Jesus would be willing to change your weeds into wheat. This would both double your crop and get rid of your weeds, not by pulling but by changing them.

 

“When the crop began to mature and yield grain, the weeds made their appearance as well.” —Matthew 13:26

It’s a dry season here in Uganda, or better called summertime in the western world, and little weeding is done in the gardens around this time. But if you may still be doing some weeding, and you ask Jesus to help, you may be surprised when He says He doesn’t do weeding until harvest time (Mt 13:29-30).

‘Let both grow till the harvest.‘

What a beautifully consoling parable. What a wonderful exhortation to patience with ourselves and with others. Often, more aware of our faults than of the richness that lies within, we spend energy trying to root out faults, rather than letting our richness grow. And our awareness of others’ faults blocks our perception of the goodness in them.

Jesus tells of a farmer who takes a practical solution to a problem – how to deal with (what we would call today) sabotage from an enemy?

 The field workers recognize that harm could come from addressing this situation, and that it is not their responsibility, but that of the farmer, to decide what to do. The farmer realizes that trying to fix the problem at the wrong time could do more harm than good – better to wait until the right time and then separate the good from the bad.

Jesus would be willing to change your weeds into wheat. This would both double your crop and get rid of your weeds, not by pulling but by changing them.

It’s very easy to notice the many weeds in the Church. The doubt, hypocrisy, confusion, and gossip of the weeds make life miserable for the Church. Our work of evangelization is also hindered because the world is turned off to Jesus by the sinful behavior of the weeds. It seems best for everybody to pull the weeds. But the Lord knows that once they’re pulled, they’re dead. So He lets the weeds live and the wheat suffer for a while so that the weeds will have the maximum opportunity to repent and become wheat.
Rejoice when you suffer redemptively, for this means that there’s time for the weeds to change and for the harvest to double.