Jesus Waited

What Did Jesus Do?

Allow both to grow until the harvest…
Matthew 13.30

Have you ever grabbed up a pile of what you thought was all junk mail, only to discover after you threw it all in the trash that you got rid of something of value? I have. Junk mail can be a pretty annoying nuisance, but sometimes a little more care, and taking time to carefully see what is junk and what is not can save you from making a sometimes costly mistake.

Jesus didn’t make mistakes. He was also patient, quite willing to wait for that which was to be cast away into the “incinerator” to reveal itself. Of course, in the parable about the wheat and the tares Jesus was talking about something much more important than grains and weeds, He was talking about souls.

And, though He had perfect insight into the heart and soul of people, none of us do. So it is a good idea for us to learn the lesson of this parable, and wait. Being too quick to condemn and cast away someone we judge to be a “tare” could mean we cast aside one whom Christ died to save.

Tares were sneaky. They looked an awful lot like wheat. It would be almost impossible to weed a field sown with darnel (a perennial grass thought to be the biblical tare) and with wheat without plucking out some of the good plants with the bad.

A lot of people consider themselves pretty good judges of others; they do not hesitate to comment on who is saved and who isn’t, who is a “good” Christian, and who is a “tare” who only resembles a Christian, but doing so they show more “tareness” (As in tearing down and tearing apart) than “wheatness” (As in “wheatnessing” for the Lord, if you’ll pardon the pun).

Jesus knew there would come a day, the day of the great harvest of souls, when the mature “wheat” and the mature “tares” will be easily identified and separate. There will be good grain (Or fruit, if you prefer) produced by the one, and nothing but barrenness from the other. So the Lord was quite content for all to be revealed in time, and counseled for us to do the same. This means that the “tares” will receive the same care and consideration as the “wheat,” and who knows, there may be more wheat than we would have imagined. For the truth is, without Jesus we’re all tares, worthy of nothing more than being thrown into the fire. But by the grace of God, Christ died and rose again, that many “tares” should become “wheat.”

So next time you are ready to yank some “tares” out of your congregation, or to throw away a relationship with someone who you are sure is a tare, wait, they may yet become wheat of the Lord’s harvest. That’s what Jesus did.

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4