I mean, wouldn’t things be cleaner? Wouldn’t things be simpler and and holier and more honoring to God if he just removed them all? Stick with me to the very end of this episode because Jesus answers that question directly. And his answer may surprise you. It’ll definitely humble you and completely change the way that you see most difficult people in your life.
Jesus tells a story. This is in Matthew chapter 13 and we call it the parable of the wheat and the tears or the wheat and the weeds. And he says that the kingdom of heaven is like a farmer who plants some good seed in his field and everything starts out right. Everything’s great. But while everybody is sleeping, an enemy sneaks in and plants weeds among the wheat and then sneaks away.
Now, at first, nobody can tell the difference. It’s only when the plants start to grow that the problem becomes obvious. And so, the farmer’s servants panic. They run to the owner of the field and they say, “Sir, didn’t you plant good seed in your field? Where did these weeds come from?” And the farmer wisely answers them and says, “This is the work of an enemy.
” So the servants ask the question that you and I have probably asked many times. Uh shouldn’t we just pull out the weeds? Shouldn’t we get rid of the bad, the impostors? And then the farmer says something that surprises most of us. He says, “No, let them grow together until the harvest.” So I want you to pause right there because this is exactly where many of us struggle. I know that I have.
We look around at churches. We look at ministries. We look at leaders, even fellow believers, and we see compromise. We see hypocrisy. We see pride, false teachings, and sometimes outright evil. And if we’re honest, we’re wondering, God, why don’t you clean house? Why don’t you remove these people? Why do you allow this? Have you ever asked yourself that question? Some of us want to grab the weed puller and we just want to start yanking.
