good guys expose the mole.
In today’s parable, Jesus tells us about spiritual moles in the world. He is teaching about people who look like loyal friends but are actually moles. Jesus used a parable to help us understand this situation. In the parable, Jesus described a tactic that a person would use against only his absolute worst enemy – the over-sowing of a field with weed seeds.
Something that may not occur to us right away is that this is a well planned premeditated crime. The weed used in this reading is Darnell and this weed looks almost the same as wheat but it is a weed and as such the Darnell grain is useless. It takes a well trained eye to identify the Darnell until it blooms. As in all such cases one has to ask why would someone go to the effort of growing, and harvesting Darnell seed and then storing it in a barn until planting time for any other reason than to cause financial and personal damage to another farmer? Even after sowing the weed then the crop field damage will not really be realised until the next harvest. This is definitely a long term, premeditated attack. It indicates an evil, bitter, very long term or even permanent animosity. This is a hateful, despicable, and cowardly tactic. This is an excellent word picture of the animosity that the devil bears toward God and God’s people.
The references in the parable are fairly straight forward. Jesus explained, “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.” Remember that when Matthew uses the word kingdom he means the reign of God in Jesus Christ. The sons of the Kingdom are those whom Jesus has rescued from sin, death, and the power of the devil. The sons of the evil one are the exact opposite. They are those who reject salvation and are still slaves to the power of the devil.
When Jesus explained the parable, He pretty much emphasised the harvest. Jesus explained that day with these words: “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.” Those who reject salvation will suffer eternally. Those whom Jesus has rescued from sin, death, and the power of the devil will spend eternity in the presence of God the Father.
There is one feature of the parable that Jesus did not explain. Jesus explained the meaning of the parable at harvest time. Jesus did not explain the meaning of the parable for the time that the good seed and the weeds were growing side by side. What is the meaning of the parable during that time?
Remember the conversation between the owner and His servants. When the weeds became apparent, the servants asked the master, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather [the weeds]?’ But [the master] 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.’ ” This conversation indicates that the good plants and the weeds are not that easy to separately identify when they are growing together, and in the attempt to weed them out good crops could be destroyed as well. The weeds will remain in the field until the harvest when they can be easily identified. With these words, Jesus taught that the Sons of the Kingdom must endure the presence of the sons of the devil in this world until the Last Day.
Since the sons of the evil one are still slaves to the power of the devil, they serve his wants. The real tragedy is that the sons of the evil one may not even realise who they serve. They are the ultimate moles who even deceive themselves. Some of these moles may even think they are serving God. Jesus Himself said this on the evening before He died on the cross. He said, [John 16:2] “Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God.”
Deception is the main weapon of the devil. In fact, Jesus said this about the devil: [John 8:44] “[The devil] was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies”. If the devil is a liar, then it makes sense that his slaves will also lie. Just like the mole in a spy thriller, they hand out false information; and, since they may not know what they are doing, they may even spread this false information and sincerely believe it is the truth of God.
Since the devil does not care which lie we believe, he has multiplied lies and spread them throughout the world just like the weed seeds in the parable. The slaves of the evil one have created lies for every culture, every personality type, and every situation. These lies are seductive, they make sense in a worldly way, and they may even contain an element of beauty. Never the less, they are lies and their goal is to lead us away from the Word of God.
These lies try to teach us that God is too big and important to care about us. On the other hand, the Bible says, [Hebrews 4:15] “We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” Unlike the politicians who SAY, “I feel your pain,” Jesus actually has experienced all the evil that there is in this sin filled world. He has experienced our pain and much, much more.
Have you ever felt alone? Jesus experienced profound loneliness. When the time of trial came, His disciples ran away. As He hung on the cross, He was alone against the forces of evil. Jesus did not just feel that the world was against Him. The entire world actually was against Him.
Have you ever felt abandoned? As Jesus hung on the cross, He cried out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” In a way that we could ever understand, even God the Father forsook Jesus.
Jesus experienced everything that this sinful world can dish out. There is no trial that comes our way that Jesus has not already faced. The devil does not want us to know this. He will send his lies into the world to rob us of this comfort.
Jesus went far beyond any pain that we can feel in this world. He actually endured and satisfied the full wrath of God’s justice against our sin. When Jesus hung on the cross, alone, against the world – forsaken by His Father – He endured hell for you and me. The devil does not want us to know any of this because he does not want us to receive the benefit of Christ’s suffering.
The devil does not want us to know that although we were once enemies of God, we are now His children. He does not want us to know that although we were once slaves to sin, we now rule with Christ. He does not want us to know that although we deserve eternity in the tortures of hell, we now have eternal life with God. He does not want us to know that all these things are ours because of the holy life and the innocent suffering and death of Jesus Christ.
The devil most certainly does not want us to know about the sign that certifies that all these things are true. The sign that certified the truth of all of Christ’s gifts is the resurrection. After Christ endured our pain – after He took our place – after He died for us, He rose from the dead. The sign of our risen saviour assures us that we now have peace with God. It assures us that when the final harvest comes, we too shall rise and our mortal bodies shall be clothed in immortality. We will shine like the sun in the kingdom of our Father.
This is the central and main truth that the devil and his sons want to hide from us. The devil has sown his seed in this world in order to spread his lies. He would rob us of our faith and hope. He would rob us of our salvation. Jesus used the parable in today’s Gospel to warn us that the sons of the devil will surround us while we live in this world. Jesus has promised to be with us and protect us and He has sent the Holy Spirit to work in us to establish and sustain us in the true faith.
Jesus also taught us that a harvest is coming when the angels will remove the devil’s influence from this world and throw him into the eternal fire. Then we will live in eternal peace shining like the sun in the Kingdom of our Father. Amen
The love and peace of our Great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen
Thanks, Merv, the truth of the Kingdom of God in the world gives great comfort. We have to remain vigilant.
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