He who sows good seed is the Son of Man,
the field is the world, the good seed the children of the Kingdom.
It is the good seed sown by Jesus that makes us to be children of the Kingdom. It is the "implanted word, which is able to save your souls" (see James 1:21), which causes us to be "born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God" (see First Peter 1:23). When it is present and active within a Christian it keeps him from making a practice of sinning, "for God's seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God" (see First John 3:9). The seed is what makes us fruitful, able to live lives defined by love and the other fruits of the Holy Spirit. This is because the seed conveys the very essence of the life of God to us, that must then flow through us into the world.
The weeds are the children of the Evil One,
and the enemy who sows them is the Devil.
The Evil One doesn't have anything good to offer. He sows his weeds only through deception when guards are down and defenses are relaxed. He does not desire the free cooperation of his children but rather manipulates them through deception. But those who become his children were never meant to receive his seed or to allow his distorted view about their destiny to sway their lives. Yet it is clear that individuals sometimes do believe his lies even to the extent that their lives are distorted and they bear, not fruit, but thorns and poison.
Although the good seed and the weeds are paradigmatic we are seldom entirely one or the other. Our life is seldom based so entirely on the good seed that we really do make a clean break with sin. And even those who are very deceived still often bear the occasional piece of edible fruit. Yet, as we continue to live our lives prior to the harvest we come embody either one or the other more and more. And when the harvest comes we will find our form fixed, our destiny set, and further change impossible.
The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.
Just as weeds are collected and burned up with fire,
so will it be at the end of the age.
Provided we have kept the seed given to us by God alive we will become the righteous that shine like the sun in heaven. Even if there are some aspects of our lives that are still not perfected there is a fire that can burn and purify us without us being thrown entirely into the fiery furnace. But if we commit ourselves to the lies of the Evil One and there will be nothing then to salvage. And so, while we must be patient with the development of other plants around us in the field, we must ourselves strive to allow the seed given to each of us as individuals to bear the fruit it is meant to bear. Our ability to do so stems from the truth of who we are meant to be as sons and daughters of our Father in heaven. Let us not allow the enemy to steal from us so great a gift. Let us remember, as Moses did, the goodness of God, the giver of every good gift.
The LORD, the LORD, a merciful and gracious God,
slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity,
continuing his kindness for a thousand generations,
and forgiving wickedness and crime and sin
No comments:
Post a Comment