Matthew 13:24-27

Matthew 13:24-27

He set another parable before them while saying, “The kingdom of heaven was being like a man who sowed good seed into his field.  But in the sleeping of his men, his enemy came and sowed undesirable seed upon and in the midst of the wheat.  And he went away.  And when the grass sprouted and made fruit, then the undesirable seed also appeared.  And after the slaves of the master of the house came, they said to him, “Lord, did you not sow good seed into your field?  How then does it have undesirable seed?”

Thoughts for Today

First Thought:

Jesus begins the parable by saying that the kingdom of heaven is like a man who started with great intentions.  The man sowed good seed.  There was nothing wrong with his effort.  This is equivalent to God creating the world in perfection.  There was nothing wrong with God’s creation.  The world started in perfection – God’s perfection.

Do you believe that God’s creation was perfect?  If it was perfect, then what happened to it?

Second Thought:

Notice that nobody saw that anything was wrong until the seed that had been sowed matured.  This tells us just how hard it is to distinguish between God’s perfect hand at work and the sinfulness of the world around us.  Of course, that doesn’t mean that sinfulness can look like perfection.  What it means is that to tell the difference you have to intimately know.  You can’t often tell true good from true evil until you look and examine very closely.  What sometimes looks to be good turns out to be horribly wrong.  What sometimes looks questionable is actually God’s plan!  Through all of this, Jesus is not only telling us that we must look closely but also that we shouldn’t be so hard on ourselves if we miss something.  Sometimes we cannot tell the difference until enough time has passed for fruit to be borne.

Have you ever had a hard time distinguishing between good and evil?  What makes some situations difficult?

Third Thought:

Notice also that the servants come and question their master.  They don’t doubt him, per se.  Neither do they assert that he is wrong.  But they do admit their confusion.  They do admit that the present reality isn’t matching up with what they thought should be happening.  How often we as human beings are quick to turn back to God and ask Him why things aren’t perfect if He’s in control!  How often do we turn to God and ask why the present reality doesn’t match our expectations!

Do you ever ask God why your present reality doesn’t match expectation?  Why is that an understandable – but wrong – human reaction?

Passage for Tomorrow: Matthew 13:28-30