Jesus and the Weeds

Matthew 13:24-30 (NET)

He told them another parable: 

The kingdom of heaven is like a person who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. When the plants sprouted and bore grain, then the weeds also appeared. 

So the slaves of the owner came and said to him, “Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Then where did the weeds come from?” 

He said, “An enemy has done this.” 

So the slaves replied, “Do you want us to go and gather them?” 

But he said, “No, since in gathering the weeds you may uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At harvest time I will tell the reapers, ‘First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned, but then gather the wheat into my barn.’”

Jesus teaches us that 

1. God didn’t intend for there to be evil people.
2. God plans to remove evil people ultimately. 
3. But God often leaves evil people alive, which is for the good of His own people, though we often may not understand how that is good for us.

For this reason, Jesus didn’t seek confrontations with the evil politicians and political systems of His day. He did confront some people in authority, but I think that was because they claimed to represent God.

Jesus shows us how to wait for God to judge evil people, even when He would have had the power to bring about justice on His own terms.

One example shows up just a little later in Matthew. Herod got drunk and gave John the Baptist (just his head though) to a seductive dancer. 

When Jesus heard this he went away from there privately in a boat to an isolated place. (Matt. 14:13)

But a crowd heard about it, and they followed Jesus. He had compassion on them, taught them and fed them, then He dispersed the crowd and sent the disciples away in the boat. 

Jesus still needed to be alone. He spent the entire night praying (Matt. 14:23, 25).

I think this points to vulnerability in Jesus: He felt the loss of John, who was both His cousin and one of the few people who understood who Jesus was, particularly in relation to OT prophecy (Matt. 11:2-5).

Jesus was wounded by Herod’s evil, and He was equipped to do something about it. Herod only had power because God lent it to him (John 19:11). Jesus had the authority and resources to uproot that weed.

He didn’t. He grieved and prayed to His Father. 

And He nurtured the wheat. He taught the crowds who came to Him. He fed them. He went to His disciples when their trip across the lake wasn’t going well. He let Peter walk on the water, and then He caught Peter when he got scared. And so on.

In these in-between times, it doesn’t look like Jesus gets into removing weeds from the political system. He goes after weeds who claim to represent God—make no mistake—and He will come again and burn all the weeds—beware—but if we walk in His steps, I don’t think we’ll worry very much about evil political movements and figures. We may well be wounded by them, and we grieve—but it doesn’t look like we rage.