November 3, 2021 - Staying in Our Lane
Matthew 13:36-43, NIV - Then he left the crowd and
went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, “Explain to us the
parable of the weeds in the field.”
He answered, “The one who sowed the good seed is the Son
of Man. The field is the world, and the
good seed stands for the people of the kingdom. The weeds are the people of the
evil one, and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of
the age, and the harvesters are angels.
“As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it
will be at the end of the age. The Son
of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom
everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the blazing furnace,
where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will
shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears, let them
hear.
Two days ago, we covered the parable
of the weeds. We talked about the
importance of staying focused on the growth of good seeds even when there are
weeds growing up along with those seeds (the work of an undefined enemy). Trying to remove the weeds also uproots the
good plants, so the advice is to wait until the harvest. Making it plainer for us now, stay focused on
doing good work and ignore the work of those who are working against us. Today, in the passage above, Jesus talks
about what will happen to the work of those enemies and those who do that work.
That answer is made very plain in
the text. A blazing furnace and weeping/gnashing
of teeth – that’s what awaits the evil doers and their work. But I want to stress a couple of things
here. First, it is not us who get to
make decisions/pass judgement on what is good and what is evil. It the Son of Man/Jesus and His angels that
separate the good plants and the weeds. Once
again, it is NOT us who makes these decisions.
Whenever we hear anyone who is not Jesus make an eternal judgement about
anyone else, we need to remind ourselves that the person speaking is not qualified
to make that judgement. Such people
often claim to be speaking for Jesus, but in this passage, Jesus clearly says
that He only delegates this authority to angels.
Second, Jesus identifies the good
seed as those in the kingdom, the “righteous” in verse 43. Whenever we see the word “righteous,” we can
think “right relationship.” The good
seed’s job is to grow into a flourishing good plant and that is accomplished by
maintaining a healthy relationship with the Sower. The growth of good plants depends on the
Sower providing all that is needed for the growth. So our job is to cooperate
with the growth process the Sower has begun and continues to sustain with all
that we need. That is our only
responsibility. We leave EVERYTHING else
to Jesus. We look forward to the day
when we will “shine like the sun in the kingdom of [our] Father”
“Whoever has ears, let them
hear.”
Question: Do I really
trust God to handle the separating the good from the bad? Am I “staying in my
lane?”
Prayer: Thank you God
for everything good in my life. Help me
stay focused on that goodness that You have provided and to trust you to do
everything else. Amen.
Prayer Focus: Make a
list of five good things that are happening in your life right now and then
spend some time thanking God for those things and asking God to show you how
you can build upon that goodness moving forward.
Song: This is a live
performance of worship song. It is
possible that there are “weeds” in the room – people not focused on God. But their presence does not deter from the
focus on the goodness of God. It is a
picture of the parable of the weeds being lived out.
You are Good (Live) – Israel Houghton
