Why are we waiting?

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

“‘An enemy did this,’ he replied. The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’ “‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. 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.’” Matthew 13:24-30

The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise… Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9

In an agricultural society there were (perhaps still are) various ways you could damage your enemy: you might, for example, set fire to their crops (Samson had a particularly imaginative way of doing this: see Judges 15), or you might poison their water supply by throwing an animal’s carcass down their well.

Or you might sow weeds among their wheat; this was a well-known and  particularly spiteful method, and it was dealt with in Roman law in the time of Jesus. So it’s no wonder that he chose to use it as an illustration in this “parable of the wheat and the weeds”.

Most Bible-teachers think the weeds were a particular form of “darnel”, about which there are three things worth knowing: first, it was poisonous; second, it was virtually indistinguishable from wheat once it had begun to grow; and third, once harvested it could be burned as fuel.

But most obviously, as Jesus makes clear, you would never dream of sowing it in your own field; if it appeared, that could only be the work of “an enemy”.

If we go down to Matthew 13:38, where Jesus gives his own explanation of this story, we find him stating that “the field is the world”. So it seems that he is offering an explanation for the sad fact that this beautiful world in which we live is also so disfigured by evil - witness the wars, the jealousies, the violence, the lies, the cruelty, and so much else.

The story suggests various important truths that we need to be aware of. Here are four…

First, we have an enemy.

If we go again to Jesus’ own interpretation of the parable, we find that the enemy is identified as “the devil” (verse 39), elsewhere called in the Bible “Satan” or “the adversary”. We probably think immediately of the serpent in the Garden of Eden, or of the tempter of Jesus at the start of his ministry (Matthew 4).

These are just two of the most prominent stories, but there are others too, and while we shouldn’t make the mistake of dwelling on them over-much (some Christians develop an unhealthy interest in the forces of darkness), neither should we gloss over them. If Jesus had to wrestle with an enemy, how much more do we…

Second, our enemy is a deceiver and a liar.

In John 8:44 Jesus calls the devil “a murderer from the beginning” and “a liar and the father of lies”. He lied to Jesus during the temptation – and he will lie to us. He will try to convince us, for example, that a particular sin is not really serious (“Everybody does it, anyway!”) or that the Christian life doesn’t require struggle and discipline (“Just let go and let God!”). He will tell us to drown out the voice of conscience and simply “go with the flow”.

The brute fact is that every day of our lives we are engaged in a spiritual warfare – which is why, according to Paul, God has provided us with an “armour” (Ephesians 6:10-20). What soldier would go into battle leaving his armour behind?

Are you – am I – consciously fighting the enemy today?

Third, judgment will ultimately be done.

The final end of the weeds is that they are burned. Our perfect, holy God cannot and will not tolerate anything unholy in the final, heavenly kingdom. And this means that while, as things stand at the moment, good and evil are not always easy to distinguish, at the final judgment there will be a clear division of the two.

The burning of the tares is, of course, a picture of what elsewhere in the Bible is called hell – in effect, a great cosmic incinerator. It is, after all, by burning that destruction of bad things is most effectively achieved. This doesn’t mean that God burns individual people in a literal, eternal fire, but is a vivid way of saying that ultimately we are called to account for the lives we have lived and the people we have been.

Judgment may be rather grim-sounding, but is in reality good news. It reminds us that there will one day be a final righting of wrongs, when perfect justice will be done. At the crucifixion Jesus “carried our sins in his body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:24), and this means that when that day comes, everyone who has put their trust in him receives the forgiveness he has earned through his death. Rejoice in the judgment of God!

A fourth truth suggested by this story – we need to cultivate the virtue of patience.

The servants of the owner of the field were keen to roll up their sleeves and get to work on the darnel. But the owner wouldn’t let them: that day would come as and when. And so it will be for us. (The apostle Peter offers an explanation of why we are being kept waiting: see 2 Peter 3:9.)

Which leaves us with a big question: how will we spend what time remains between now and that day? By focussing on essentially trivial things? Or by being busy about the work of the kingdom? What about… today?

Dear Father in heaven, thank you that Satan has been defeated by Jesus both in his life and in his death on the cross. Thank you for the merciful perfection of your final judgment. Help me to live daily in the light of it, and give me confidence that one day I will be “gathered into your barn”. Amen.