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 ANGELS (MATTHEW 13:37-40).
TODAY’S DEVOTION
There are two kinds of people in the world: those who are children of the Kingdom of Heaven, and those who are not. Christ Himself made this distinction clear in a teaching story He told about a farmer who planted good seed in his field. At night an enemy came and planted weeds in the midst of the wheat. No one was the wiser until the wheat and the weeds sprouted up together. The farmer told his workers not to pull up the weeds for danger of uprooting the wheat as well. Instead, he allowed both to grow until harvest time, when the weeds were gathered and burned, while the wheat was stored in the granary (see Matthew 13:24-30).
(God’s Big Idea, Chapter Two)
CONSIDERATIONS
1. Contrast the aspects of God’s Kingdom of Heaven and the pretender’s false kingdom. (Example: joy vs. fear)
2. Why is it that most religions, including Christianity, focus on preparing people to leave Earth rather than planting roots and “sticking around for a while”?
3. Do you believe you have been given the ability to make a positive difference in your realm of influence?
4. Are the weeds in your garden choking out the beauty of the seeds sown by the Master Gardener? Will you be willing to burn the weeds at harvest time?
5. When others look at the fruit of your life, can they see good-seed evidence? List a few of the seeds that you’ve been blessed to produce.
MEDITATION
As with many of His other stories, Jesus used here [Matt. 13:37-43a] a garden-like analogy to talk about the Kingdom of Heaven. And while the overall meaning of the story relates to the end of this present age, one thing that stands out clearly is the existence in the world of two distinct cultures: Kingdom culture and the culture of the “evil one,” the pretender. Just as wheat and weeds are easy to tell apart, so too is Kingdom culture distinct from worldly culture.
Our lives should leave absolutely no doubt as to which culture we live under.
(God’s Big Idea, Chapter Two)
Are you a royal Kingdom citizen or a slave in the evil one’s culture?