The Wheat and the Weeds

So imagine that you've got a farmer who sows his seed.

It's good seed, it's wheat.

And his enemy comes along.

We're not told why it would be an enemy.

But you've got the good seed that goes in the ground.

And then an enemy who comes along in the night,

goes and takes another seed, bad seed, some wheat,

and sows it in among the wheat.

Now, when Jesus was telling this story,

he wasn't just talking about any kind of weeds growing in among the wheat.

He was referring, it is reckoned, to a very particular type of weed

that was known as the bearded darnel.

And apparently, it was poisonous.

But when it grew, it looked exactly the same as wheat.

Now, these two coloured beans here are obviously a different colour.

But if you imagine, you've got the good stuff,

and then you've got the poisonous stuff.

And it all gets mixed together.

Now, obviously, you can see there which is green and which is pink.

But you wouldn't be able to tell the difference

when all of the good stuff was growing up with the poisonous stuff.

And that was the point that Jesus was making,

that he was saying that actually,

when the wheat, which is good,

and the weeds, which is poisonous,

grow up together,

you can't always tell the difference.

And that's a warning to us.

Because as we go through our lives,

we can be presented with all sorts of things.

Sometimes they may seem good,

harmless,

but they can be quite dangerous.

And a challenge facing us as we go through our lives

is to seek out what is really good

from that which just has the appearance of being good,

but actually which can be quite dangerous.

And this is not something that was unique to Jesus' time and day.

This is something that is timeless.

Wherever we go in life,

in any age,

in any culture,

we will be surrounded by mixed messages

of what is good and what is not good.

And very often we can be presented with the message,

well, you know, do this because it's good,

it's harmless,

it won't cause any problems at all.

But actually, it can be.

Sometimes we just need to be prepared

prepared to say no to some things.

You see,

God's warning in his instructions

is there for a purpose.

And that's the amazing thing,

that whilst in life

some things are not always black and white

and it's not always clear,

we are actually given the scriptures

to help us.

And when we pray,

God can help us

discern which is good

and which is not so good.

There we go.