THE PARABLE OF THE WEEDS
Matthew 13:24-43
Key Verse 13:24
Jesus told them another parable: "The kingdom of Heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field.”
In today’s passage Jesus taught three parables to the crowds gathered around Him, but especially He gave these parables for His disciples. Jesus gave these parables in order to help His disciples to continue to grow and mature. It was to help establish them as His disciples and to be His Kingdom workers after He was crucified. So far the disciples were seeing how great the work was before them. Large crowds were gathering around Jesus with all their needs. Jesus taught them all day and night, even three straight days. He was operating a 24 emergency clinic and yet still more people continued to come. The needs of the people were great and looked to be more than could be handled. Jesus never turned anyone away; it was so great that the disciples couldn’t even eat properly.
But while Jesus’ popularity was growing, so did opposition. The Pharisees started to take notice and test and criticize Jesus and His disciples. They had already killed John the Baptist. And they were plotting to kill Jesus. It must have been overwhelming for the disciples. It was exciting being sent out two by two and seeing the work of God. But still the work they were being called was so vast and must have been overwhelming for them. So Jesus gave these three parables to help them stand firm to the end.
Part I – The Parable of the Weeds (24-30; 36-43)
Look at verses 24-30, “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 heads, 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 root up 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.’”
The disciples didn’t understand what Jesus was talking about, so they came to Him and requested, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.” Jesus was pleased with their request, so He told them. Look at verses 37-43. “He answered, "The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. 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, and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels. "As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. 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. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where 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.”
What was Jesus trying to teach them? What can we learn from this parable? Verse 24 says, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who sows good seed in His field.” And verse 37 says, “The One who sows the good seed is the Son of Man.” This reveals that the Kingdom of Heaven is about Jesus. He planted the good seeds and the good seeds are the sons of the Kingdom. Therefore the Kingdom originated from Jesus and the sons of the Kingdom all belong to Him. Jesus wanted them to know that they were sons of the Kingdom.
We are children of the Kingdom only because of Jesus. None of us made ourselves to be children of the Kingdom. Basically we are all like the woman who was caught in the act of adultery; all condemned because of our sin. But the Son of God came to die for us so that we may die to sin and live a new life. We became a new creation, the sons of the Kingdom through Jesus, who died and rose from the dead.
Verse 24 again says, “Is like a man who sows GOOD seed.” Jesus has all the reason to call the seed GOOD seeds. This was the most expensive seed ever. It cost Jesus His blood in order to purchase. This seed was so precious. Because of Jesus, this seed has life to the full within. Each seed contains God’s holiness, God’s character, God’s beauty, God’s life. Each seed is so expensive and so precious and is planted by our Lord Jesus. Soon each seed would sprout and grow into the Image of our beautiful and Good Lord.
But what happened after the good seed was sown? When the servants looked into the field, they spotted something. They were very observant and hardworking and they noticed something was not quite right immediately. They were looking forward to catching the first sight of the sprouting and budding heads of the good seed. When the wheat sprouted beautiful heads formed. They said “Hallelujah”. But they also saw that there were weeds among the young wheat. At first, the servants did not notice, but they were not fooled for long.
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?” Jesus said, “My enemy, the evil one, the devil did this.” The devil sowed his children among the sons of the Kingdom.
The servants asked him, “Do you want us to go and pull them up?” Jesus said, “No, let both grow together until the harvest.” Jesus’ answer seems strange, when we think about what a gardener actually does. When a gardener finds weeds in his garden he immediately pulls them out, because he doesn’t want the weeds to take over the garden, nor to harm the plants he has planted in his garden.
So why did Jesus say, “Let them both grow?” The owner said to the servants, “Because while you are pulling out the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them.” Jesus was more concerned about the welfare of the wheat, more than He was the presence of the weeds. He did not want even one of His wheat stalks to be rooted up. This is consistent with His prayer just before His crucifixion. Jesus prayed in John 17:11-12, “I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name—the name you gave me—so that they may be one as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.”
Basically, Jesus had faith that His seeds would be alright among the weeds. He did not think that He would lose any because of the weeds presence. But Jesus did not want His wheat to be pulled up too early, before the head had fully ripened. If the wheat had been pulled to early the kernels could not fully develop and produce ripened grain.
What do these weeds represent, since this is the title of this passage? Verse 38 Jesus says, “The weeds are the sons of the evil one.” Also verses 40-41 read, “As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. 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.” Weeds therefore are everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They have nothing to do with the Kingdom of Heaven. They came from the devil.
John 8:44 says of them, “You belong to your father, the devil and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”
So why does God allow the evil one to invade His field? Even after they’ve been recognized and His servants are willing to remove them; why does He allow them to stay, side by side with His precious children, while they are still young and still vulnerable? We don’t know, but we do know the reality. We all know that we are sinners; we know we live in a sinful world and we know it is not easy to live in this world as children of the Kingdom.
But from this parable we can say at least one thing. We may not know all the answers, but one thing we know: the children of the Kingdom will win in the end. They will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father. Whereas the children of the devil will one day be tossed into the fire. Who are we? Are we the children of the Kingdom or are we the children of the devil? Did Jesus purchase you with His blood? Were we cleansed by His blood? Were we given the new birth? If so, we should never let go of that confidence. The reason this parable is called the parable of the weeds, is perhaps for us to know how our enemy wages war against us.
The enemy planted weeds in order to sow confusion, doubt and deceit. It was to deceive us. The weeds in this parable are most likely Darnel, which look exactly like young wheat. Who do you think that the devil is trying to confuse by sowing such a similar one? It’s not the owner; He knows fully the difference between the two. Even the servants could tell. One, he was hoping to lure the owner to start pulling the weeds before the appointed time, that is, before the wheat fully ripened. But the owner, Jesus did not fall into the evil’s ones deception. No matter how much the devil tried to tempt Jesus, Jesus patiently kept God’s time refuting the devil’s clever allurement. The devil quickly learned that the Owner could not be deceived.
So now the devil’s only hope was to deceive the children of the Kingdom. If he could deceive the children, to believe they are Darnel and start thinking like Darnel, behaving like Darnel, then the evil one could claim ownership over them and the kingdom of Darnel. But just as the Darnel and wheat are different; the sons of the Kingdom and the sons of the evil one are different. The sons of the Kingdom came from the good seed purchased by Jesus. To know our identity as sons of the Kingdom is extremely important, we can never overemphasize it, because that is salvation and this is why the evil one attacks our identity. Apostle Peter said, “Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” But if we don’t make our identity clear, we are at risk to fall.
On the other hand, just as the Darnel and the wheat, continue to grow; the sons of the Kingdom and the sons of the evil one, will start to distinguish themselves for what they truly are. The critical difference between the two will become obvious, one bears fruit, and the other does not. In the same way, the children of the Kingdom should bear fruit. How can we bear fruit? By remaining in Jesus. As the key verse says, it is Jesus who made us good seed and planted us in His field. We are to bear fruit. Jesus gives us everything to bear fruit. He promises this, and we must believe it. We must hold onto this by faith, even though are enemy is trying to deceive us. By faith and faith alone we are made righteous and the righteous live by faith from first to last. And we must keep growing in our faith.
Apostle Peter encouraged us to make every effort to grow in Jesus. He said, “For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” When we keep our faith and make every effort to add to it, we can become very fruitful and grow more in His image.
Part II – The parables of the mustard seed and the yeast (31-35)
Let’s read verses 31-35, “He told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches." He told them still another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough." Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable. So was fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet: "I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter things hidden since the creation of the world."
Both of these parables have the same point. Jesus clearly tells us that the kingdom of Heaven is growing in this world. Its beginning may seem small and its growth may not look spectacular. But it has an indestructible life. It grows without ceasing until it covers the world. The kingdom of Heaven is growing. But we must know how to recognize its growth.
When we first remodeled and moved into this Bible Center back in 2000, we planted several trees; these trees were very small. We planted them hoping one day they would give shade and make a beautiful environment. We had our gardener water and fertilize them. Every Sunday we looked at them, but we could not see much happening. We were just happy they didn’t die. Yet in the course of time, these trees have grown. Now they are so tall they give us plenty of shade and we even have several benches under them so that we can have a pleasant place to sit. The branches have spread out and many birds now perch in them. The kingdom of Heaven is growing just like this. The kingdom of Heaven grows without fail until it fills the world. When we believe Jesus’ parable, we can see it.
Through this parable, we also learn to value the small beginnings of the Kingdom. For example, Jesus Himself was born as a baby in a manger. He looked too small and weak in the background of the Roman Empire. But the life of Jesus grew to encompass the whole earth. Likewise, making disciples one-to-one, may seem insignificant and pointless in this complex and fast-moving culture of ours. But when the life of God is working through his Word, teaching the Word to even one person can grow into a spiritual blessing for the whole world.
Look at verse 33. “He told them still another parable: ‘The kingdom of Heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough.’” This parable explains the power of influence of the Kingdom. Forty years ago, several women nurses were sent out from Korea to Germany as missionaries, including our own precious coworker Msn. Susanna Min. They were sent with the prayer to establish Germany as a Kingdom of Priests and a holy nation. They went to spread the Gospel from Germany throughout all of Europe. Most churches in Europe are steadily declining, most are now completely empty every Sunday, but over the last forty years, the work of these women missionaries continued to grow and spread and now we have growing chapters not only in Germany, but throughout all of Europe. This year they are celebrating the 40th anniversary of these women being sent to Europe and from these few women, there are now hundreds of growing disciples of Jesus.
From this we learn we should not be deceived by the smallness of the work of the Kingdom. We should not be discouraged or deceived that what we are doing is meaningless or useless. We must have eyes to see how God is working through us. We must have vision and faith that Jesus will use us preciously to expand His Kingdom. Msn. Paul Lim and his few coworkers are working hard to raise disciples at USC. The work looks small. Albert is graduating and will soon be leaving, one precious coworker is leaving, but someone is taking his place, his own younger brother. Who knows where Albert goes? Or what influence he will have elsewhere. But as Msn. Paul and his coworkers continue to faithfully serve this campus, they can be assured of one thing, the work they are doing will spread out. In forty years time, who knows where their influence will have spread? The same is true for UCLA, and CSUF, and all the campuses we are serving. May God help us not to grow weary or discouraged, or to be deceived, but keep our identity as children of the Kingdom and keep our faith to the end, serving the students with the Gospel, while holding onto Jesus’ vision of the Kingdom.
May God help us to spread out far and wide throughout all of California and even the whole world.
One Word: The Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who planted good seed.
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