The Parable of the Weeds
By: Aaron Galey
“Here is another story Jesus told: “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a farmer who planted good seed in his field.” – Matthew 13:24
Jesus likens the Kingdom of Heaven to a man (“a farmer”). Jesus specifies that the farmer sowed good seed. His word for good is also the same word he used for the “good ground” in the preceding parable. It indicates careful choice of the right seed for his purpose.
When Matthew refers to the Kingdom of Heaven he is referring to Jesus.
The man who sowed the good seed represents Jesus. Jesus knew he audience was receptive to His teachings here. He understood their hearts were good ground in this moment. Jesus response to this is simple, He was careful to sow the right seed into their hearts for his purpose.
As leaders we must understand what kind of ground we are sowing seeds into, and we must adjust accordingly. If the ground is good we must be extremely careful what we sow into it, and that it aligns with the purpose of God and not our own purpose.
“But that night as the workers slept, his enemy came and planted weeds among the wheat, then slipped away.” – Matthew 13:25
Anytime there is a careful preparation for a good crop there comes the evil act of an enemy. He moved while people were asleep allowing him to do what he wanted unobserved. The enemy planted weeds throughout the entire crop of good seed.
The good crop that was planted was wheat and the crop the enemy planted was darnel, it looked much like wheat making it very hard to detect. The enemy sowed the seed and left.
We must understand as individuals and as leaders that the enemy will always come in and sow bad seed among the good seed that we have sown. The enemy has been proven to move at night throughout the Bible.
He also wants to be unobserved. When he sows discord within others, or he plants that bad seed within us, it’s imperative we recognize that it will look exactly like the good seed that was planted.
This parable proves to us that people can look like they mean well but the reality is they are the weeds among the wheat. They are the look alike crop. They look like Christians or Believers, but the reality is they are not and they are choking the life out of those who are if we allow them to.
Notice after the enemy sows the bad seed he leaves immediately, he doesn’t even stick around to see what his crop looks like. He is a coward. Even though half of this crop will be his he doesn’t stick around to harvest it, his main objective is to destroy the good crop, not to harvest the bad crop he planted.
Simply put, the enemy looks at everyone as a tool to destroy the Kingdom of Heaven, which is Jesus.
The enemy doesn’t want to walk with you on a day to day, minute to minute basis. Jesus does. The enemy wants to use and abuse you to serve only his purpose which is evil.
Jesus wants to sow life into you, redeem you, restore you, and send you out to do the same thing in the lives of others. And everything Jesus does is in the light, nothing is hidden, and he never abandons you like the Enemy is proven to do in this parable.