Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart to revere your name. [1]
Children of the Kingdom and children of the “wicked one”
Matthew 13:36-43 NRSV
Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples approached him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.” He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen!
J. C. Ryle
This parable teaches us that good and evil will always be found together in the professing church, until the end of the world.
The visible church is set before us as a mixed body; it is a vast “field” in which “wheat and tares” grow side by side. We must expect to find believers and unbelievers, converted and unconverted, “the children of the kingdom and the children of the wicked one,” all mingled together in every congregation of baptized people.
The purest preaching of the gospel will not prevent this. In every age of the church the same state of things has existed: it was the experience of the early Fathers; it was the experience of the Reformers; it is the experience of the best ministers at the present hour. There has never been a visible church or a religious assembly of which the members have been all “wheat.” The devil, that great enemy of souls, has always taken care to sow “tares.”
Are we inclined to look for the conversion of the whole world by the labors of missionaries and ministers? Let us place this parable before us and beware of such an idea. We shall never see all the inhabitants of earth “the wheat” of God . . . The kingdoms of this world will never become the kingdom of Christ, and the millennium will never begin until the King himself returns.
Are we ever tempted to leave one Protestant church for another, because we see many of its members unconverted? Let us remember this parable and take heed of what we do. We shall never find a perfect church. We may spend our lives migrating from communion to communion and pass our days in perpetual disappointment. Go where we will, and worship where we may, we shall always find “tares.”[2]
Isaac Ambrose
Unless I am born again, I cannot enter heaven. Born again? What does that mean, Lord? Did that kind of thing ever really happen to me? Was I ever cast into the pangs of a new birth? And did those pangs of new birth continue until Christ Jesus was formed in me? Are old things done away, so that all things have become new? Is the old person, the old lusts, the old way of speaking, totally abandoned? Have they been left behind? Are my principles made new? My goals? My life? Amen.[3]
Origen
Good seed
Consider now if . . . you can otherwise take the good seed to be the children of the kingdom, because whatever good things are sown in the human soul, these are the offspring of the kingdom of God. They have been sown by God the Word who was in the beginning with God. Wholesome words about anything are children of the kingdom.[4]
Augustine
Why weeds?
The Lord then explained for us what he had said. See what we choose to be in his field. See which of the two we will be at harvest time. The field is the world, and the church is spread throughout the world. Let the one who is wheat persevere until the harvest; let those who are weeds be changed into wheat. There is this difference between people and real grain and real weeds, for what was grain in the field is grain and what were weeds are weeds. But in the Lord’s field, which is the church, at times what was grain turns into weeds and at times what were weeds turn into grain; and no one knows what they will be tomorrow.[5]
A Prayer of Surrender
Lord, I yield. I am overcome; O blessed conquest! Go on victoriously, and still prevail, and triumph in your love. This captive of love will proclaim your victory when you lead me in triumph from earth to heaven, from death to life, from the tribunal to the throne. I will acknowledge that you have prevailed, and all will say, Behold, how he loved him! Let neither life nor death, nor anything separate me from your love! Keep me in the fullness of love forever. Amen.[6]
Facing a Task Unfinished
Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god. Who is like me? Let them proclaim it, let them declare and set it forth before me. Who has announced from of old the things to come? Let them tell us what is yet to be. Do not fear, or be afraid; have I not told you from of old and declared it? You are my witnesses!. [7]
If you have found this meditation helpful, take a moment and give thanks to God. Then share what you learned with a friend. This is how the grace of God spreads (2 Corinthians 4.15).
[1] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989), Ps 86:11.
[2] J. C. Ryle, Expository Notes on the Gospels: Matthew, pp. 118-120.
[3] A Prayer of Isaac Ambrose, “Am I Being Changed into Christ’s Image?,” in Piercing Heaven: Prayers of the Puritans, ed. Robert Elmer (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2019), 161.
[4] Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, New Testament Volume 1: Matthew 1-13, p. 276.
[5] Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, New Testament Volume 1: Matthew 1-13, p. 277.
[6] A Prayer of Richard Baxter, “A Prayer of Surrender,” in Piercing Heaven: Prayers of the Puritans, ed. Robert Elmer (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2019), 162.
[7] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989), Is 44:6–8.
