Reflective Bible Study

One thing I find amazing about passages like this one is how Jesus is able to use very simple illustrations to make His point. In this passage’s case, the illustration is so simple that the Pharisees and religious leaders easily answer Jesus’ question at the end. This is one of the few places where the Pharisees and Jesus agree.

Following this short parable of two sons, Jesus asks them the question: “Which of the two sons obeyed his father?” (v. 31a) The father asked both sons to help in the field. The first son said he would/could not help, but then later changes his mind and shows up. The second son said he would help, but for whatever reason, chose not to show up. Jesus’ simple question is which son obeyed his father.

It is such a simple question that each of us could easily answer it as well – and I could guess that if we were all being honest with ourselves and with the question, we’d all answer that the first son – the one who showed up to help in the field – is the obedient one.

But here is something interesting: Both sons lied.

We can easily point our finger at the second son and call him a liar because he did not do what he said he would, but the same is true for the first son: He did what he said he would not do.

If both sons lied, then what is the difference?

The difference is action – actually doing the things we have been asked to do. It is easy to speak our intentions, but what matters in the end is what is actually said and done.

As I began to write this, my mind was distracted. I have another project in the works that is more “interesting” than pushing through producing another post. But, here is the truth: while the other project will help a number of people, the big truth I want to bring out in this passage is a more solid, foundational truth that is true for virtually everyone.

The big concept for this post is this: What we say is not nearly as important as what we do. Action is more important than intention 100% of the time.

Jesus believed this, and surprisingly, the Pharisees and religious leaders agreed with Him on this one point. If we are being honest with the question itself, you and I believe this too.

Part of me wishes that Jesus explained more of His parables. Or if He had, then I wish the gospel writers had included more of the parable explanations. But while I wish some of the parables were clearer, the parable of the wheat and the weeds does include an explanation in Matthew’s gospel. In Jesus’ explanation of this parable, we can learn something interesting about God.

This parable describes the judgment day. In the parable, it is the day when the grain in the field is fully ripe and the day when God chooses to harvest the field. The order of events is important for us to uncover, because Jesus describes something backward from what we might be thinking.

When the farmer gives instructions to his servants, he tells them, “First collect the weeds. Tie them in bundles to be burned. Then gather the wheat. Bring it into my storeroom.” (v. 30b)

This order is significant because there is a theory going around that God will first collect the wheat into His storeroom before gathering the weeds. This theory is called the rapture, and how Jesus describes the judgment in this parable stands opposite of it. Jesus’ parable does not suggest in any way that any wheat will be gathered before the weeds are all collected. This means that God’s people will exist until the end.

In a strange sort of way, this parable also describes the idea that no wheat is collected into God’s storeroom until judgment day. The harvest of the wheat happens after the weeds are collected into bundles. Perhaps this parable also reflects God’s kingdom in a way that He waits until the second coming and resurrection to bring His people home. While this idea stands counter to popular theory, it better fits with the timeline described in this parable and Jesus’ explanation. “The harvest is judgment day. And the workers are angels. The weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire. That is how it will be on judgment day. The Son of Man will send out his angels. They will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin. They will also get rid of all who do evil. They will throw them into the blazing furnace. There people will weep and grind their teeth. Then God’s people will shine like the sun in their Father’s kingdom. Whoever has ears should listen.” (v. 39b-43)

God is preparing a place for each of His children, and when the harvest is ripe, He will separate the weeds from the wheat, and He will do it in a way that allows for the greatest number of wheat to be saved. While it is challenging for us to live as wheat among the weeds, we can trust that God will protect us when the harvest/judgment comes.

As I read the details of Jesus’ birth story, I was surprised to find something clearly included in Luke’s gospel that may come as a surprise to you like it did to me. During the trip Joseph, Mary, and Jesus take to Jerusalem to dedicate Jesus, we are not only introduced to Simeon, but also to another individual whose name was Anna.

Here is how Luke describes her: “There was a very old prophet, a widow named Anna, daughter of Phanuel of the tribe of Asher. She had been married for only seven years and was now eighty-four years old. She never left the Temple; day and night she worshiped God, fasting and praying.” (v. 36-37)

As I read this description, I am amazed at some things about this woman-prophet – the first simply being that she was a “woman prophet”. In the debates about women’s roles in the church, clearly prophetess was a role that appears to be accepted by those in the first century, otherwise Luke would not have included mention of her – and she would not be present in Jesus’ birth story.

However, even more significant than her gender is her devotion and dedication to God. More than 50 years of her life she had spent as a widow, and instead of finding someone to marry during that time, she dedicated herself to serving God in the temple. This woman puts almost everyone who calls themselves dedicated to God to shame with how incredibly devoted she is.

But in addition to that, this woman is described as a prophet – and she was living at the close of a time when God had stopped speaking to the nation through prophets. At the close of the Old Testament and in a number of predictions made through some of the later prophets, a time is predicted when the role of prophet will be looked down upon. This would be a time when God would stop speaking through prophets.

This time of God’s silence lasted around 400 years between the Old and New Testaments. While the silence is officially broken first when the angel visits Zechariah in the temple, Anna is described as a spokesperson for God – even though we have no idea what she prophesied or said to give her that title.

Reading this draws me to the realization that even if we are not famous or well known, God can still speak through us in order to impact those living around us. God doesn’t need people with big platforms to spread His message. All He needs are people who are dedicated and willing!

Have you ever heard a joke and missed understanding the punch line?

Have you ever listened to an illustration and missed the main point of what was being said?

I have, and I wonder if many of us miss the underlying themes present in some of Jesus’ most famous parables. In our self-centered minds, we turn an illustration about God into being a reflection of ourselves.

Our passage in this entry is not exempt from this challenge. In fact, it might be one of the main ones that gets twisted by our thinking. This parable is about the Kingdom of Heaven – and that means it will show us a part of God’s character and how He acts. All too often though, we can miss the point and focus on the people in the parable who we can relate with – the jealous ones who thought they would get more, or the late-comers who are happy to even be paid at all.

All this time, we are missing the point. We love the cliché-quotation that “The last will be first”, but we ignore what this parable is trying to teach us: God is unbelievably generous with His gifts and blessings.

We can parallel this passage with our lives, and the reward God gives us at the end of our lives (which I’ve written about in a previous post on this passage), but even that is missing the point: God is unbelievably generous.

When we dig into how God is generous, we see a simple concept of “fairness”: You worked, He pays. [Period]

Our own human nature wants to complicate the scenario by bringing in other variables such as, “How long was each person working?”, “How hard was each person working?”, or even “How productive was each person being?”

This is not God’s character. It’s ours. It would seem that God’s definition of “fair” is way more basic than our complicated, ever-shifting-to-our-own-benefit version of fair. All too often, we will compare ourselves to the others who work alongside us and look at how we are more qualified, how we worked harder, or how we have been more loyal and expect to have a higher pay because of the variables. We like seeing situations where the “new guy” is paid less because of inexperience, and though we might not like it, we understand the environments where those who have been working the longest, are at the top of the pay scale.

But this is not how God works. He has a very simple concept of “fairness”: You worked, He pays. [Period]

While this does not appear “fair” to us, remember that this is God. He can do whatever He wants. [also period]

Jesus concludes this parable with a simple truth about God in the form of a rhetorical question: “Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money?” (v. 15)

God is unbelievably generous. He pays us way more than we ever deserve. Don’t be “envious” because He is “generous”.