Tares and Wheat
“…but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.” Matthew 13:25
Many times Jesus spoke with proverbs to be more understandable to the people. The Lord says that the Heavenly kingdom consists of men who sow good seeds in his field.
Jesus is that man, and the apostles continue His work. This work teaches us the respect, the truth, to admire beauty, and to follow the rules of goodness. Jesus wants our thoughts to turn from Earthly thoughts, to Heavenly thoughts.
Jesus is sowing within our minds by preaching the word of God and at the same time lived what he preached. He is preparing us for the Kingdom that we will eventually live peacefully and happily.
We hear His words, but wonder why peace, love and happiness have to be delayed? Delayed from our Church, from our families, from our hearts? Why? The reason being that an enemy is not asleep when we are asleep.
If our minds are far away and involved with Earthly dealings, the enemy is at work. He comes and sews bad wheat or tares and then slips away.
He confuses our thoughts, whispers evil in our ears and divides us, then goes away. He plays hide & seek with us.
Evil is planted in our hearts that makes us doubtful, argumentative, selfish, greedy…even in the Church. Sometimes evil plays the childish game when you are tapped on your shoulder, you are tricked to turn around and no one is there or someone else standing there takes the blame.
Some of us enjoy playing such games resembling evil. It is difficult to understand the reason that God does not punish these evil-doers. These immature people, that think everything is about me and/or mine.
Let’s answer another question! Why did the Pharisees not accept Jesus Christ?
Here is a story to better understand. A father and his 4 year old son were watching a football game on TV. After a bad play, the father exploded, “Just look at that stupid half-back. He fumbles 3 times and every time the other team recovers it. Why do they let someone like that play in the game?” The little boy tells his father, “Daddy, maybe it is his football.”
Now…back to our question; Why did the Pharisees not accept Jesus Christ?
The Pharisees had their own religious ‘ball’ and played it the way they wanted. They had religious services. They had their temple. They collected money for their temple. Then poor Jesus Christ appears from nowhere to tell them that God wanted their hearts, and not their money. He told them that the only law is the Law of Love. Love each other, respect each other and forgive each other.
He was teaching them to be humble to wash each other’s feet. And also, he told them to destroy the temple and He would rebuild it in 3 days.
The Pharisees thought that Jesus was dismissing all their years of work. Who does He think He is? But, He was speaking about resurrection and the temple that exists in our hearts.
Back to my first question about punishing the evil-doers.
The reason that Jesus did not punish them is because, He is patient.
We need to resemble that trait of our Lord.
He said, “Let wheat and tares live together until judgment day.”
Be careful not to damage the good wheat when you are pulling the tares.
Jesus’ lesson for us is to be careful and not to become bad wheat or tares ourselves. Even if you are inside the Church, it does not mean that you are a believer. Faith is dynamic. It means to repent and to be reborn.
Let us all decide for each other to be good wheat, to become the light, to look at ourselves in the mirror and recognize that we need to change our spiritual appearance. It is not with cosmetic help that these changes will happen; but with faith in God.
The wise monk who was making pencils, wrote this to his fellow brothers:
“There are couple of things you need to know; you are like a pencil, you will be capable to do many good things, but only if you allow yourself to be held in God’s hand, and allow others, that are surrounding you to be blessed by the many gifts that you possess.
You will experience a painful sharpening, hard problems sometimes, but you need to tolerate it to become a better man that you can be.
As a spiritual pencil, you will be able to correct any mistakes you might make just with an eraser, repent, go back and correct.”
The most essential part of you, will always be what’s inside. Like a pencil on every surface you glide on, you must leave your mark. No matter what the condition is, you must continue to write, to draw, to do your duties, to make a difference.
You are special person and able to accomplish many good things with Gods guidance.
From time to time, a pencils lead brakes, don’t be discouraged, if you allow yourself to be in Gods hand, he will repair it , he will renew your life.
Amen.
