Hello and welcome to Monday’s Foundations podcast. My name is James, I’m married to Lucy and I’m part of the team here at STC. We are continuing through the gospel of Matthew this week. Last Friday, Helen focussed on fruitfulness and multiplication… both in our lives and with our friends… She used v23 from the same chapter (13)… “But the seed [the word of God] falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”

REFLECTION:

In our reading today Jesus builds on this imagery. He tells a parable, which is a word that means to compare. He is making comparisons between ordinary examples (everyday things) and things of the Kingdom (divine things). In the comparing and placing the example and idea next to one another in parallel truths can be recognised… that’s why Jesus is often saying things like “the kingdom of God is like…”

So building on this imagery of seed and fruitfulness he makes a comparison about weeds. I will read three verses from v27:

“The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’

“‘An enemy did this,’ he replied.

“The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’

“‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’”

There are three things to pick out from these few verses for us to think through today.

First, there is the work of the farmer. He sowed good seed and the seed began to grow. God is indeed at work in our lives and the desire behind the sowing of the seed is that we might grow. Grow to maturity and eventually to harvest but also to grow and multiply. Again, Friday’s podcast put this brilliantly.

Second is the work of the enemy; the enemy arrives and sneaks a seed into the same field. In doing research for this podcast, time and time again the books make mention of the original wording used here. It’s a seed called zizania. It’s not like a simple weed like the ones we battle in our gardens. Wheat farmers would have been sure to have known about it. It grows alongside wheat but when it came to maturity there would be no grain, just a stalk. For a very long time it would look similar to the good seed. But in the end it would be just a stalk. Growing alongside the wheat… competing for space and food in the field.

There is a subversive force in the world that wants to undermine the work of God. The battle is real but sometimes it is not often clear. I am borrowing this idea off a friend earlier in the week but I have forgotten who to give credit to! They told me the spiritual battle we are in is not like World War 2. There the battle lines are clearly marked, the trenches dug and the task was to defeat those in a clearly coloured opposing uniform. Our battle is more subtle than that. It is against the forces of influence in this world and in our lives. Even things that are similar in principle to the zizania seed. Things that grow up among the good habits and influences in our lives but in time have been revealed to be unhealthy forms of the real thing. For example, friends who have perhaps been great counsellors in the past but are no longer helping us become more like Jesus. The battle is subtle sometimes, but we are not helpless.

Finally, we see the patience of the farmer in this story. We really see it in verses 29 & 30. Don’t pull them out. Let them grow. Then sort it out. Burn up the bad. Bring in the good. People have asked the farmer, what should we do about this situation? The farmer’s reaction to the work of the enemy is...