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 up 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 NIVUK
Then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, ‘Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.’ 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 people of the kingdom. The weeds are the people 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 blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears, let them hear.
Matthew 13:36-43 NIVUK
I used to love spy shows and movies when I was young. They were always very interesting and entertaining. I still love them now.
This is a parable that usually gets our imagination running into overdrive. And, I have to say, that is not always a good thing.
On the surface, this is a very simple parable. It more or less has three phases:
Firstly, the sowing of good seed by the farmer.
For what purpose? Farmers don’t sow corn or wheat fields for them to look good at dawn or dusk and post pictures of them on social media. Their prime purpose – their only purpose – is to produce a harvest.
Secondly, the sowing of bad seed by the enemy.
This seed is likely darnel. Darnel is ‘fake wheat’: while it’s growing it looks precisely like wheat, so much that even an experienced farmer might not be able to tell them apart. But darnel is poisonous if consumed – it makes you dizzy and nauseous and can be fatal.
The enemy here as a clear purpose.
If the farmer sells this fake grain as the real thing, or tries to make something with it, he will at least make his consumers unwell and they will not buy from him again. This is a serious attack against the farmer. It is an attempt to destroy his livelihood and reputation.
Thirdly, we see the farmer’s plan.
As much as we, from our non-agricultural point of view, might dispute it, this is a good plan.
We might think to ourselves, ‘There are weeds in there. They'll compete with resources with the good crop. They have to come out. Yesterday.’
But the farmer’s approach is intentionally clever. If he leaves the weeds – the ‘fake wheat’, or darnel, in the field until it’s ripe for harvest, it will be obvious which is real and which is fake because darnel has black or purple grain, whereas wheat is brown. His harvesters would easily locate the darnel first and carefully pull it out without risking or damaging the wheat. Then, once the harmful, poisonous weed has been uprooted and destroyed, they can harvest the wheat.
Which is all very nice, but this isn’t Gardener’s Question Time and Jesus is giving out more than agricultural advice here. So what could He be talking about?
The soil represents the world and the wheat is the good seed sown in it. Good seed sown in good soil brings forth a good crop. God has sown us into the world for this purpose.
Understandably, the soil attracted the malevolent attention of the jealous enemy, the devil, who proceeds to sow ‘fake wheat’ – fake followers of Jesus Christ – into the field that is the world, with the expressed intention to intoxicate and confuse.
This parable is wonderfully clear: for the longest time we will not know who they are. They will look and walk and talk exactly like us. They will know all the jargon and the buzz words. They will be masquerading as angels of light (2 Corinthians 11:13-14).
But they will, in the truest sense of the word, be antichrists (1 John 2:18), because their aim is to disrupt and destroy the glory of God in His world: to poison the reputation of His body the church.
Now, here is where we must have a huge word of caution. We cannot tell them apart simply by whether or not they agree with our theology or whether they dress like us or appreciate our style of worship or our particular ideas on church organisation and government.
These are quite superficial criteria. Anyone can wear them as a disguise and still be an antichrist.
Also, there are many believers whom God has called as disruptors and innovators to challenge the church and move it in a new direction. We should never consider them to be false believers just because we don’t agree with them.
Jesus gives us the only criteria to tell if someone is really a believer or is a fake:
‘Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognise them. Do people pick grapes from thorn-bushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognise them.
Matthew 7:15-20 NIVUK
‘No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognised by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thorn-bushes, or grapes from briers. A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.
Luke 6:43-45 NIVUK
Again, we must have a word of caution here. Jesus is not talking about quantity but quality.
He is not saying that a man who has a thousand followers is any better than one who has twelve.
No, He is talking about two things.
Firstly, what they produce, in terms of their words, attitudes and actions (Galatians 5:13-26).
Secondly, what they reproduce, in terms of how these behaviours are transposed onto the family and their followers. This is why servants of the church should have well behaved families (1 Timothy 3:1-15).
A good seed produces other good seeds. A bad seed produces bad seed. A good seed cannot produce bad seeds. A bad seed cannot produce good seeds.
There are some people for whom this is really obvious, because their lives have been consumed either with worldly values and morality or with unjustifiable hatred. These are clear and obvious fakes – like Monopoly money compared to the real thing.
These are people we should, and have every right, to repudiate.
But there are those for whom the difference is minor and difficult to tell. These are those whose influence is more subtle.
This is why Jesus tells us that it’s the angels who will ultimately judge who is true and who is not. Because we are human, we are likely to get this very wrong. We should instead entrust this to God and let Him sort the good from the bad.
Jesus left us a command not to judge (Matthew 7:1-5). Another possible reading of this is not to reach a final judgement and condemn people. Of course we should assess the level to which someone can be trusted – that stands to reason and is Biblical (Matthews 7:6). But we don’t have the authority to write them off and convict them. God does. Therefore we should leave the final judgement to Him.
The thought that there might be fake believers among us like wolves in sheep’s clothing who are working with an agenda to destroy the reputation of the church and the Gospel might scare us.
But actually, for me, this is a great comfort. It tells me that God will not be mocked (Galatians 6:7) or fooled. He knows exactly who these people are. When people are obviously acting against Kingdom interests, while this will distress us, we don’t need to be discouraged.
God has this under control. And, in His time, justice will be done.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, I often see people who I know are not acting in the best interests of Your Kingdom but are chasing their own glory. It makes me very sad. Thank you, Jesus, that you know who are yours, that you have this situation under control, and that justice will be done. Help me to always trust in You, even when things like this get me down. Amen.
Questions
1. What is the Biblical way to tell if someone is really a true believer or not? How do you measure up?
2. Why, in the parable, does the farmer leave both the wheat and the weeds until harvest time? How does this tell us we should treat those who we don’t think are real Christians?
3. What assurances does this parable give us when we come across people who are obviously fake Christians?
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