Jesus told another parable in Matthew 13v24-30.  In it, a farmer sows wheat seed in his field, but also and enemy comes and sows weeds in the field. There is some consternation about the growth of the weeds, but the farmer tells his servants to leave them as he is concerned the wheat might be damaged. The farmer continues that when the harvest comes, the harvesters shall collect the weeds and burn and then gather the wheat into the barn. It is often suggested that the weed could be darnel which is hard to differentiate from the wheat until the ears are well formed (wheat has gold ears which droop under their weight, whereas darnel has black ears which remain upright). To sow darnel among wheat was an offence under Roman Law!

Jesus explains the parable in v36-43: “The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world and the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons 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 the 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 fiery furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.”

I wonder how this explanation fits with your understanding of what is going on now and the end times? Jesus had a significant focus on the end of the age: he is at pains to emphasise to his disciples the reality of a coming separation and judgment. Does this motivate me in wanting to rescue the lost? The parable speaks to the similarities between those who belong to the devil and those who belong to God, but that ultimately it is by the fruit that they can be identified, and this fruit ultimately comes from the seed that has been sown. What seed is giving life in me? Whose is it?

Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. Now is the day of salvation.

May we bear the fruit of good seed, and may we save many others from the judgment which is to come.

With much blessing,

Roland