(Audio)
While everyone was asleep his enemy came
and sowed weeds all through the wheat, and then went off.
It is difficult for us to understand the origin of the weeds of suffering and evil in our world. In the parable, the one who sowed good seeds slept.
Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep (see Psalm 121:4).
God does sometimes choose to refrain from action. Just as he takes his Sabbath rest even though he is not exhausted from creation so too does he not choose every action he might take or even every action that we think he should take. Most of us would stop the weeds before they even get planted.
His slaves said to him, 'Do you want us to go and pull them up?'
He replied, 'No, if you pull up the weeds
you might uproot the wheat along with them.
The LORD must know some greater good that will come if he allows more freedom in his field. There must be some benefit to be gained for the wheat and the weeds to grow alongside one another. Apparently the weeds and the wheat cannot now be safely separated. Our roots are attached and tangled. We ourselves are too involved with weeds at this stage of our growth. If they were pulled we would go with them rather than let go.
We need deeper roots. Then, even if there is still some interplay between our roots and the weeds we will be sufficiently separate to be safe when weeds are pulled and we are harvested. We need to grow more and more into our identity. Who we are comes from the fact that we are the result of good seed. We don't need an elaborate strategy but we do need to keep growing. We need roots the expand widely into the soil of the Kingdom, breaking from the roots of the weeds when those roots try to hinder our growth. If we are content with shallow faith it becomes more and more likely that we will be so tied up with weeds that we ourselves will become indistinguishable from them.
Growth may not be easy, but it is simple. It is the obedience of faith.
Taking the book of the covenant, he read it aloud to the people,
who answered, "All that the LORD has said, we will heed and do."
Fortunately, we are watered by the blood of the new covenant. It is nourishment that only sustains wheat and causes weeds to whither. Let us drink deeply of the living water. Let us be washed in the Precious Blood. Then the tangle of weeds will effortlessly fall away and we will grow in fruitfulness until the joyful day of the harvest.
"Offer to God praise as your sacrifice
and fulfill your vows to the Most High;
Then call upon me in time of distress;
I will rescue you, and you shall glorify me."
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