Parable of the Weeds

Introduction

Today, we move to the second parable concerning the Kingdom of God.
Here is the word of the Lord,
Matthew 13:24–30 ESV
²⁴ He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field,  ²⁵ but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away.  ²⁶ So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also.  ²⁷ And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’  ²⁸ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’  ²⁹ But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them.  ³⁰ Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, “Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.” ’ ”

And then, a few verses later we see Jesus explaining this parable to his disciples.
Matthew 13:36–43 ESV
³⁶ Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples came to him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.”  ³⁷ He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man.  ³⁸ The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one,  ³⁹ and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels.  ⁴⁰ Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age.  ⁴¹ The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers,  ⁴² and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.  ⁴³ Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.

This parable deals with a subject that cannot be oversimplified, but neither does it have to be too complicated. It is the subject of false-Christians, or the weed amongst us.

Weeds are real

There isn’t any confusion in Scripture when it comes to description of false-converts. We learnt about this in:

Matthew 7:16–20 ESV
¹⁶ You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?  ¹⁷ So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit.  ¹⁸ A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit.  ¹⁹ Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.  ²⁰ Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.

• If you were to gather grapes and figs for an evening snack for the special guests that are coming to your house, how many of you would go to gather them from thorn-bushes?
• Thistles, likewise, are one of the most common wildflowers in Israel, thorny and prickly, rapidly taking over any open patch of wasteland or untended meadows.
• How ridiculous would it be to expect grape or fig from such plants? So the point is that it is just as ridiculous to expect godly fruits from un-Christian men.
• The recognition then of true and false Christians is by their fruits. The Christian life is not a life of mere information but a life of transformation.

2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV
¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

• In John 15, bearing fruit is the evidence of true discipleship.
• Therefore, we can know for sure that there are two kinds of seed, the good one sowed by the Son of God, and the weeds sowed by the devil.
  John 8:42–44 ESV
  ⁴² Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me.  ⁴³ Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. ⁴⁴ You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
  1 John 3:10 ESV
  ¹⁰ By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.As I’ve preached before, there is no ground of neutrality when it comes to your belonging to either of these camps. You’re either for Christ or against him. You either belong to the Kingdom of God, or you belong to the kingdom of darkness.

Exegesis

Let us first understand the characters of this parable.

Matthew 13:37–39 ESV
³⁷ He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man.  ³⁸ The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one,  ³⁹ and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels.

• In this parable Jesus is the sower of the good seed, which are the sons of the kingdom, the Christians. And this seed is sown into the field which is the world. Whereas, the weeds are the sons of the evil one non-Christians (unbelievers) and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age which according to the description of this parable refers to the final judgment of God at the end of the world, and the reapers are his angels.
• Now, for those of you who’ve attended our Friday bible study, this parable is very worldview forming. Jesus is explaining to us how the world works in light of good and bad seed.
  So, now that we know the characters in this parable, let us go through the story.

Matthew 13:24 ESV
²⁴ He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field,

• And the first question that you must ask is what the ‘kingdom of heaven’ has to do with this field which Jesus identifies as the ‘world’.
  What does the kingdom of heaven have to do with sowing seed in the world? These parables are all parables of the kingdom of heaven, and it would do us a great deal of good to understand what is happening here.
• The good seed are the Christians. Every time a person is born-again, having received the saving faith by the power of the Holy Spirit, they are the seed that Christ has sown into this world. The elect of God are the good seed. The non-elect are the weeds.

Matthew 13:25–26 ESV
²⁵ but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away.  ²⁶ So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also.

• Now, we must always be careful not to overinterpret parables, because they are metaphors meant to communicate a specific messages. So, I wouldn’t read too much into why these men were sleeping or careless, but take what the text simply describes.
• The devil came unknown to the men and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. The weed here was most likely a reference to darnel, which resembles wheat in its early growth but is easily distinguished from it at maturity.
  This nature of the darnel is important because it shows us how counterfeit Christians can look very Christian, and the more they grow in maturity the more they are distinguishable from genuine Christians.
• Therefore, only when the plants came up and bore grain, did the men see the weeds also.

Matthew 13:27–29 ESV
²⁷ And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’  ²⁸ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’  ²⁹ But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them.

• Once the weed appeared, it was clearly understood that the enemy had done this. Why? Because none of the seed that Jesus sowed would be bad. That is the assurance of our salvation right there. That if we are the good seed sowed by Christ then we are seed that will endure by his strength.
• Notice also the question of the servants – ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field?’
  The world is whose field? It is Christ’s. The enemy has to come in hiding when the servants are asleep. This field no longer belongs to the enemy for Jesus had come and reclaimed it. This world is His field.
  This brings us one step closer then to understanding the relationship between the kingdom of heaven and the world.
• Now, the nature of darnel is that it gets its root entangled with that of the wheat such that if you pulled the weed, you’d rip out the wheat too.
  Here, Doug Wilson points out how the Bible gives us the principle that it is far better for the guilty to go unpunished than the innocent be punished. It is important for Christ that judgment be measured out at the appropriate time.
  God withholds immediate judgment for the sake of the elect who are in the world. The righteous have had to live in the midst of the unrighteous from the beginning
  R. C. Sproul, ed., The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard Version (2015 Edition) (Orlando, FL: Reformation Trust, 2015), 1695.

Matthew 13:30 ESV
³⁰ Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, “Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.” ’ ”

Matthew 13:40–42 ESV
⁴⁰ Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age.  ⁴¹ The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers,  ⁴² and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

• In the end justice will be served, and the weeds will perish in the fiery furnace, in Hell.
• But notice here where the weeds are being gathered out from – his kingdom.

Matthew 13:43 ESV
⁴³ Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.

• The righteous will continue to shine like the sun. In some small way, we will shine with the glory of God.
• In the kingdom of our Father. This is the relationship between the kingdom of heaven and the world. That Christ the King in dominion and power has come to establish his Kingdom in this world. How? By sowing Christians into this world.
• The task of the great commission is to Christianise the world and bring the kingdom of God to full realisation.