It’s a familiar parable found in
Matthew 13. Good seed is planted in the master’s field but in the
cover of darkness an enemy peppers the field with bad seed. And not
just any bad seed, but seeds when sprouted and while growing,
look nearly identical to the master’s desired crop. When it comes
time to harvest the yield is diminished because precious nutrients,
time, and real estate had been stolen by the worthless and
unproductive weeds. When his workers asked permission to become
weed-pullers, the Lord said no. The collateral damaged would be way
too high. Instead, Jesus instructed them to let the authentic and
the illegitimate continue to grow in the same field and the truth
would be made clear when it came time to harvest.
Somewhere in my past, while warming
some pew, I heard an interpretation of this parable which led me to
believe it was of little concern to me. Their explanation went
something like – the harvest comes at the end of life as we know it
on this planet, and the good crop represents the children of God
while the bad crop the people who are not.
That explanation doesn’t work for me
anymore. Here’s why:
Jesus told us that we have to
understand his very first parable or we wouldn’t understand any
of them, then he broke it down so there would be no misunderstanding:
seeds are ideas that become beliefs, soil represents human hearts, and the
quality of a harvest is determined by the quality of that soil and
the diligence of the one responsible to guard that soil. Bottom line
– God has planted His stuff in our hearts and we are the ones
responsible for keeping our hearts in the best condition possible.
Now, fast forward a few decades (I’m
not a real quick learner), and I realize that I am less than
satisfied with what my life has been producing, a frustrating mix of
worthwhile and worthless, and that I had experienced many, many times
of harvest already.
And I recognize the value of the wheat
and tares parable. That multiple things are growing in a single
field. Our lives are the harvests of the seeds planted in our hearts.
Oh dear!
If the harvest Jesus was referring to
in the wheat and tares parable has everything to do with the here and
now and not someday in the distant future that meant I would have to
roll up my sleeves and get to work in order to see positive changes
in my life.
Warning! Sorting out the who, what,
why, how, and wheres of a heart and life is no weekend warrior
project. Who is God? Who is the enemy? What are the good and
desirable seeds God has planted in my heart? What are the
illegitimate ones planted by the enemy that mimic the authentic? How
did the enemy sneak those nasty things in? Where do they come from?
Just like I came to realize that a
teaching heard decades ago had been ‘taken to heart’, but when
scrutinized found to be fruitless in my life today, and not just
fruitless. That inaccurate interpretation had been overwriting the
truth. Had I continued to hold on to the idea that harvest is not
anything for me to worry about, then I would not have recognized the
responsibility I have for examining the quality of what my life is
producing everyday.
Pretty sneaky huh?
If one wonky idea has that much
influence on the outcome of my life’s purpose what other teachings
and doctrines I thought were true are sucking the life out of life?
To examine life’s production of love, joy, kindness, peace,
goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control and find very
little harvest says that there are too many impostors taking over.
Enabling imitates love. Happiness takes
the place of joy. Being nice substitutes for kindness and tolerance
masquerades as peace. Self-righteousness parades as goodness, and
legalism sucks the life out of faithfulness. Will-power takes the
place of self-control and force rolls over gentleness without a
second thought.
Some of the sneakiest of impostors are
theological ideas developed by people whose lives indicated that they
had no idea who Christ was or served the God Jesus came to reveal.
Over time those ideas became doctrines presented by people we’ve
been led to believe deserve our respect and allegiance. Could there
be anything further from the truth?
There was a time when information was
completely inaccessible. Today is not that day. If, while
inspecting your crop’s yield, you find something that is not
producing, and trace it back to a teaching you thought to be solid
and biblical, take some time to investigate its origins. I have been
shocked to discover that some of the most entrenched ideologies and
unquestioned doctrines have originated from sadistic and unrepentant
murderers, thieves, liars, fear mongers, and cons. But once the
initial shock wore off, and I quit beating myself up for having
allowed the ideas of these people to take up space in the development
of my beliefs, I began to disentangle those ideas from the authentic
teachings of Jesus.
If you wouldn’t follow that type of
person today, why on earth feel obligated to follow them because they
are dead? They were God’s enemies then. Their teachings are God’s
enemy now.
It’s time to pull some weeds.
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