Plymothian

36 Then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.”

37 He answered, “The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. 38 The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the people of the kingdom. The weeds are the people of the evil one, 39 and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.

40 “As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. 41 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. 42 They will throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears, let them hear.

Blaze or Shine

Jesus, the fate of human beings is terrible to behold.  The fate of the righteous induces terror because of the radiance of a redeemed soul in the human being.  The fate of the damned is unspeakably horrible.  I just saw the movie Anna Karenina.  Those who choose to follow only their passions have a moment of pleasure, but the torment of regret in the face of forgiveness and goodness drives the adulteress to her death.  Death is no escape from the pain of goodness.  Goodness seers into us all.  I can not stand long in the face of goodness because I don’t feel like I belong.  I want shade and shadow where I can hide from perfection.

However, we are renewed.  The soul has been reborn.  The spirit within me has come to life.  I have been cleansed and I will shine.  I thank you , Jesus, for purchasing this for me.  I pray that I would value what I could not earn for myself.

Questions

1. Who are the wheat and weeds?
2. What causes are weeded out?
3. What is evil and who does it?
4. Will you blaze or shine?
5. In what is your confidence based?

²⁴ Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. ²⁵ But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. ²⁶ When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.

²⁷ “The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’

²⁸ “‘An enemy did this,’ he replied.

“The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’

²⁹ “‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. ³⁰ Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’”

³¹ He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. ³² Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.”

³³ He told them still another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds^[b] of flour until it worked all through the dough.”

³⁴ Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable. ³⁵ So was fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet:

‘Christians’ in the West Will Be Uprooted

Jesus, amongst us are those who claim they know you and don’t have a clue.  I am grieved by those who know enough to be done with and leave you on the shelf.  You become like a self-serving talisman or a genie in a bottle.  Then there are those who go through the motions week by week.  They trundle to church and say their prayers.  However, who really knows you?  Who is truly gauging their life by how they serve you?  Most people are gauging your performance by how you serve them.  Then they will gladly distance themselves from you for ever.

I don’t want that.  I want us all to find you.  You are so polite, standing cap in hand and waiting to be invited.  You are a lover, and you are just.  It is a terrible combination.  You don’t force yourself upon us as any lover does not.  Then you do not live with us for eternity, since we have chosen our abode.  Damnation is not so much a prison as a condition.  It is a condition of isolated regret.  Is is a condition of eternal fascination with self.  Jesus, why are you not more agressive?  Why do you not expose the weeds for what they are sooner?  Why must it be final and forever?

Questions

1. Who plants the wheat and who plants the weeds?
2. What kind of people are weeds?
3. What is the emphasis of the parable?
4. Who mingles with Christians but is not part of the harvest?
5. Why do many in the west so passively assume they have been planted by God?

18 “Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: 19 When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path. 20 The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. 21 But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. 22 The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful. 23 But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”

Jesus Explains Confusing Stuff

Jesus, you explained things to those who came to you and asked.   In James, it says that those who lack wisdom should ask of God.  This, in turn, helps them to persevere.  I am personally a bit frustrated that our house is not sold yet.  Are we meant to move?  Are we meant to understand anything?  I know that biblical truths that seemed obscure to me became real as I read commentaries, took a Bible degree, and studied at church.  I am confident that God comes through with understanding in those cases.  Sometimes with issues from the Bible I have submitted to the idea that it is a mystery like ‘baptism for the dead’.  However, Jesus, if my own life is a parable I would like more explanation.  Ha.  Writing that, I see now how my life as a parable has worked.

You allowed anxiety and depression in my life so that I could see my perception of powerlessness with regard to others.  As I read books, studied scripture and pressed in, you showed me how to release anxiety and move away from depression.  As I kept walking with you, you showed me that being open about real struggles would help those around me to be open and to grow.  Most recently you have shown me what it means to be triggered and how sin works in our brain to make us convinced that others are in the wrong.  We develop frustration and, worst of all, contempt.  These ‘secrets’ have been explained as I have come to you for an explanation of what is going on.

Questions

1. What does Jesus say each soil represents?
2. Who gets to understand what the sower story is about?
3. How does this parable desribe those who receive a parable?
4. What confusing life circumstances has God allowed in your life?
5. How do you make sense of confusing Bible passages, life circumstances, and deep questions?

⁴³ “When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. ⁴⁴ Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. ⁴⁵ Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation.”

⁴⁶ While Jesus was still talking to the crowd, his mother and brothers stood outside, wanting to speak to him. ⁴⁷ Someone told him, “Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you.”

⁴⁸ He replied to him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” ⁴⁹ Pointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. ⁵⁰ For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”

True Family

Jesus, you are true family.  You are closer than a brother or sister.  I have never had one, but you don’t walk with them everywhere.  You have our best interests at heart.  You are on our side and we were created to be on your side.  We were created to walk with you every second of every day.  We share the same Father, only you were begotten and we were adopted.  Adoption is a more powerful idea now that I have two children.  I balk at those who ignorantly ask, “Did you adopt after you couldn’t have any children of your own?”  My two adopted children are every part our own.  I hear from those with adopted and biological children that they do not favour their biological children.  We are co-heirs with you of what the Father has to offer.  All of your riches in the Spirit are ours.  We are not less because we are adopted, although we are less in nature we are not less in status as children.

As I am thinking about our status it seems wrong.  We are not equal with you, Jesus, in what we are capable of.  If we have access to the Father through your death, it is enough.  Yet, we have all the rights of children.  That is too wonderful to grasp.  If we continue in serving the Kingdom of Heaven, we show that we are heirs.  Jesus, you are our brother.  That seems strange.  What do brothers like you and I do?  How familiar are we?  I don’t know what a brother should be.  I think brothers might include each other in gatherings and talk over family business with each other.  That is what they do.  However, the true family bond is that of unconditional love.  Help me not to have conditions on my love for you.  Help me to see that you accept me unconditionally and then you help me to change.

Questions

1. What happens to a person whose life is changed externally, but their heart is not in it?
2. Why does Jesus refuse to see his mother and brothers?
3. What does Jesus mean in telling his disciples they are his family?
4. What is the essence of family to you?
5. How could you enhance your understanding of family and grow closer to the Father and the Son?

³³ “Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. ³⁴ You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. ³⁵ A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. ³⁶ But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken. ³⁷ For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”

³⁸ Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.”

³⁹ He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. ⁴⁰ For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. ⁴¹ The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is here. ⁴² The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, and now something greater than Solomon is here.

Jesus Doesn’t Do As He’s Told

Jesus, why are people so intent on doing what they want and not finding out what you want?  Who are we to make demands of you?  You don’t bow the knee to our agendas and we miss the grace you have poured out.  Why didn’t you provide a sign for those in Israel when they asked it of you?  It seems sincere enough: Show us a sign and we will follow you!  However, no miracle, no sign, no intervention is good enough for people who have their hearts hardened.  You do not reveal yourself to those who have contempt for you.  Not in any particular way, because they cannot see what you are about.

However, the general sign of death and resurrection is there for all to see.  You were told to stay dead and you didn’t.  The Pharisees had to make up an implausible story to cover up your death and resurrection.  The disciples and hundreds more claimed to have personally encountered the risen Lord.  You appeared to many who were then willing to be martyrs.  People say, “How can we know what happens after death when no-one comes back?”  However, when one does return from the dead, they say, “It’s too incredible to believe!”  You are greater than the prophet, Jonah.  You are greater than the king, Solomon.  You are the greatest prophet and king who has ever walked the earth, but you don’t affirm our agenda.  You don’t play by our rules.  You let people die.  You let people do evil.  You let people go their own way.  They will accuse you eternally from hell.  If only you had given them a sign.  It will be their fault that they did not look you out when they had the chance.  So many signs in life.  In death – silence.

Questions

1. What kind of things do the Pharisees talk to Jesus about?
2. What do they ask Jesus for in this passage?
3. What is ‘evil’?  How does it apply to the core being of the Pharisees?
4. Why does our evil generation say there is no ‘proof’ for God?
5. What proofs has Jesus provided that are disbelieved and ignored?
6. What are the consequences for ignoring Jesus’ signs?