Fruitfulness

 Matthew 13:24-30 ESV

Jesus put another parable before them, saying,

 “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away.

 So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. 

And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, 

‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ 

He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ 

So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ 

But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, “Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.”’”

Today, I heard an application of this parable that I'd never heard before. When Jesus talked about weeds, I assumed he was on about thorns and thistles, which even to an urbanite like me are clearly not wheat. Apparently though, there's a weed that looks very similar to wheat.

Apparently, the way to distinguish the lookalike weed is to wait til harvest. At harvest time, wheat 'humbly' bends under the weight of its own fruitfulness. These lookalike weeds on the other hand stand up 'proud' and talk at harvest because they lack any weighty substance.

This reminds me of something the Apostle Paul says about people who 'have a form of godliness, but deny its power'. That any of us are moral, fine, upstanding citizens is due to the powerful grace of the God in whose image and likeness we are made in. If we deny God's goodness in our lives however, and seek to take credit for our self righteousness, we betray our spiritual lostness. 

As Paul says elsewhere, 'if we give everything to the poor but lack love, we're nothing'. Our love for our Lord and Saviour, and for one another, should keep us humble. Arrogance has no place in the Kingdom of God.

'Dear Lord and Father of mankind, forgive our foolish ways. Don't let us deluded ourselves that we're naturally entitled to your love. May we glorify you as we ought. In our Saviour's name, amen'.