Another parable adding to the first...Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43...The Wheat and the Tares (Weeds)

 

This picture made me think of the old Simon and Garfunkel song published in January of 1970 titled, "Bridge Over Troubled Waters".  Then I had to bring it up to listen to it, a great piano intro to the song.  The lyrics read,

When you’re weary, feeling small,

When tears are in your eyes

I will dry them all

I’m on your side

When times get rough

And friends just can’t be found

Like a bridge over troubled water I will lay me down

Like a bridge over troubled water I will lay me down

---------------------------------------

When you’re down and out

When you’re on the street

When evening falls so hard

I will comfort you

I’ll take your part

When darkness comes

And pain is all around

Like a bridge over troubled water I will lay me down

Like a bridge over troubled water I will lay me down

--------------------------------------

Sail on, silvergirl

Sail on by

Your time has come to shine

All your dreams are on their way

See how they shine

If you need a friend

I’m sailing right behind

Like a bridge over troubled water

I will ease your mind

Like a bridge over troubled water

I will ease your mind

© 1969 Words and Music by Paul Simon

Maybe it is thinking of my current situation with my father who is nearing the end of life of this earth and soon to be in the hands of Jesus. Those bridges are so key on the trails and some people are those bridges in our lives that help us to the other side of a situation or stage of life. May we all be a bridge to someone else in this life.

Studying the parables all together in the 13th chapter of Matthew opens my eyes to some new things. I think they fill out the whole picture of what Jesus is communicating to the multitudes and His disciples rather than singling them out as we often do.

The Parable of the Sower or the Soil speaks of what is happening right now. We are sowing the seed of the His gospel onto the 4 soils and will experience those 4 different responses to its proclaiming. The Parable of the Wheat and the Tares or the Weeds is what is happening now but also what will happen in the future. The wheat and the tares representing those who are saved and those who are unsaved are co-existing in God's field at this time but there is a time to come, the harvest, when a judgment will come to both. The tares (the unsaved) have a judgment of fire and the wheat (the saved) have a judgment of shining as the sun.

The Parable of the Sower has the "wow" factor of the tremendous result of the seed, the gospel, falling on good ground that yields an unbelievable 100, 60 and 30 fold. The Parable of the Wheat and the Tares has a "wow" factor of the bad seed, the unsaved, being allowed to live in the bounty of the owner's, the Son of Man's, field until the harvest with a result not of the barn but of the fire.

The 2 little parables between this parable and its explanation I believe go in the vein of this parable and the 2 little parables following the explanation go with the Parable of the Sower and then...Jesus ends with two more, one leaning to the bad and one to the good before moving on. It is Jesus again giving a discourse where He is giving you 2 options. There are so many illustrations He gives that only give 2 options. Are you on the wide road or the narrow path? Are you with Him or against Him? Have you build your life on the Rock or on the sinking sand? In this passage Jesus speaks of either heaven or hell.

One last point about this parable in which Jesus details out with each element that I think He does to distinguish between this parable of the first parable is that He doesn't give the designation of who the servants are. He tells you who the man is, what the field is, who the enemy is, who the good seed and the bad seed are, who the reapers are, and also what the harvest represents but He doesn't indicate who the servants are in verse 27. Maybe this is for us to piece together.

The servants are of the man who owns the field. The servants are of the Son of Man. They want to pull out the weeds now but the master of the field says "no." It is not the responsibility of the servants to reap but rather going back to the previous parable but to sow. We can get caught up in reaping and the task of our feeble attempts to pull out the weeds in our society. Our attempts usually look like throwing mud or making ourselves look better by putting others down. We end up finger pointing and raising our voices or firing off another rant on social media. All the time we are losing precious time and opportunity to do what we need to be doing and that is sowing the seed of Jesus' gospel to the world. He has reapers lined up for the harvest, we just need to keep sowing.

Adam



A simple man serving a great God and the local pastor of Stillwater Community Chapel (stillwater-chapel.org). We are in our 39th year of full time ministry. God directed us to this local body of believers on the Western Range of the Rockies to grow with them in mission and mindedness of Christ.

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