by Dennis Gladden, By Green Pastures, ©2024
(Apr. 26, 2024) — We blame God for a lot He is not to blame for.
The presence of evil is frightening, and evildoers trouble us, yet there is no end to our wars, corruption, disease, shooting massacres, sex trafficking, domestic violence, and so forth. Which prompts us to ask, “Why doesn’t God stop all this?”
It is a logical question. If the Almighty is all-powerful and The Good Shepherd is sovereign, why doesn’t He exert His power and goodness and right the wrong?
Perplexing as it is, we cannot blame God for the weeds.
Jesus tells us as much in two parables. One is rooted in agriculture, about wheat and tares, the other concerns a fearful investor who makes no profit on the funds entrusted to him (Matthew 25:24-27).
“Lord,” said the investor when he was called into account. “I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. And I was afraid and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.”
Jesus didn’t refute his reasoning, but He did denounce the conclusion. “You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed. So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers.”
The parable affirms God’s sovereignty: “I reap where I have not sown.” It also reveals that not everything is His doing—there is seed He did not sow. Jesus applied this principle to the Pharisees: “Every plant which My heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. Let them alone.” (Matthew 15:13-14).
The Pharisees professed to be God’s elite, but Jesus disavowed them. They were someone’s planting, but not God’s. In time, He will uproot them but for now, don’t blame God for the weeds.
We return to the parable of the wheat and tares in Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43.
The parable breaks into three scenes or seasons, and each has important truths about:
- Spring, the season for starting out
- Summer, the season for discovery
- Fall, the season for separating
Spring: The season for starting out
The goodness of the sower (13:27). The main character is a homeowner. Some translations render the Greek as the good man of the house. He is a family man. Jesus leaves no doubt who this is: The Son of Man. The sower is Jesus.
Good seed (13:24). Jesus is specific: the man plants wheat and it is quality seed—it is good in that it will produce what the landowner wants, a crop. The seeds are people: they are children of God, sons of the Son of Man.
Good soil (13:26). “The grain sprouted and produced a crop.” Previously, in the parable of the sower, only the good ground yielded a crop. The sower in this parable went to great lengths to have ground well-prepared to receive his good seed. The harvest testifies to soil made good by the work of the sower.
This parable is full of good intentions. Here is a householder who has prepared his land, sows wheat, and anticipates a harvest that will feed his family. It’s all good.
But not everything in the field is proper.
The evil of the enemy (13:25). A new character emerges who, for some reason, hates the landowner and goes, not after him, but after his crop. He doesn’t trample the field or plow it under but sows his own seed to overcrowd it. Jesus identifies this enemy: the devil.
The imitation seed (13:26). The tares, or darnel, refer to a plant that is “wheat’s evil twin” because It looks like wheat and grows only in cultivated fields. Darnel is evil because in large amounts its seeds are poisonous and in small doses, they intoxicate and cause hallucinations.
The same field (13:26). The enemy doesn’t have his own field; he corrupts the landowner’s good land. The field that is favorable for the wheat will benefit the tares, too.
The devil’s intentions are rooted in hatred. His grain is not for food but doles pleasure in small amounts and death in large doses. The Son of Man wants to feed the family; His enemy intends to harm and destroy it.
Read the rest here.