236 - More of Jesus’ Parables
- Gwen Diaz
- Aug 24, 2022
- 3 min read
Updated: Aug 7
AUGUST 24- Nº 236 Matthew 13:24-43; Mark 4:30-34
Jesus had been rejected by Israel’s leaders (see #234 - August 22). They had claimed that he was not the Messiah, and that the power he used to perform miracles came from Satan--not from God.
Jesus knew that this rejection meant that before long he would be hung on a cross to die. But he also knew that he would be resurrected. And not long after that, he would leave the earth to live with His Father in heaven.
Jesus shared all this with his disciples, and he began to teach them what would take place before he returned to the earth to ultimately defeat Satan.
He wanted them to grasp their vital role in spreading the Gospel message while he was gone. He taught these lessons using parables—simple everyday stories that illustrated important spiritual Truths (see #235 - August 23 ). And since there was a lot of agriculture in Galilee, many of Jesus’ parables reflected a farming motif.
One of the stories Jesus told was about a farmer who planted a wheat field with good seeds. In the middle of the night, one of his enemies snuck in and planted weeds in the same field. As the wheat began to sprout, so did the weeds. His servants were very upset. “Sir, didn’t you sow good seeds?” they wanted to know. “Where did the weeds come from? Do you want us to pull them out?”
“An enemy did this,” the owner replied. “But it is not your role to pull out the weeds. If you try, you might accidentally pull up some wheat as well. We will wait until it is time for the harvest. Then I will send my workers to gather the weeds, tie them in bundles, and burn them. After that we will be able to gather the wheat and store it.”
Later, Jesus’ disciples asked him to explain what the parable meant. He told them that the farmer represented the Son of Man. (This was the term Jesus used when referring to himself as the Messiah—see #229 - August 17). He went on to explain that the field was the world. The good seeds represented the children of the kingdom. The enemy who mixed the weeds in with the good crop was the devil, and the weeds were the people who followed him.
“The harvest will take place when everyone's time here on earth is over,” Jesus said. “Then I will send my angels to gather everything that causes sin and everyone who does evil. Together they will be thrown into the fiery furnace. But the righteous will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father.”
Jesus wanted his disciples to understand that only God knows what is inside people’s hearts. Only He knows who His children are. It wasn’t up to the disciples, or anyone else, to make that judgment.
In another parable, Jesus described the kingdom of heaven as a mustard seed—the smallest seed the Israelites planted. “Yet,” Jesus said, “when it is put in the ground, it grows into the largest of all the garden plants. As a matter of fact, it can become so large that the birds of the air are able to perch in its branches.”
Jesus was illustrating that God’s kingdom would start very small, but eventually it would grow into something very large. And Satan would take full advantage of this growth. He would infiltrate and corrupt the kingdom with his evil ambassadors. (In Jesus’ parables, the birds always represented agents of Satan—see #235 - August 23.) These false representatives would look like they worked for God, but their goal would be to replace God’s Truths with Satan’s lies.
The parables teach us that Satan will do anything he can to disrupt the spreading of the Gospel message. He will plant false replicas and replace the Truth with lies!
This is so true in our culture today! But it is not our job to pull out the weeds. it is our job to continue planting seeds by sharing the Truth about Jesus.
How are you doing? Are you the hard-working farmer God wants you to be?Where can you plant some seeds today?
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